With Pokemon GO now available in Hong Kong but likely never available on mainline China, some Chinese players are getting creative in order to fulfill their collecting urges.

Using a VPN combined with GPS spoofing, they can effectively turn up anywhere in the world.

But their most popular location to-date has been near neighbour and local rival Japan, where the game has only recently gone live.

Of course, people being people, some Chinese players have taken it upon themselves to stoke up nationalist discord.

Bad place to play

One notable location has been the Yasukuni Shrine, which is dedicated to those who died on behalf of the Japanese Empire.

And because the almost 2.5 million total includes over 1,000 people classed as war criminals for their actions during World War II, it's a controversial location.

So, it's perhaps unfortunate that as reported by TechinAsia, it's also a PokeGym, which is dominated by a player with a Dragonite called "Long live China!".