Hotel Wi-Fi is the network that makes a VPN look broken. The phone says connected. Gmail spins. Ten seconds later the flow is gone and the app still shows a green state.
Treat that as the network, not as a dead account. Quit the app completely, pick another location, and connect again. Do not keep refreshing the same session.
From 8:00pm to 11:00pm China time the lines are overloaded. Hong Kong and Singapore hold up better in that window than a distant exit. During the day, if one location is slow, switch. The list in the app is the one your plan can use.
Test the hotel Wi-Fi and the SIM as two networks. A bar that works on the SIM can still reset the tunnel on the hotel LAN. Why Express and Nord fail on China Mobile is the same pattern with a different logo.
Keep WeChat and Alipay off the tunnel so the hotel desk and the taxi QR still scan. That split is what Smart Flow is for.