Watching YouTube from mainland China requires a VPN.
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culture
YouTube has been blocked in mainland China since 2009. Users access it via 翻墙 (VPN); the nickname 油管 is the standard Chinese-script way to reference it online.
Chinese internet slang nickname for YouTube — a playful homophonic rendering of 'You-Tube' → 油 (yóu, 'oil') + 管 (guǎn, 'pipe'). Widely used in forums and comments to refer to the platform without writing the English name.
