China eSIM

Internet in China runs on three national networks, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, and a travel plan attaches to one of them as a roaming guest. No plan on this page names which of the three it uses, so we do not guess. The ministry reports coverage in every town, but it counts villages by registered settlement, and a small share of them sits outside it without being named. Nobody publishes signal data for hiking routes, desert crossings, plateau passes or the roads to scenic areas, so treat a signal there as luck rather than a promise. Whether the apps you use at home load through a travel plan depends on routing that plan text does not state, so test them in your first hour in Beijing. Leave data roaming in China to the travel line, because on your home line it is billed at whatever rates your own carrier sets. Cell phone service in China on your usual number keeps working for incoming calls and texts under your carrier's roaming terms, while the eSIM carries the data. The plans are data only, so calls happen through whichever internet calling app the other person uses. A China SIM card with a local number is still possible, but it means a store visit with your passport.

A carrier lock is the most common reason a China purchase turns out unusable, and nobody in a Shanghai hotel lobby can remove it. Typing star hash 06 hash into the dialer should bring up an EID line alongside the IMEI, which confirms the handset has eSIM hardware. The QR code arrives at checkout, and scanning it over home wifi installs the profile in a few minutes, well before you board. Installation and activation are separate steps, so the clock stays still until the plan first connects to a Chinese network. Once you are through immigration at Pudong or Baiyun, switch the travel line on and enable data roaming for that line only. Validity runs in calendar days from activation, so give the day count a day of margin over the itinerary. An eSIM card for China lives on the phone that scanned it, so a broken handset mid trip means the plan cannot move to a borrowed one. A China prepaid SIM card from one of the three national carriers is the route to a local number, worth the store visit on a stay of several months. A China travel eSIM covers the mainland only, so a trip that continues to Hong Kong needs a separate plan for that leg. Bought on this page, an eSIM in China is working by the time you reach the taxi rank.