SIM Card in CHINA
Jun 3rd, 2010, 06:23 AM
#1
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SIM Card in CHINA
Will be spending time in different regions of China. What is best option for SIM card? I rerad that it is difficult to add value to a card if you try to do so outside of the province it was initially activated or purchased in.
Jun 3rd, 2010, 12:56 PM
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We went armed with an unlocked phone and had trouble getting a sim card. We couldn't find a place with someone that spoke English. We wound up not ever getting one and never really missed it. Depending on what you need it for you might want to re-evaluate.
Jun 3rd, 2010, 04:03 PM
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The situation with topping up SIM cards varies according to the type of SIM card and place of issue, but typically topping up as you travel around is not a problem. You can also consider buying extra top-up vouchers before leaving the city/province in which you purchased the card. It is said that there can by problems currently with cards bought in Shanghai, but the report I saw did not suggest the person commenting really had much of a clue what was going on. Certainly my Beijing pay-as-you-go SIM card has been working for years, and has been topped up all over the country. But the regulations do vary from province to province.
Acquiring a SIM is hard to avoid. People pester you on the route from your aircraft to customs and immigration, and immediately you reach the arrivals hall. You should not buy from any of these people unless you like to pay five or so times more than necessary. Simply get into town, away from the big glam shopping streets (such as they are) and any of myriad mobile phone shops, just about any convenience store, newspaper kiosks. post offices, information desks in department stores, and all sorts of other odd places will sell you a card. Typically there's a book with the numbers handwritten out for you to select one you like. The more eights the more it costs you. The more fours the less it costs you. You should be able to find one for about ¥60 without too much difficulty.
Most conveniently you want a shenzhouxing 神州行 , a pay-as-you-go option with no monthly fee (apparently no unobtainable in Shanghai, I've heard) which is a China Mobile card. You'll get a message in mangled English when credit is running low ('Your card has little money'). Waving your phone at most convenience stores/little corner shops/xiaomaibu will see you topped up without difficulty in seconds. Show the clerk your phone number or she'll just whip off the back of your phone to look at the SIM and make sure she's selling you the right thing. 中国运动 is China Mobile, and you want a chongzhi ka (add value card) 充值卡 (= top=up card).
But you won't find any of these transactions difficult. You have money: they want to do business. Simply brining out your phone, showing it has no SIM card, will make it blindingly obvious what you want. As for top-ups, simply bringing out your phone at the cash register is usually enough.
The offers change all the time, so there's no guarantee that the exact name/card will be available five minutes from now. The stored credit has a long life-span--initially six months and increasing rapidly as you add more value. I don't think my current balance expires until some time in 2012. I wish these things were so easy and convenient in North America.
Peter N-H
Acquiring a SIM is hard to avoid. People pester you on the route from your aircraft to customs and immigration, and immediately you reach the arrivals hall. You should not buy from any of these people unless you like to pay five or so times more than necessary. Simply get into town, away from the big glam shopping streets (such as they are) and any of myriad mobile phone shops, just about any convenience store, newspaper kiosks. post offices, information desks in department stores, and all sorts of other odd places will sell you a card. Typically there's a book with the numbers handwritten out for you to select one you like. The more eights the more it costs you. The more fours the less it costs you. You should be able to find one for about ¥60 without too much difficulty.
Most conveniently you want a shenzhouxing 神州行 , a pay-as-you-go option with no monthly fee (apparently no unobtainable in Shanghai, I've heard) which is a China Mobile card. You'll get a message in mangled English when credit is running low ('Your card has little money'). Waving your phone at most convenience stores/little corner shops/xiaomaibu will see you topped up without difficulty in seconds. Show the clerk your phone number or she'll just whip off the back of your phone to look at the SIM and make sure she's selling you the right thing. 中国运动 is China Mobile, and you want a chongzhi ka (add value card) 充值卡 (= top=up card).
But you won't find any of these transactions difficult. You have money: they want to do business. Simply brining out your phone, showing it has no SIM card, will make it blindingly obvious what you want. As for top-ups, simply bringing out your phone at the cash register is usually enough.
The offers change all the time, so there's no guarantee that the exact name/card will be available five minutes from now. The stored credit has a long life-span--initially six months and increasing rapidly as you add more value. I don't think my current balance expires until some time in 2012. I wish these things were so easy and convenient in North America.
Peter N-H
Jun 3rd, 2010, 04:05 PM
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I always get SIM card in China, and other countries. For China just go to a branch of China Telecom and if the staff don't speak English just point to your phone. If I remember correctly there are a few types of prepaid SIMs and some you can make international phone call with and some you can only make local calls. Just get your hotel to write in Chinese the type you want and hand it to the shop clerk.
Not too sure about refills but it shouldn't be hard. In Hong Kong and Macau they are easy to do by yourself but I don't recall how I did it in mainland China.
http://en.chinatelecom.com.cn/
Not too sure about refills but it shouldn't be hard. In Hong Kong and Macau they are easy to do by yourself but I don't recall how I did it in mainland China.
http://en.chinatelecom.com.cn/
Jun 21st, 2010, 04:20 PM
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Can anyone recommend a pre-paid SIM card that allows the use of the internet (GPRS or EDGE) as well? I have an unlocked iPhone and would like to use it to access email, etc. I seem to be finding conflicting info on the internet-- like that the pre-paid internet cards are not activated until the first day of the next month after you purchase. Is this true?
I thought that maybe the M-Zone card from China mobile would work, but I can't read the Chinese version of the product info page and the English version doesn't offer much info. Can anyone offer any advice? Thanks!
I thought that maybe the M-Zone card from China mobile would work, but I can't read the Chinese version of the product info page and the English version doesn't offer much info. Can anyone offer any advice? Thanks!
Jun 30th, 2010, 07:57 PM
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Here's my funny sim card experience in China. Bought it at China Telecom in Shanghai, and all started well. Problem is once i left that city, all calls were charged against prepaid card at exorbitant long distance rates and card soon ran out. I was using phone to have my husband call me from the U.S., and didn't know I'd run out until I got a message through our tour guide. I tried to make a call, got a recording in Chinese, and had the hotel desk staff translate I was out of minutes. So buy a lot of time on the card, or find out if there is one that can be used throughout the country at a flat rate.
