What is the cheapest way to have a cell phone during visit?

[m-coon]

If anybody has purchased/rented cell phones or SIM cards for use while vacationing in China - can you please tell me the best and cheapest way to do it?

I see they can be rented/purchased on the internet here before you go. And other option is to do this at the airport of entry into China.

What is the easiest and/or cheapest way to do this?

Thanks,
m-coon

[dnoblett]

We will probably borrow sister-in-law's Cell

[Randy W]

If anybody has purchased/rented cell phones or SIM cards for use while vacationing in China - can you please tell me the best and cheapest way to do it?

 

I see they can be rented/purchased on the internet here before you go. And other option is to do this at the airport of entry into China.

 

What is the easiest and/or cheapest way to do this?

 

Thanks,

m-coon

 

 

OUTSIDE the airport. You can get either a national or a local SIM. They are generally rechargeable and pre-paid. Make sure your cell phone is unlocked - I can't tell you a thing about renting one, but it's probably not a good idea

[Jaseball]

I'd be tempted to buy a cell phone while there and get a pre-paid SIM.

 

Only reason I didn't do this was because my girl had one.

[maxsalvo]

I'd be tempted to buy a cell phone while there and get a pre-paid SIM.

 

Only reason I didn't do this was because my girl had one.

 

Dont rent. Just buy one or take an unlocked phone that uses a sim card. You can get almost any phone unlocked by going to Ebay and entering your phone model number along with the word "unlock".

 

FYI - some services only work in a certain cities or provinces where the service is purchased. For a little more you can buy service that will work throughout China if that is what you need. International calls are an additional fee or you can buy scratch off phone cards on the street or in cell phone shops. Whatever you decide to do you need to be very specific to where you want to call when purchasing the new sim card (service).

 

In my opinion - there is nothing better to have in your pocket then a cell phone while traveling China.

[xiaofeizhu]

I lived there for a while so I ended up buying a phone there so I could text in Chinese, but my AT&T Razr that I had at the time was already unlocked and actually worked with the Chinese sim card (just no Chinese characters). I owned two sim cards, one from Inner Mongolia that I used when I lived there, which was about half of the time, and one from Beijing. I think my hubby got one in GUZ when we were there as well. I found that using the China sim card and then getting an international phone card was the best option for us.

 

One other thing was that my AT&T sim card did work in China, and I did use it once or twice to call my mom to tell her to call me. Haha. It is pricy but at that time, I did not have any international phone card on me.

[warpedbored]

To use your phone in China you need to have a phone that uses a sim card like ATT or T Mobile. You can unlock it yourself by contacting your phone provider and getting the unlock codes. I had my wife buy a prepaid sim card in China and mail it to me before I left for China.

[mikepellicore]

When we arrived in GUZ, we got a sim card for Guangdong Province. We were staying in GUZ just over 2 weeks coming and going. We could call and receive calls in GUZ and from Liuzhou, and we programed our number into our one suite account for family in the US. Then we bought a sim card in Liuzhou for local calling and we had to program that number for one suite also.

I think it is cheaper to buy a sim card for local calling, there must not be a charge for receiving local or long distance calls.

We bought our sim card at the airport, at the counter just inside of the bus stops. Good Luck, Mike & Yizhen