Your hotel Wi-Fi ends at the lobby door, your maps app needs data to know where you are, and the Didi ride you just ordered needs a phone number to call you back. In China, the fix is a desk at an official carrier store and twenty minutes of paperwork: unlike almost anywhere else you have traveled, a SIM here is not a product on a shelf. It is a registered ID. The whole system hangs on three characters: 实名制 (shímíngzhì), the real-name registration system, which has tied every mobile number in China to a verified identity since Ministry of Industry and Information Technology rules took effect in 2013. Every number on the network traces to a passport or ID card. That is why the clerk will scan your passport, take your photo, and hand you a form. It is also why the person at the airport kiosk selling loose cards without a passport scan is a scam by definition.
Here is the full walkthrough: which carrier, which plan, what it costs, what an eSIM can and cannot do for you, and the handful of phrases that carry the counter conversation.
The Three Carriers
China’s mobile market is effectively a triumvirate: 中国移动 (Zhōngguó Yídòng, China Mobile), 中国联通 (Zhōngguó Liántōng, China Unicom), and 中国电信 (Zhōngguó Diànxìn, China Telecom). All three are state-owned, all three cover cities thoroughly, and all three sell essentially the same thing: a passport-registered number with a data plan bolted on.
For a short visit the practical differences are small enough that store location matters more than brand: go wherever there is an official flagship store near you. Coverage arguments matter more for long-term residents in rural or western regions. The airport branches of all three carriers keep evening and weekend hours and are used to passports, though they may charge a modest premium over a downtown store for the convenience.
What the Process Looks Like
Walk into the official store (营业厅, yíngyètīng) with your passport. The flow is standardized:
- Registration. The clerk scans your passport, takes your photo, and enters your details against the real-name system. One passport can hold up to five numbers per carrier, so even serial visitors are fine.
- Choose a plan. More on the menu below.
- Pay and activate. You pay upfront; cash works, as does Alipay or WeChat Pay if you have already set them up. The clerk slots the SIM into your phone and activates it on the spot.
- Test before you leave the counter. Load a map, send a message. If the SIM sits unactivated after you walk out, the fix requires another trip.
The card itself is a standard three-cut SIM that pops down to nano size. Bring your phone. A locked handset is the one hardware problem no clerk can fix.
What It Costs
Everyday prepaid plans for locals run far cheaper, with heavy online promotions putting a basic data line around ¥30–60 a month, but those deals assume a local ID, a WeChat-native signup flow, and a Chinese billing address. Foreigner walk-in plans are priced differently, and the numbers below are what travelers typically pay in 2025–2026:
- Short trip (1–4 weeks): carrier tourist bundles at airport counters and downtown stores run roughly ¥70–150 for typical short cards, depending on length and data allowance; a full month of heavy data can approach ¥200. Most bundles attach a block of call minutes and some expire automatically at the end of the term. Downtown carrier stores usually beat airport prices. (China Unicom, for example, sells short-term visitor cards priced around ¥69–129.)
- Longer stay (months): a regular prepaid plan, usually ¥30–100 a month depending on data volume, plus a one-time setup fee that varies by branch.
- Top-ups: at the counter, through the carrier’s app, or, easiest of all, by asking any convenience store clerk to scan-and-pay a top-up (充值, chōngzhí) to your number.
Prices drift by province and promotion, so treat these as brackets, not quotes. What does not drift: no passport, no SIM. The five-number-per-carrier cap applies to every registration, including eSIM lines.
