How to buy a sim card, use and recharge your mobile phone in China, which network to choose and how to do it, everything you need to know about mobile/cell phones in China.
I don't know what I'd do without your videos! When i first traveled in Asia in 2002, i was like a blind person. My employer was less than helpful, too! You are making my return to Asia so much easier!!! Bless you forever!!
I always mark my batteries, just habit, a long time ago in another country, someone swapped out their old knackered battery for my nice new one, so I mark my batteries ;)
In China better the number higher the price? Wow! Here in the USA I own 867-5309 with a GA Area code ( Song from the 1980s) and my main cell # ends in a ton of zeros.
Found your channel recently, and I love the content. I find myself skipping through almost half the video till you get to the main part of the video haha. Thanks man keep em coming.
Sometime kinda bored watching video for 15- 20 minutes, hard to wait till the end but I watched your videos one after one after one after but never tired of it and don't feel like wait until the end too. still keep watching it. Thanks for the video.
There are no video's like yours. Thanks very much for all of your efforts. It is very difficult to get any of this information about China. The same for all your other videos as well.
That's why I didn't mention it, plus you can only get it on contract so it's pointless really, unless you are living here and want to get a phone on credit
Thanks SerpentZA, great info here. I just came back from my first trip to China ( Beijing, Shanghai) and had a lot of trouble figuring out all this by myself.
***** Sim card itself in China is almost equal to free. This female vendor told him "you pay 45 RMB(Which is about 6 Euro), and will get 65 RMB in your Number account. No base fee required for this number and every month (like in 1 year or so)you will get some money back from the frozen money. So basically you get the card for free, they just want you to consume.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets way more assistance than he needs. I had a woman show me how to put a battery in an alarm clock I was buying from here. Another woman refused to sell me those spirals that are supposed to repel mosquitoes because she was worried I would start a fire. Speaking of helpfulness, this video is great. I hope you can still buy those cards at the newsstands.
My advice, from someone who his phone to another country and used it there. Get yourselves a dual sim phone, more precisely one that has dedicated slots for both sim cards and the optional memory card. That way you can keep your home number and get a local number when you travel abroad. Some dual - sim phones force you choose between having the 2nd number and having a memory card.
I thought it was worth mentioning because I have had some friends buy a phone in Huaqiangbei or elsewhere, thinking they will have a nice new phone to take back to their home country. Because on the outside they could be identical to a Samsung or HTC that they have seen before, but the radios inside are incompatible. It would be easy to do for some non-technically minded shoppers to make this mistake.
You are right but now they operate as mobile service provider too, with very competitive pricing & decent coverage in big cities. With the "Three nets merging project" (a rough translation for 三网合一), there have been quite a bit of growth for China Telecom. It'd be great if you cover this in the vid :)
Very similar to Southamerica. The cellular phone stuff is the very same. But similarities stop at the Banking System. Over here you Need to prove you are earning About 2 Minimum Monthly wages to open and have an bank account. But the governement was so wise to haircut the Banks at the interest rates they can charge for credit Cards. So now more and more prepaid credit Cards show up. Which is a good Thing since you spend only if you have Money. But still over here it's similar to the HSBC System where you have to show earnings to even open an account. Thats why not to many people over here have an bank account since they simply do not have the means to open one. Sad Banks run like that. But less spending traps can snap over people (since over here people once they have something they are spend happy and dont save).
Question: I got a blackberry, wish to still receive my emails while im in china ( will be having china unicom phone), how does it work? here in canada, I need to visit a website and register my emails in order to receive emails on BB, is it the same in china?
Well if you follow AT&T's definition of "4G" then it kinda is there, since 3G HSDPA+ is marketed as 4G in the US. In China/Australia/New Zealand it's still just 3G. 4G LTE won't work at the moment because the frequency's it runs on are all ready licensed. In Aus/NZ Analogue TV uses the 700mHz spectrum, I'm not sure if it's TV or another radio in China, but they can't use it just yet. As someone mentioned, they have a proprietary version of 4G usin different freqs, but other phones cant use it
I used to have that same package, but downgraded some months back to this other deal china unicom was sporting. 25rmb a month for 500mb of 3G. Only it's not real 3g, but it's faster than 2G. I found the 3g kinda useless with such small data limits anyway, so I figured what the heck, save the money. It's fast enough to stream my google music.
