A block in China is often a reset, not a red error page. The app connected. Traffic moved. Then the flow died and the client kept the connected flag. People call that "blocked" because nothing loads. The network dropped a pattern it has seen.
Older VPN shapes get that treatment first. A settings screen full of Lightway, OpenVPN, and stealth is a menu of shapes the last mile has already practiced on. Changing the menu item is not the same as arriving on a different kind of flow.
What still matters:
- A session that keeps carrying traffic after the first page
- A location close enough to be usable at night. From 8:00pm to 11:00pm, Hong Kong and Singapore
- A daytime switch when one node is the slow one
- Chinese apps left local, so a block on the tunnel is not also a failed payment
Qiao does not offer a pile of protocols to toggle. The app connects with Hysteria2 to the locations on your plan. If a location dies, you switch. You do not collect a second installer from a forum. Read what still works before you treat a brand list from last summer as current.