Unlimited
3 days · Chinacom
$12.48
Travel eSIM
China eSIM
Local mobile data · Tier-1 carriers · Your home SIM stays active
China eSIM plans
12 of 12 plans
All plans
3 days
1 planUnlimited
3 days · Chinacom
$12.48
5 days
1 planUnlimited
5 days · Chinacom
$19.00
$17.76
-7%
7 days
2 plans1 GB
7 days · Chinacom
$4.08
$4.08/GB+227% per GBUnlimited
7 days · Chinacom
$27.00
$26.64
-1%
10 days
1 planUnlimited
10 days · Chinacom
$36.72
15 days
2 plans2 GB
15 days · Chinacom
$7.50
$6.00
-20%
$3.00/GB+140% per GBUnlimited
15 days · Chinacom
$53.52
30 days
5 plans3 GB
30 days · Chinacom
$10.50
$6.96
-34%
$2.32/GB+86% per GB5 GB
30 days · Chinacom
$15.50
$9.84
-37%
$1.97/GB+58% per GB10 GB
30 days · Chinacom
$26.50
$15.84
-40%
$1.58/GB+27% per GB20 GB
30 days · Chinacom
$40.00
$24.96
-38%
$1.25/GBBest rate hereBest valueUnlimited
30 days · Chinacom
$75.12
Local know-how
What to know before you land in China
Coverage and networks
China Broadnet holds a fourth licence but rides China Mobile's radios rather than building its own, so the mainland really runs on three. Scale is lopsided: China Mobile reported 1.01 billion mobile customers for Q2 2026 against China Telecom's 442 million, and outside the big cities that gap tends to show. China Telecom and China Unicom co-built a single 5G layer on 3.5 GHz, band n78, and share the radios, so the two behave much alike in town. China Mobile's 5G sits mainly on 2.5 GHz, band n41, with n78 added from 2022. Both bands are mainstream on phones sold outside China, so your handset will usually see 5G. What is left uncovered is geographic rather than commercial: Tibetan plateau passes, the Taklamakan and Gobi, long rail tunnels.
Landing and activation
Land at Shanghai Pudong, Beijing Capital or Daxing, Guangzhou Baiyun or Shenzhen Bao'an and the first thing that fails is usually the airport Wi-Fi. Public networks in China sit behind real-name checks, so the portal asks for a mobile number and texts a code, and a foreign number is often refused. Neither Beijing Capital nor Pudong publishes the procedure on its own website, so plan on not getting online that way. Buying a local SIM means an operator counter or a full-size store, your passport and an in-person identity check; not every small shop will register a foreign passport. A mainland SIM also sits behind national filtering, while roaming data that breaks out through your home network abroad usually does not, so check how your plan routes.
What connectivity costs here
Airport operator counters price a tourist SIM in the low hundreds of yuan, tens of dollars, for a month with a +86 number and a data bucket; the packages churn often enough that any figure quoted in advance is a guess, so read the counter board. Hotel Wi-Fi comes with the room and cafe Wi-Fi is free, but both sit behind the same phone-number gate as the airport. Roaming puts China in the far zone for most Western carriers. Verizon lists TravelPass at $12 a day across 210-plus destinations including China, which is $168 for a fortnight; Vodafone UK publishes a 25 GB roaming fair-use cap and charges £3.84 a gigabyte past it. Check your own tariff's China zone rather than assuming.
Which plan fits your trip
Budget for data all day, because the phone is the wallet: Alipay and WeChat Pay settle noodles and temple tickets, metro gates read a QR code, and a Didi ride needs the app live. Navigate with Amap, or Apple Maps, which uses Amap data inside China. Google Maps is drawn on China's shifted coordinate grid and can land 100 to 700 metres off a GPS fix, so cached Google tiles are no fallback. A week in Beijing and Shanghai, with camera translation for menus, runs 5 to 10 GB; two weeks by high-speed rail through Xi'an, Chengdu or Guilin, uploading video, is 10 to 20 GB. Hong Kong and Macau are separate networks outside the mainland filtering and usually outside a mainland plan.
Install in three steps
Set up your China eSIM in under a minute
0
Check your phone takes an eSIM
Almost every phone sold since 2018 does. Type your model, or dial *#06# and look for an EID.
- 1
Buy the plan and get your QR code
Pay once with card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or crypto. The activation QR arrives in your dashboard and email within seconds.
- 2
Scan the QR from your phone settings
On iPhone: Settings → Cellular → Add eSIM → Use QR Code. On Android: Settings → Network → SIMs → + → Use QR code. Or open the GetSim app and tap install, no QR scanning needed.
- 3
Land, switch it on
Set the GetSim eSIM as your default for cellular data. Your home SIM keeps handling calls and 2FA SMS in the background.
Your real number stays online. The eSIM only handles data. Calls, SMS, banking 2FA all keep arriving on your home SIM.
Crossing borders?
Going to more than just China?
A regional bundle covers China and 17+ other countries on a single eSIM, often cheaper than buying separate single-country plans for a multi-stop trip.
Frequently asked about China eSIMs
Yes. The GetSim eSIM installs as a second profile on your phone. Your home SIM and number stay active for calls and SMS. Set the GetSim eSIM as the default for cellular data only.
Plans run on tier-1 mobile networks in China. The exact carrier depends on the plan; you'll see the network name on each plan card before you pay.
Typical activation is 1–3 minutes after switching the eSIM on. Many travelers install the eSIM at home over Wi-Fi and toggle it on the moment the plane lands.
GetSim eSIMs are data-only. For voice and SMS, use apps like WhatsApp, FaceTime, Signal or Telegram. They all work seamlessly over the eSIM data. If you need a real phone number for verifications, pair the eSIM with a GetSim virtual number from the same wallet.
Top up the eSIM directly from your dashboard or the GetSim app, no need to install a new profile. Top-ups are billed per-GB at the same rate as the original plan.