Practicalities
Phone and internet, explained honestly
Everything else on this site depends on your phone working. Payments, trains, taxis and maps are all apps. Arriving without data is not an inconvenience — it is the one failure that cascades into every other part of the trip.
Your three options
International roaming
Your traffic routes home through your own carrier, so the services you already use behave as they do at home. Simplest option and the reason many business travellers choose it despite the price. Check your carrier's daily rate before you fly.
Travel eSIM
Bought online before departure, activates on landing, and most China eSIM products route through Hong Kong — which gives you the same service reachability as roaming, usually much cheaper. The best default for most visitors.
Local SIM card
Cheapest data and best coverage in remote areas. Requires passport registration in a carrier shop, and connects you to the domestic internet, where a number of international services are not reachable.
The distinction that matters is not price, it is routing. A local SIM puts you on the domestic network. Roaming and most travel eSIMs route your traffic outside the mainland, so your usual apps keep working. If you depend on a specific service for work, this is the deciding factor.
What to expect from the domestic network
On a local SIM or hotel wifi, a number of widely used international services — several Google products, some Western social platforms and messaging apps — are not reachable. This is a routine fact of the network rather than a fault with your device, and it is worth knowing before you arrive rather than discovering it at 1am in a hotel room.
Plan around it rather than fighting it. Business travellers whose employers provide a corporate VPN generally use that, as they would in any country. Everyone else finds the practical answer is simpler: use an eSIM or roaming, and install local equivalents for the things you actually need.
What to install before you fly
- Amap (高德) or Baidu Maps — mapping and transit directions. Amap has an English mode and is markedly better than international alternatives for Chinese addresses.
- WeChat — not optional. It is how businesses, hotels and people you meet will contact you.
- Alipay — payments plus a large number of mini-programs you will end up using.
- A translation app with offline packs — download the Chinese pack before departure, while downloads are fast and unblocked.
- Dianping (大众点评) — restaurant reviews. Where locals actually decide where to eat.
Practical notes
Public wifi wants a Chinese phone number
Cafés, airports and malls typically verify by SMS to a +86 number. Without one you often cannot connect at all — another argument for arriving with your own data.
Battery is infrastructure
Your phone is your wallet, ticket, map and translator. Carry a power bank; shared rental power banks are also available in most restaurants and malls, unlocked through Alipay.
Keep your home number reachable
Banks send verification codes to it, and you will need those when a card gets flagged. If you swap to a local SIM, make sure you can still receive those messages — a phone with dual SIM support solves this cleanly.