travelling to shanghai
 

Hi
I am traveling to shanghai in October.
I want to get a sim card so I can call and do web search during my stay.

Anyone has any suggestion as to what sim card to get?
and where to get them?


I am using an old samsung phone that use the large sim card.


would be nice if I can buy in vancouver and ready to use them while in shanghai. otherwise I am ok to buy in shanghai when I arrive there. I just don't know what provider to buy.

internet data is must (primary)
talk minutes is secondary

You need ID to buy SIM cards in China (new rule) . So you pretty much have to buy it there. You can pick it up right at the airport or at the train station.
China Unicom supports TDD LTE (at least the same standard as North American LTE phones).

Depends on how old your Samsung is, make sure it is unlock and the band matches the ones listed on Wikipedia.

Due to how things are in China, my friends and I usually just wipe and dispose our equipment eg phones / laptops etc once we leave China. So make sure your Samsung phone is patched etc. and use dummy accounts (accounts you won't touch again once you leave China).

I should add .. I am only in shanghai and nanjing province for 7 days.
So looking for a prepaid sim card.

how much would it cost?

my phone is samsung galaxy s2x with this network spec:
GSM 1800, 1900, 850, 900
UMTS 850, 2100, 1900, 1700
HSPA 850, 2100, 1900, 1700

is it compatible with China telecom?

LTE is not necessary as long as is reliable. for email check, and reading travel tips.

take china mobile, they seem to be the one with the most heart

china mobiles biggest problem is the roaming charges, meaning if u leave vancouver to richmond they would count that as a roam

china unicom would over charge sometimes

i signed up for a $66 plan from china unicom (wcdma), ends up paying $120 this last month due to unsubstantial fees & then they told me that i have to pay $78 from now..............this month its $136 due to unknown fees & im suppose to paid $89 instead of $66 (out raged)

china telecom is on a CDMA network, non of your phones will ever work unless u have CDMA smart phone with sim card slot, since i switch to 4G i have been paying more then im suppose (plus they cant explain why my data keeps expiring after the 1st day of the month)

also they are suppose to have the BEST reception as they have a lot of towers............but they use crappy huawei towers, which means its full of crap

different parts of the city with give u different reception, aka means government sign contracts with the 3 companies and different parts of the city will get better reception then others

also 4G dont really work too well as they are on the OLD tdd system, shits slow as hell (if u compare it with north america)

Was there winter before last and as soon as i walked out the luggage area i had a guy whistle me over to one of the airport desks and try to sell me a phone plan. I was a white guy standing alone so maybe was just getting the first of a million hustles while there. Went to some big mall to get one the next day and required so much info I just ended up borrowing my friends phone

I hope that is not 66CAD. If it is I willl pass getting a sim card and just wing it with my prepared travel notes.

you meant 66RMB correct?

but I read for china unicom I need to fork out 1 year plan?
66+120= 186 RMB.. on top of that do I need to pay for the sim?
seems expensive for just 7 days of use. but I will think about it.

so my other option will be China telecom pay as you go. but not sure if I need to get their phone since it is ,as you mentioned, Some kind of CDMA ?
China Telecom -- Shanghai,Pay As You Go!


I got some info from here as well
Which pre-paid sim card to buy ? : Technology and Internet - Page 2

There are mobile phone kiosks in most Chinese airports, assume you are going to Pudong International Airport, there are China Mobile kiosks in T1. If you are foreigners, there are 7 days traveller SIMs at different rates. The only concern is whether your phone is compatible.

If your phone doesn't support shit, then rent their mobile Wifi device or buy the Xiaomi Redmi 2, it's around $100cdn

thats 66 rmb is suppose to be my monthly plan, but u have to be careful as chinese telecom companies are sneaky (my dad used up all his minute in 2days cuz of 15 minute long distance call and he was never notify that all his minutes were gone)


i would go for china mobile since they are on gsm and u have an unlocked s2

while most prepay cards give u about 100 to 300 mb of data (each month), for 7 days it should be enough for u (there is wifi in a lot of places so u should be fine)

wifi eggs arent that good cuz 60 rmb a month for 1gb is a basic plan, renting would be like 20 rmb a day (rent wifi egg from china to the usa is 45 rmb a day)

I'll just suggest that you get the card at Pudong airport if the prices aren't outrageous (which they weren't in my memory). Passports are supposed to be acceptable as ID to get a phone card, but most of the shops don't know or don't know how, and will tell you that it's not accepted. Arguing didn't work, ended up getting my cousin to pick one up for me.

IIRC there's two types of cards with China Unicom: prepaid mobile internet SIM cards and phone/data combo cards. I picked up a 12GB 3G card for ~$60 CAD. There we also a number of cards that included airtime (might've been unlimited?) and a few hundred MB of data for ~$20-$40 CAD. My memory on the prices might be a bit off, this was back in June.

And as a correction to the previous posts: our phones from NA are FDD-LTE, which I think were just being tested/rolled out in China recently. TDD-LTE, which is more widely established in China, are supported by very few phones that we can get around here. If you can get by without LTE, the 3G speeds there are passable, I could managed to get VOIP calls off without too much problem.

I got trick badly lol when I went back to Beijing. Got a $100RMB Pre paid card at the air port and lasted me less than 2 days. Ended up getting my gf put $50RMB more to my card.

Went back to China again in April this year. Try to get a sim card from different stores and none will sell one. They try to enter my passport into their system but didn't work. Said it only works with their China ID. Ended up with no cell phone for my 2 week trip. Honestly doesn't seem like a big deal to me as I am traveling anyways. Most hotels, restaurants have WiFi anyways so I just use those.

One tip Iphone from here won't get LTE or 3g in China. My iphone 5s could only get 2g lol. I ended up getting a honor 6 for my next trip.

Edit I am going back to Beijing in Oct and plan to have my gf get me a sim card in advance lol.

^
@happy, do u have a HXZ card from hk, cuz those are pretty much chinese ID cards for hongers

no sure if u can still do this, but some news stands sell sim cards & some 3rd party street stores also sell sim cards that dont require id cards

all u pretty much do this top off at 7-11 or family mart or circle K

China Unicom (and only them afaik) support 3G on 900/2100. My mother was getting a decent 3G connection on her unlocked 5S, and myself on my 6. Haven't tried LTE yet, since 3G was cheaper, but reportedly Unicom and Telecom had been doing test runs in 2014, not sure about official roll out.

I do have a HK ID didn't bring it with me. Less ID and Credit card I bring the better just in case wallet gets stolen less hassle.

Not sure what card I got at the air port maybe it wasn't China Unicom. Doesn't matter I got a cheap Chinese phone now that supports the network in China.

no the HXZ is the orange one that lets u travel back to China faster when u pass immigration

I was in Shanghai earlier this year and just did a pocket wifi rental.. I had no plans to talk on the phone so I didn't care for minutes or whatever. It wasn't cheap but I split the cost with my travel buddy so in the end it wasn't too bad.. Super convenient cuz you pickup the unit when checking into your hotel, and leave it with them when checking out as well. The best part was VPN capability to access facebook, google maps, etc.

Ordered it thru this place: MiFi Mobile Hotspot Rental, Pocket WiFi Rental in China