The eSIM Situation: The One Thing You Cannot Easily Buy
If your phone is eSIM-only (recent iPhones sold in the US, for example), China’s mainland carriers were a wall until recently. eSIM service existed only for watches, tablets, and laptops; phone eSIM stayed in pilot limbo, which is why the eSIM-only iPhone Air missed China’s launch window in September 2025. The wall cracked on October 13, 2025, when all three carriers announced MIIT approval for commercial eSIM phone trials. iPhone Air pre-orders opened in China on October 17 and sales began October 22. Two limits make this mostly irrelevant for a short-stay visitor. The trials are built around mainland devices: Apple states plainly that a mainland carrier’s eSIM cannot be provisioned on a device bought outside mainland China, and carrier rules accept only phones carrying a Chinese network license. Eligibility is narrow as well: during the trial, China Unicom’s ID list includes passports at its own stores, while China Mobile and China Telecom currently accept only Chinese ID cards and permanent-residence IDs, and Mobile explicitly excludes overseas applicants. If you arrive with a foreign-bought eSIM-only phone, do not count on walking out of a carrier store connected. The email-a-QR-code flow you may know from elsewhere does not exist here regardless, because real-name rules require ID checked in person.
The practical routes if your phone has no SIM slot:
- Before departure: buy an international travel eSIM from a global provider, which routes data through Hong Kong or Singapore and works the moment you land, at roaming rates and without a mainland number.
- Data-only workarounds: a data-only travel eSIM in dual-SIM mode keeps your home number alive for SMS codes while giving you local data.
- Or borrow hardware: a cheap physical-SIM phone solves the problem permanently for the price of a nice dinner.
For most travelers the decision is simple. eSIM-only phone: get a travel eSIM for data. A phone with a normal SIM tray: get the local card, because a mainland number makes everything downstream easier: Didi drivers calling you, hotel reservations, WeChat verification for services that want one.
What You Get With a Chinese Number
A mainland number is the master key to the app layer:
- Didi drivers can call or message you. With a foreign number, the in-app messenger works but the phone call fails, and drivers use calls.
- WeChat verification for a second account or for services that require a mainland number at signup.
- Food delivery, train booking, clinic appointments: plenty of local services treat a +86 number as the identity anchor.
Note the firewall nuance honestly: a mainland SIM puts you inside the mainland network, where Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook do not load without a VPN. A travel eSIM routed through Hong Kong keeps those services reachable. Long-term residents run both: a +86 card for the app ecosystem and daily life, plus whatever lawful arrangement their situation allows for reaching blocked services. Keep your expectations straight before you choose.
The Phrases That Carry the Counter
- 我想买一张手机卡。 (Wǒ xiǎng mǎi yī zhāng shǒujīkǎ.) — “I want to buy a SIM card.” 手机卡 (shǒujīkǎ) is the everyday word; SIM 卡 also works.
- 我只有护照，可以办吗？ (Wǒ zhǐyǒu hùzhào, kěyǐ bàn ma?) — “I only have a passport. Can I register?” 办 (bàn) is the verb for getting anything official done.
- 什么套餐？ (Shénme tàocān?) — “What plans are there?” 套餐 (tàocān) is the universal word for a bundled plan.
- 多少钱一个月？ (Duōshao qián yī gè yuè?) — “How much per month?”
- 流量够不够用？ (Liúliàng gòu bu gòu yòng?) — “Is the data enough?” 流量 (liúliàng) is data volume.
- 需要签合约吗？ (Xūyào qiān héyuē ma?) — “Do I need to sign a contract?” Worth asking, because some cheap bundles lock you in and prepaid does not.
- 帮我激活，我现在试一下。 (Bāng wǒ jīhuó, wǒ xiànzài shì yīxià.) — “Activate it for me, let me test now.” This is the one that matters. Test at the counter.
Why Twenty Minutes at the Counter Buys the Whole Trip
The paperwork feels heavy because it is national infrastructure: the same real-name law that governs bank accounts governs SIMs, and the ¥100–150 or so you spend buys a number that unlocks the app layer the whole country runs on. Compare it to the banking errand of getting cash or setting up the payment apps: the SIM is the piece that makes the other pieces callable. Get it on day one.
And while the clerk is registering your passport details, they will need your name in a form their system accepts. If you are staying longer than a trip, that name is worth choosing once, properly: ChineseToolkit’s personal name checker helps you pick a Chinese name that reads consistently on registration forms, contracts, and every desk you will stand at after this one.
Twenty minutes, one passport, one tray. The entire country’s app layer starts answering your calls.
