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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.)
How long are you staying? Where in China will you be? Differences matter.
It's the same like everywhere in Asia. You walk to mall, nearest street store or market and buy a sim card. Usually they also offer cheap unlimited plans for internet. If you need more time, you just buy refill card. If you need a phone, those can be bought from malls and markets really cheaply too.
So it sounds like you're looking to buy a smartphone.
In that case, arguably one of the best smartphones on the market, and also one of the cheapest without a contract, is the Xiaomi phone, released by a Chinese startup. It's only sold in China, but it is pretty much the geekiest Android phone around. Given that it's hard to get outside of China, I wouldn't be surprised if you could re-sell it and recoup most or all of its cost when you get back to America.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/27/xiaomi-phone-review/
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 heard that the Dutch wear clogs, the French eat snails, the Iris are drunk all the time, Swedish girls sleep with everyone, the Japanese likes schoolgirls and the Americans are very fat. Does anyone know anything about this?
(sorry, your question is kind of interesting, I just couldn't resist. "The Chinese" are not the same as some individuals or some organisation based in China who might or might not have done something at some point.)
I would personally never, ever buy or use a telecom or networking product stemming from a PRC-based company.
You mean like Foxconn?
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
According to this, it's in your best interest not to use your GPS while there...
http://www.telecomasia.net/content/foreigners-using-gps-face-arrest-china-0
Really, just take any quad band GSM phone and buy a SIM card, and you should be set. If you need 3G speeds you'll probably need to check the specs of the phone and get one on the right 3G bands (US ones won't work but there are plenty of online sources for cheap Chinese phones). If you can get by in Chinese well enough to go shopping, and don't need the phone immediately on arrival, just buy one yourself once you get there. Same goes for the SIM card. I would recommend China Mobile as a carrier. They seem to have the best coverage and they're easy to recharge. China Unicom can get you better rates as of last time I was there, but they kinda suck in other ways.
If you do want to buy your SIM before you go, I highly recommend this site: http://www.china-mobile-phones.com/ Please note I have no affiliation with them, but I have used them extensively in the past. You'll pay a good bit more than buying once you get there, but unlike the other online places to order Chinese phones/SIM cards, they don't charge you outrageous fees for airtime and make you go through them to purchase more air time at 10x markup. You simply get a normal prepaid China Mobile (or China Unicom) SIM card you can recharge yourself any way you like. They also offer online recharge for almost any China Mobile or China Unicom SIM, whether it was purchased through them or not, so you can recharge airtime for other people too. This comes in really handy when you're outside the country and the phone you need to call is "guanji".
Finally, if you want easy call-out to call back home, http://www.didww.com/ (also no affiliation) offers Chinese DIDs (VOIP phone numbers) which you can connect to whatever SIP address you want. Otherwise, outgoing international calls can be expensive and you may (not sure if this still applies) have to register with the police to get international dialing enabled for your SIM.
Dunno if it applies to mobiles w/ GPS's, but I have heard that handheld GPS's are disabled (if legal at all) when in China...
Due to a combination of paranoia and market-protectionism, uncensored maps are considered some sort of state secret and not allowed to be exported. Instead, if you buy any GPS sold outside the PRC with maps of that country, you're stuck with censored maps that have offsets and distortions introduced -- so while your unit might give you the right coordinates, you'll be looking at the wrong spot on the map.
Supposedly there are "fixed" maps floating around for some GPS brands, but they're probably quite illegal to bring into China.
If you have an unlocked GSM, quad band phone, you can take that with you and get someone in China buy a 50 Yuan ($10) SIM card for you from China Mobile you are good to go. If you are with carriers such as T-mobile or AT&T here in the US (others are not GSM) you can get your carrier to unlock your phone so that you can use other SIM cards in it. T-mobile helps you unlock your phone when you simply call them and tell them your purpose, even when you are within the contract period. I don't know about AT&T. I guess they do it as well. 50Yuan card will last you for a very long time calling within China. If you want to call back the US, if you buy your SIM card from China mobile, you can use a prefix code to get very economical calls to the US. The prefix code is 12593. That is, if you want to call a US number, dial 12593-001-(Area code)(Tel#). Without this number prefix, your 50Yuan card will not last more than 10minutes, if you call US.