Ask Slashdot: Advice For Using a Cell Phone In China?

First time accepted submitter Oyjord writes "I am going to China in March, and I was curious what kind of cell phone hardware and plans American travelers use while there. I honestly don't like cell phones (and I currently use the Drug Dealer Throwaway Special Du Jour) but I thought I'd look into one with a good data plan, so I could perhaps take pics and upload them on the spot, and perhaps use the phone's internal GPS as opposed to taking my Garmin along, etc." (Note: it would be great if you include in your answers some idea about their currency — if you're in China right now, say, or if you were there more than a year ago.)

Comments

Getting a cell phone

[x6060]

DO NOT TAKE YOUR OWN AMERICAN CELL PHONE. I've had 3 colleagues have theirs either confiscated or taken to be "searched" (If it was being "searched" they got it back on their way out of the country, if it was confiscated it was gone for good.) Cellphones are dirt cheap there and so are sims with unlimited data plans and a crap ton of minutes. For 30 bucks you can usually have a decent flip phone and a month of service. Service for me was 7$ a month after that. Be careful what you browse on the internet and what you say on the phone.

Re:Getting a cell phone

[Anonymous Psychopath]

DO NOT TAKE YOUR OWN AMERICAN CELL PHONE. I've had 3 colleagues have theirs either confiscated or taken to be "searched" (If it was being "searched" they got it back on their way out of the country, if it was confiscated it was gone for good.)

Cellphones are dirt cheap there and so are sims with unlimited data plans and a crap ton of minutes. For 30 bucks you can usually have a decent flip phone and a month of service. Service for me was 7$ a month after that.

Be careful what you browse on the internet and what you say on the phone.

I've had no problems bringing multiple cell phones in and out of China on multiple occasions (and I echo the advice of bringing an unlocked GSM phone and buying a SIM card locally). What the hell are your colleagues doing to get their phones confiscated? Just like us, _everyone_ traveling in China is carrying a phone.

One thing you will not be able to do is hit Facebook or the Apple app store. I used a PPTP connection to work around this issue.