How to play Steam/Nintendo Switch online games in China with international servers

I like to play online games. But when I came to China, I realized that not only China has a Great Firewall (GWF), but China also have a separate account system. All game accounts in China can only be used in China, and your international game accounts (steam account in my case) must be connected to a China account (Perfect World account/完美世界). That also mean some games have separate version for China and outside China (international). For example, CSGO and Dota 2.

Play Steam/Nintendo Switch online games in China

Basically you have two options playing online games in China like Dota2 or CSGO.

1. Play in China servers (you must use China installation version).
2. Play in international servers (you must use international installation version)

Personally I have tried both, but playing in China servers can be a pain in the *** if you don’t speak Chinese (and be prepared to be cursed in Chinese, lol). But the advantage of playing in China server in China is -of course- you will have a very good ping. Playing in international server normally will lead you to a very high ping (around 300-700ms depending on your region and internet connection). This guide will help you to play in international servers.

Also, here in China, most of international news websites (BBC, CNN, etc. you name it) and social medias (Meta, Whatsapp, Line, etc.) are blocked. And that includes Steam community and international stores. If your Steam account is belong to non-China region, you can’t see the store/community. But you still can access your library (fuhh…).

Guide:

1. Download a booster app. I use UU Booster app. You can download here:
   EN: https://uu.163.com/global/about/
   CN: https://uu.163.com/?from=global

   

   I never tried the EN version, because I’m suspecting that the international version is not usable in China. So I choose the CN version.

2. Run the installation and start the app. Click All Games (游戏 or 主机游戏) to see all available app.

   

3. Here’s the catch, you need to create an account and pay the subscription fee in order to use it. It used to be free couple of years ago, but now it needs subscription 🙁
4. After you have created your account, hover your mouse at your username (nearby close button). Then click deposit/recharge button (充值).

   

5. Choose the payment method, and do the payment. By the time of this writing, it’s around 243 CNYa month.

   

   If you can’t do online payment for some reason, I’d suggest you to ask some Chinese friends to help you with the payment. Usually they always glad to help a foreigner with this kind of things.

6. After you’re subscribed, you can just find the game that you want to play in the UU booster app, then run it. It will try to create a tunnel connection from your laptop/PC to their server. If you want to play in the international servers, search for the waifu (外服) button. (NOT that ‘Waifu‘, lol). In Chinese, waifu (外服) means “external server/services”

   

   

7.  Start your game 🙂

   

   

8. You can do the same for Nintendo Switch games, but for Nintendo Switch game, you need to setup a custom Network Config from your Switch.

   

9. Your router might have a different config, and you will ended up with a different setting compared with mine. Here in my case:
   IP Address: 172.24.2.7
   Gateway: 172.24.1.7
   Subnet Mask: 255.255.0.0
   DNS: 6.6.6.6
10. Here’s how to do it, in your Switch navigate to:
    Home > System Settings > Internet > Internet Setting > Your WIFI SSID > Change Setting
    Set the IP Address Setting to Manual, then input above data.

    

    That’s all 🙂

Disclaimer: In this post I used UU Booster, but there are many other booster apps available in China, for example Jiasu booster made by QQ (https://jiasu.qq.com/download/). I receive no incentive or whatsoever from UU Booster app. I simply share what I’ve tried, I think it’s good enough and easy to use.

-tt-