Nice job. Always loved your clips. Very helpful. Thanks. I have many old phones and an Android. Guess it may work in China, but what would be my phone number then?
Hi, I'm going to shanghai to study abroad in about a week and was wondering if I can use my iPhone there (technically it is uses mini SIM card).. I have read many blogs on this topic and still have not reached a definite answer. If anyone reads this question plz feel free to answer.. P.S. I love this channel!
5 years ago I bought China Mobile card to get local number and on top of that I bought IP-card (or I was buying pay-as-you-go IP card codes). Then I was typing a special prefix to international phone numbers to get overseas calls much cheaper. Do these IP cards still exist or people use Skype credits?
Big question I have for you. I'm a bike nut, I lived in China for 2 years and am going back there in due time. Really want to know how you got your bike license?
Is buying SIM cards in China the same today as it was when you did this video? My wife has a Nexus 4 which will mostly be used for voice. I have a Nexus 5 & interested is lots of 3G data, we will be arriving early Oct for about 6 week stay. Appreciate SIM card advice. Great videos.
I remember doing this when I got my first phone in Singapore... the second hand phone market for hand phones is HUGE...i ended up getting a Nokia 3310 that had horrible battery life lol...and i went with starhub for my service...good times lol
ive just come back from china, and yes i did buy a sim (from unicom actually). its quite funny, numbers with lots of 4's in it are really cheap, while numbers with 8's in are more expensive. People pay to have nice looking numbers haha. Mine is full of zero's, not sure what the chinese think of that number.
Hi, I wonder how can you drive the motorcycle in Shenzhen? Is it 450 cylinders?? isn't it? I thought in China can have only 250 cc. I live in DG, motorcycles cannot go on the road during certain time of the day...
Serpentza thanks great video on how to buy a chinese sim card. I am coming to Shenzhen soon and was wondering where to buy a handset- I will be buying a local brand (THL) and the phones I have picked out are in the 900y - 1500y price range. Just wondering your thoughts on buying from the official shops or maybe going to the large mobile phone market in Huaqiangbei?
it's becoz China Mobile (the world's largest, 500m sub) uses its own 4G standard TD-LTE tech, different from CDMA of US & International one, and will not work with Apple devices on 4G in China. So it has to be very slow to cover all the risk factors of going alone. Anyway, it plans to launch 4G on pan-china basis later this year to cover 344 cities and 500million users, becoming THE new international standard for 4G since int"l telcos will follow TD-LTE in order not to miss d giant Chinese mkt.
In china, we can buy SIM card freely without any registeration, you only need to charge money into the number is ok. In case of lost of your card, please register it.
After you bought that soon card, does it mean that you can call the US for free? If I have the Sim card well I still need to use Viber or WhatsApp to communicate with people in the US?
why do the network provider need to see your passport considering it is a pay as you go not a contract sim? Also that guy was pretty helpful in the phone shop maybe you should ask him to put the shelves in your new pad.
You forgot to mention that China Mobile has a 3G service but it only works on TD-SCDMA technology which does not work outside of China. People should be careful when buying phones not to get one with this feature for international use. China Telecom do sell mobile phones but they work on CDMA network.
Was that guy actually trying to help, or was it to get you out of the shop as quickly as possible (I got the impression it was the latter)? Also, what is China like for public WiFi? I know it would be heavily restricted without a vpn, but is it there?
You shouldnt rev a 4 stroke motor right after you have started it (wait 10 secs) because the oil isnt getting everywhere yet. Just wait some seconds and then its still not good to rev because it is cold but much better than without oil.
china mobile has 3g td-scdma it can reaches 200-300 kB download speed,you just need a phone that support td-scdma. china telecom has 3g too,just like us it is a cdma network.actually china telecom has the best network,just you need a phone support cdma 3g
Wow i must be gettng old man my phones are all nokia 6230i no internet just calls and texts.. I think i may struggle with what i have just seen i would ask you to help me if you could mate i am all booked and i land in Shenzhen late on 1st October you are my first port of call hahaha.. Great vids as always you have really helped me a lot man really.. See you soon .. Please get me a sim card with some credit on it pleeeeease hahaha.. NEA..
hello i love your show..i have a question ..in europe the sell legal narcotics call rc drugs and its made in china so i wonder do they sell this drugs legal in china or the chinese just make them for export..
