eSIM and VPN? First time in China!

Hi all,

My girlfriend and I are going to China for the first time in September for 3 weeks from the UK. I want to make sure we get everything right in terms of eSIM and VPN before we set off. I have been looking at Airalo as an eSim for each of us (Pixel 6a and iPhone 11), which I think offers an inbuilt IP rerouting in order to bypass the firewall and use apps like Whatsapp and Google etc. Would you recommend getting a separate VPN such as Nord or LetsVPN as a backup in case the eSIM rerouting doesn't work? I've never really used either am eSIM or VPN so not entirely sure how logistically it works.

Any insights/tips before we set off in 2 weeks would be greatly appreciated! My partner speaks some Mandarin and has both Wechat and Alipay on her phone, so we are setting that up for me and linking our Monzo's to that before we leave - it's just the data/firewall stuff that I'm still really unsure on. Thanks!