Start by saying Im personally rubbish at technology, but I have an English friend living temporarily in China who has asked me to find out pro's and cons about Virtual Private Networks.
There seem to be some very savvy people on here in the techy realm, so anyone fancy proffering any comments or advice that I could pass on please?
My friend is having problems with local networks over there. Speed or lack of it is driving him nuts, and the fact that Microsoft/Google is not supported there, doesnt help . He is on Baidu at the moment.

His aim seems to be to get a more reliable service, and better speed, as oppose to security , as he really is only using the internet for researching where he wants to go, and emailing back home. No banking or anything.
Ive looked on Google myself, but its all quite technical . So if anyone can help with any advice or warnings or opinions , put in 'easy' form , Id be grateful.What Ive just looked up and read, sounds as if its all positive and useful but because I know little about it, I suppose Im a bit bothered that if he doesnt know what hes getting into, he might get connected with something a bit dodgy (dark web type stuff) which could get him noticed by the Chinese government for all I know !

Personally I use Astrill, it's fast and reliable and doesn't store your true IP address. All a VPN does is route you through a server in a different country, thereby disguising your IP address and true location, making it more difficult for anyone to trace you. As you might imagine, by sending your data through a second server, you are actually slowing your browsing speed not speeding it up. The advantage of using a VPN is, you can access certain sites that would normally be closed to you. i.e. If I'm abroad and want to watch BBC iPlayer, I would be locked out by a process known as Geolocking, but by using a VPN that has a server in the UK, I can then access the site.
If you follow this link, it will explain it in much more detail.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2030763/how-and-why-to-set-up-a-vpn-today.html

Any connection through a vpn will be slower than the internet connection you are connected to as you or at best close to the same speed he currently has.....

When connecting through a VPN it uses your own internet connection primarily then connects to a remote server elsewhere so if the aim is to increase speed then using a VPN will not do this

For Geolocking its better to use a smartdns server such as unotelly as it doesn't slow down your connection as it would with a vpn- you get your full speeds that you would normally enjoy but the use of the dns server enables you to view content you wouldn't normally be able to for example bbc iplayer when your in spain.....

Yes I agree but as the question was specifically about VPNs I gave the answer I did.
Chrome has an add on called ZenMate, it's a proxy switcher that can be used to disguise your IP address.

ok, thanks. Ill pass that on. So can I presume from no adverse comments, that its all good in terms of there not being anything questionable about these VPN's which would possibly cause a Govt like China to look our for foreign users of it or anything and get umpty? And no dodgy providers/traps to fall into?

So he wont actually improve speed, but may be able to access some useful tele progs. seems to be all he'll achieve. Presumably there are costs to these VPN's on top of your normal provider?

There are some free VPNs but be careful that they don't store your true IP address as you can be traced by the authorities. As I said earlier, if he uses Google Chrome, there's an extension called ZenMate that lets him access geolocked sites.

VPNs may well be illegal in China, I have no idea.

I know some people use VPNs to access sites like the Pirate Bay and other sites blocked by their service providers. VPNs encrypt the data transfered over your internet connection making it difficult to trace what you're downloading.
NOTHING is 100% safe.

Thanks Habdab. Ill pass that on . Theres no concern about him being traced because hes doing or viewing anything dodgy in uk eyes , so dont think thats a problem . Just that its China, and they have some funny ideas about what ordinary people are allowed to look at. Dont think VPN's are illegal there as such , hes only just found out about the existence of them so I guess Ill hear more as time goes on. I know if you try and use anything Google related , they block you. The censorship is very harsh regarding the access of information .quote
"Chinese government is widely known for their long, tight control over the Internet access in mainland, China, regulating what its citizens can read, see and publish on the web. The Chinese authorities employed more than 2 million people in 2013 to monitor web activity on blogs and social media sites like the widely popular social media site Weibo, and blocks access to topics it deems to be sensitive. [49] Broader, however, is the issue of free speech and censorship itself. Here it should be noted that China is not the only country to censor speech, but the harshest one."
Thanks everyone for the imput.