Playing Pokemon Go In A Country Where It's Banned

I don't play a lot of Pokemon Go any more. The monetisation has grown particularly obnoxious and I'm sick of having to shell out for event tickets on top of raid passes and incubators in order to make the most of Niantic's mobile game.

However, I still love loading up the game when I'm abroad. I love scouring the foreign PokeStops, catching regional exclusives, and collecting Pokemon with various regional tags on them. My highlights are a shiny Metagross I grabbed on a Community Day in New Zealand and a full odds shiny Charizard I found in Los Angeles, but I love even the most humble of Pokemon caught on my holidays.

However, on a recent work assignment in the People's Republic of China, I ran into a major problem. Pokemon Go is banned here. That didn't deter me from completing my cool collection of foreign monsters, though. In fact, it made me more determined than ever before.

Why Is Pokemon Go Banned In China?

I don't know for certain the reason that Pokemon Go is banned in China, but we can make a few educated guesses. The Great Firewall of China stops Chinese people here from using certain Western websites due to government meddling. Facebook (Meta) is out, which means no WhatsApp or Instagram either. Google is a no-go, too, ruling out my go-to translation and navigation apps.

Pokemon Go is banned alongside these major US companies. The most obvious reason is that it harvests your data and doesn't tell you who it sells this to, in similar fashion to the US’ short-lived TikTok ban. There have been claims of it mapping Belarussian army bases thanks to soldiers' gaming habits – which Niantic denied – and China could be wary of it using the same tricks.

Note: Pokemon Go hasn't used Google Maps as a basis for its real-world navigation for a few years now, so that's likely not the reason.

There's also Niantic CEO John Hanke's background. His previous company, Keyhole, which essentially created Google Earth and Google Maps, was made with CIA backing and soared in popularity during the Iraq War. Who knows if he still has contacts in the US government, or if the CIA is one of the companies buying Niantic's player data alongside the presumed retailers like Starbucks and McDonald's? It's a risk that China, understandably, doesn't want to take.

How To Play Pokemon Go In China

However, there are ways around the Great Firewall, especially as a foreigner. An e-Sim gets you online without racking up hefty roaming charges, and VPN can bypass the majority of the firewall's blocked sites. WhatsApp worked. Google Maps did not. Pokemon Go loaded right up.

As excited as I was by the sight of Hangzhou laid out in Pokemon Go's familiar 2D map, I soon figured there was another problem. This map, while existing and loading, was completely empty. No PokeStops, no Gyms, no Team Rocket balloons, and, most importantly, no Pokemon spawns.

I didn't get my daily spawn. Incense gave me nothing. My daily research tasks refreshed, but only rewarded berries for the duration of trip. My special research tasks were either impossible to complete without 'Stops, spawns, or Rocket battles, or rewarded items rather than encounters. Stuck again, I decided to change cities.

Following The Rumours

While work took me to Hangzhou, I needed to fly on to Japan from Shanghai. A bigger, more metropolitan, more Western-style city on the east coast of China, I wondered if I might have more luck there.

I'd read rumours online that there were some cities in China where Pokemon Go worked. These were usually cities near the border with other countries, where the game's grid-based zones may overlap real-world borders, or big cities. While Shanghai is on the coast, and so doesn't border another country, it's one of China's biggest cities. I figured that any city with a French Quarter and large expat population could be the perfect spot for Pokemon hunting.

I was wrong. Shanghai looked the same as Hangzhou. An empty map, bereft of PokeStops. The People's Gardens, a beautiful park in the city centre filled with artworks and natural beauty, would have been the perfect grinding spot. I mentally noted all the great options for PokeStops and wondered what Pokemon would have a nest here in another universe.

Ekans, I figured, as Chinese New Year fast approached to usher in the Year of the Snake.

I hatched a few eggs thanks to my rambling around the city, but these of course are tagged with the city where I spun the PokeStop that created them. They could be anywhere, but they wereLiverpool or Rome. I told you it had been a long time since I logged in.

When checking my research tasks for the 72nd time, a new timed research popped up. Go Battle Weekend had started. The research didn't reward any encounters, but Go Battle League does.

I clicked on Pokemon Go's PvP offering as quickly as my thumbs could manage and dusted off my old team. As rusty as my skills were, the old faithful combination of Deoxys Defence, Vigoroth, and Altaria pulled me through to four wins out of five. And there it was. The encounter. My only chance to catch a Chinese Pokemon.

I wasn't sure it would work or if I'd encounter an error or MissingNo or something, but I clicked and held my breath. The encounter loaded. Scraggy appeared. I threw a Poke Ball. It rolled once. Twice. Three times. Never have I been more happy to see those beautiful stars flick out of the Poke Ball and the notification pop up. My quest was over. I had a Chinese Pokemon. I would have preferred a Pancham or something more thematic, but beggars can't be choosers.

It was a hard-fought battle, but I succeeded in my quest to catch a Chinese Pokemon. I've got no proof, though, because the location tag on this trophy Scraggy simply reads: UNKNOWN. I can't tell if that's cooler than saying Shanghai or not.

Whether the game says so or not, I know that this little guy is my Chinese buddy. That gives us a special connection, and I like Scraggy as a Pokemon a bit more thanks to it. At the end of the day, that's all that matters really. I've bonded with a new Pokemon, and it's all thanks to exploring the world, the Great Firewall of China, and the CIA.

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