eSIM for China. eSIM for China: China Mobile and China Unicom coverage, what a local SIM really costs, and how to keep your own number live in Shanghai. No roaming bill.
China is served by China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom. Extremely dense 5G in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, complete metro coverage in every tier-one city, and full service along the high-speed rail network.
A Chinese prepaid SIM requires passport registration and puts your traffic inside the domestic network, where Google, WhatsApp, Instagram and most Western services are unreachable without a VPN that may or may not be working that week.
A line that routes through an international partner network rather than terminating domestically generally reaches the services you already use. This is the single most consequential connectivity decision a visitor to China makes, and most people only learn about it after landing.
China sits in the standard day-pass tier for US carriers and outside almost every EU bundle. The pricing is unremarkable, the routing behaviour is the reason people choose roaming here in the first place.
The alternative to both: Ringo is a global eSIM subscription that ports your existing phone number, so calls, SMS and two-factor codes keep working in China and 180+ other countries on one flat monthly plan.
On a domestic Chinese prepaid SIM, generally no. Those services are not reachable from inside the domestic network without a working VPN. Connections that route via an international partner network typically behave like they would anywhere else.
It depends entirely on how your connection is routed rather than on where you physically are. Travelers who arrange their connectivity before flying often find they need one far less than expected. Install one before you arrive regardless, since VPN sites themselves are hard to reach from inside.
Alipay and WeChat Pay now accept foreign cards for visitors, and both want a phone number for verification during setup. Having your own number reachable for those codes is what makes the setup work.
Ringo Light China data eSIM, on sale now: 10 GB, 30 days €29.99; 20 GB, 30 days €44.99; Unlimited, 3 days €13.99; Unlimited, 7 days €29.99; Unlimited, 30 days €99.99. Works across China. 10 or 20 GB of data for 30 days at full speed with no daily cap, one payment. Unlimited data (fair use policy applies) for 3, 7 or 30 days. Installed once, next to your own SIM and number.
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