How to Use ChatGPT and Plus in Mainland China?
Why Do People Like ChatGPT?
Official ChatGPT website: www.chatgpt.com
Over the past two years, ChatGPT has almost overnight become a part of the lives of hundreds of millions of users worldwide. From workplaces to classrooms, from programmers to freelance writers, people seem to have found a new “partner” — ChatGPT. But what exactly makes it so popular?
First, the natural and efficient conversations. ChatGPT can communicate in language that feels almost human. Whether you need to write a business email or translate an article, it can generate clear, structured responses in seconds. This “no need to search, just get the answer” experience saves users enormous time and effort.
Second, its powerful versatility. ChatGPT isn’t just a chat tool — it can write code, solve math problems, polish English essays, outline novels, analyze financial reports, create charts, or summarize PDFs. This “all-in-one assistant” image makes it far superior to traditional tools.
People also appreciate its customizability and privacy control. Users can disable history memory or train their own “custom GPT assistants” to handle specific tasks. This makes ChatGPT not just a general tool, but more like a personal assistant.
Lastly, it provides emotional value. Sometimes people don’t want an answer; they just want a polite, patient, always-available “listener” — and ChatGPT fulfills that role.
In today’s fast-paced, information-overloaded world, people don’t just need information; they need fast, accurate, and empathetic assistance. That is the charm of ChatGPT.
What Are the Use Cases of ChatGPT?
- Writing Assistance: drafting, editing, summarizing, expanding, rewriting
- Language Translation & Learning: bilingual translation, grammar explanations, foreign language conversation practice
- Programming & Automation: Python, frontend, web scraping, data analysis
- Office Productivity: writing emails, making slides, drafting proposals
- Education & Learning: reviewing math problems, explaining complex concepts
- Business Thinking: brainstorming, market analysis, project planning
- Image/Document Understanding (Plus): chart analysis, image OCR, PDF summarization
What Are the Core Features of ChatGPT?
- GPT-4 release (March 2023) — major improvements in text comprehension, reasoning, and coding, outperforming GPT-3.5
- ChatGPT Plugin System — supports browser access, code interpreter, and third-party services (e.g., Wolfram, Expedia)
- ChatGPT Enterprise — for businesses, with custom models and private deployment
- ChatGPT iOS/Android apps — easier mobile access
- Multimodal Features (Plus users) — image input (vision), file uploads, voice conversations
Tips for Using ChatGPT
- Provide context — “I’m writing a business plan, please optimize the executive summary”
- Use multi-turn, iterative queries — “Simplify the language above” / “Make it more humorous”
- Assign roles or styles — “Pretend you are an English teacher and polish my TOEFL essay”
- Use file upload (Plus) — “Summarize the key points in this PDF”
- Learn by asking — “I want to batch process Excel data. How can I do it with Python?”
- Use built-in GPTs — like “Image Analysis Expert” or “Data Processing Assistant”
Why Is ChatGPT Not Directly Available in Mainland China?
Due to legal, copyright, privacy, and political sensitivities, ChatGPT is not directly available in mainland China.
However, it is still possible to bypass restrictions and use ChatGPT.
How to Use ChatGPT Plus?
- Have a Google account. Go to the ChatGPT official website and log in with your Google account.
- Click your profile picture, then select Upgrade Plan.
- You will see the plan options: free plan, Plus plan ($20), and Enterprise plan ($200).
- Select Upgrade to Plus, enter U.S. credit card information, and after successful payment, Plus will be activated.
- Since ChatGPT is not officially supported in China, the credit card must be international, e.g., U.S.-issued.
- After payment, you’ll see a Plus badge on your profile picture, indicating successful upgrade.
- If you still don’t know how to upgrade or create an account after reading this tutorial, please contact me: