I got a voice call from my cousin at 3 a.m. last week, saying that when she tried to watch the animation *The Three-Body Problem* on Bilibili in her New York dorm, she immediately got the pop-up "Sorry, this video is only available in mainland China". She tried three free plugins found online, either the video stopped loading at 10% with an error, or the audio and video were out of sync, with the latency so high that the danmaku (bullet comments) were half a minute ahead of the video.
I have lived in London for 4 years and tested more than 10 Bilibili unlocking solutions. In recent years, the anti-crawling measures of copyright holders have become stricter, and many previously usable methods are now obsolete. I spent an afternoon testing 7 mainstream tools in my London apartment yesterday, and sorted out all the available solutions and pitfalls I have encountered, so that you don't have to waste time trying and making mistakes.
Let me show you the basic test environment first: I use Virgin Media home broadband in the UK, with a download speed of 500Mbps and upload speed of 35Mbps. Without any proxy enabled, the latency of accessing the Bilibili homepage is 327ms, and it takes 4.7 seconds to fully load the homepage. Clicking on any copyrighted content directly pops up the regional restriction.
The most stable solution: China reverse acceleration tool
I have been using QuickFox for 3 years. Yesterday's test showed that after connecting to the domestic node, the latency of accessing Bilibili is stable between 78-92ms, with peak fluctuation no more than 15ms. The loading speed of 1080P high-bitrate videos is 12.4MB/s. The video plays directly without buffering when clicked, and loading is completed within 1 second when dragging the progress bar. The danmaku and the picture are completely synchronized, and no regional restriction pop-up appeared during the 45-minute test.
I specifically tested several most asked content: Bilibili's exclusive show *Rap for Youth 2*, the original animation * Fog Hill of Five Elements 2* in the Chinese animation zone, and *The Queen of News* in the Hong Kong drama zone. All can be played normally, and there is no so-called "content grayscale" — a situation where some tools show a successful connection but still cannot access specific content. I encountered this before when using a niche accelerator: even connected to a domestic node, I still couldn't watch the live broadcast of the ball game. I asked the customer service and was told that their nodes did not have the authorization for live broadcast copyright, which was completely useless.
Here is a pitfall that many people have stepped into: don't use a general-purpose VPN to unblock Bilibili. I tested two popular overseas VPNs yesterday. When connecting to a Hong Kong node, the latency was 112ms, but the regional restriction still popped up. When connecting to a domestic node, the latency directly soared to 240ms, and the connection dropped once every 10 minutes. Because the core scenario of these tools is for overseas users to access foreign websites, the bandwidth and optimization of the return-to-China lines are very poor, and they are easily identified by Bilibili's anti-crawling system. The IP segment will be blocked after a week of use.
Temporary alternative solutions for emergencies
If you only want to watch short videos occasionally and don't want to download software, you can try modifying the DNS. I tested changing the DNS to domestic public DNS: 114.114.114.114 or 223.5.5.5, which has a probability of about 30% to unlock non-exclusive copyrighted content, but the latency is generally above 200ms, you can only watch resolutions below 720P, and it completely depends on luck. When I tried it yesterday afternoon, I could open the old version of *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*, but when I tried again at night, it didn't work. It is suitable for temporary use when you have no other tools.
Another solution is to use the international version of Bilibili, but the content library of the international version is at least 60% less than the domestic version. Less than one-third of the content in the Chinese original animation zone is available, and exclusive variety shows and dramas are basically missing. There is also no shared danmaku pool, and the danmaku of many old videos are not displayed. It is suitable for users who only watch ordinary UGC content, and is basically useless for people who want to watch exclusive copyrighted content.
The most frequently asked questions
Q: Will my Bilibili account be banned if I use an acceleration tool?
I have used it for 3 years, and at least 20 international student friends around me are also using it, and none of them have been banned. As long as you use a regular return-to-China acceleration tool, the IP is an ordinary domestic civilian IP segment, not a marked computer room IP, Bilibili will not judge it as a violation. My account is a level 6 member with an annual premium membership, and it has been working normally all the time.
Q: Why can't I watch even after connecting to the acceleration tool?
There are two most likely reasons: either the tool's node has been blacklisted by Bilibili, or you haven't turned on the global mode, and the backend still detects an overseas IP. When this happens, first clear the browser cache, close the APP background and restart it. If it still doesn't work, change a node. I only encountered this once when using QuickFox, and it worked after switching to a Shanghai node.
Q: Can free accelerators be used?
I tested 3 free ones yesterday. The longest one lasted 15 minutes before starting to limit the speed, dropping to below 1MB/s, and there were a lot of ads. One of them even ran traffic secretly in the background. I tested it for half an hour and it ran 2G of unknown traffic, and I have no idea what was being transmitted. I really don't recommend using them. A regular acceleration tool only costs the price of a cup of milk tea a month. Saving this little money is not worth the risk of information leakage.
Finally, a few notes
First, if you have a premium membership, try to choose a tool with multiple domestic nodes to choose from. My test shows that the latency of watching live broadcasts on China Unicom nodes is about 15ms lower than that of China Telecom nodes. Users in different regions are suitable for different nodes, so you can try a few more by yourself.
Second, don't use free unlocking tools on public WiFi. Public networks are inherently insecure, and many free tools have no encryption, so your account passwords are easily stolen. I tried a free plugin once at a Starbucks in London, and the next day Bilibili prompted an abnormal login from another location, so I quickly changed my password.
Third, if you encounter congestion during peak hours, such as 8 pm to 10 pm domestic time when there are particularly many users, you can switch to a dedicated line. I use QuickFox's dedicated line to watch 4K videos even during peak hours without buffering. It requires a premium membership, but I think it is worth it for people who watch frequently.
In fact, for those of us who live overseas for a long time, being able to browse Bilibili normally and watch domestic content is essentially emotional value. Occasionally, when I am tired from working on assignments, I click on the new update of a familiar UP host, or watch a new domestic variety show, and I feel that the distance from China is a little closer. There is no need to toss about such small things. Choosing a stable tool once and for all is better than anything else.
