1) Aliyun is not cheap
2) China bandwith is at least 10x international rate.
3) cheap China bandwith = lousy speed and latency
4) you can not surf facebook if vps is hosted in China unless you relay the connection out.
5) try Hongkong server
Thanks for the insights.
4 is not a problem. 1,2,3 are the real problems.
HK server does not seem to help in terms of unblocking China contents.
For now I am happy with free Transocks, SpeedCN and 爱加速, with FlyVPN, SpeedIn and SpeedIn as backup. They are good at 720p and I feel 720p is good enough on my P20 FHD phone or my 24inch FHD LCD monitor.
For 1080p sometimes the above solution will struggle a bit. I do not have 4k display now so the goal is to have smooth 1080p.