Yes, you can get a mini sim, and the shops here can even cut a full sized sim into a mini-sim for you
I don't know what I'd do without your videos! When i first traveled in Asia in 2002, i was like a blind person. My employer was less than helpful, too! You are making my return to Asia so much easier!!! Bless you forever!!
There was no TH-cam back then
"i'm not that stupid" haha
It's become a lot stricter now, they'd only take a Chinese ID when I was there
You should pop up in a bigger store of the provider to buy the phone number using passport
I always mark my batteries, just habit, a long time ago in another country, someone swapped out their old knackered battery for my nice new one, so I mark my batteries ;)
Thanks man! Appreciate it!
first vlogger or youtube channel i have ever really liked
In China better the number higher the price? Wow! Here in the USA I own 867-5309 with a GA Area code ( Song from the 1980s) and my main cell # ends in a ton of zeros.
lolol
Thanks for sharing.
LOL! "I'm not that stupid"
Found your channel recently, and I love the content. I find myself skipping through almost half the video till you get to the main part of the video haha. Thanks man keep em coming.
Thanks for this video. I have just been to China for two weeks (returned a few days ago) and this has helped me when I needed a mobile card!
Whoa, the wedding? You and beergirl? Congrats man!
Sometime kinda bored watching video for 15- 20 minutes, hard to wait till the end but I watched your videos one after one after one after but never tired of it and don't feel like wait until the end too. still keep watching it. Thanks for the video.
wow man, walked into the shop like a fucking boss, throwing them keys, glasses and wallet onto his counter and you walked out alive. respect
There are no video's like yours. Thanks very much for all of your efforts. It is very difficult to get any of this information about China. The same for all your other videos as well.
That's why I didn't mention it, plus you can only get it on contract so it's pointless really, unless you are living here and want to get a phone on credit
another useful video. thanks great job. BTW, you can go to UniCom or China mobile's website to recharge your prepaid or plan service online.
you guys are quick! thought I am the first viewer
The first time I heard you speak Chinese.Good pronunciation.
a very modern and aesthetic city...
hahah i love the commentary in engish, "yes im not that stupid" and then in chinese "thank you"
Thanks SerpentZA, great info here. I just came back from my first trip to China ( Beijing, Shanghai) and had a lot of trouble figuring out all this by myself.
Very interesting. As an American, it boggles my mind to think 4G isn't there! It is so huge here
In Ireland sim cards are free, I always wondered how telecommunications worked it China, thanks for sharing.
it's free if you sign up for two year contract here in the US.
porchia lopez In Ireland it's free on Pay As You Go meaning you can order a sim online or in a phone shop and pay €0. Free on Bill Pay obviously too.
***** Sim card itself in China is almost equal to free. This female vendor told him "you pay 45 RMB(Which is about 6 Euro), and will get 65 RMB in your Number account. No base fee required for this number and every month (like in 1 year or so)you will get some money back from the frozen money. So basically you get the card for free, they just want you to consume.
jing cao Oh wow,that's really interesting! Thank you for sharing that with me! 谢谢 ^*^
Does Apple have a big presence there? Do you have to do prepaid?
I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets way more assistance than he needs. I had a woman show me how to put a battery in an alarm clock I was buying from here. Another woman refused to sell me those spirals that are supposed to repel mosquitoes because she was worried I would start a fire. Speaking of helpfulness, this video is great. I hope you can still buy those cards at the newsstands.
As a native Chinese, i think this guy know China very much : )
The phones in this video look so antique in 2017 xD
WAtching this after ADV China in April 2021 ! ;)
Wow, things have changed
Cheers Serp much appreciated man.. See you in two weeks..
China Telecom is for internet and home phones, I'll make a vid about that soon
My advice, from someone who his phone to another country and used it there.
Get yourselves a dual sim phone, more precisely one that has dedicated slots for both sim cards and the optional memory card. That way you can keep your home number and get a local number when you travel abroad.
Some dual - sim phones force you choose between having the 2nd number and having a memory card.
Great vids bud. I'm heading over to shanghai for the first time next week. Nice to know the lingo.
Really awesome man :)
I thought it was worth mentioning because I have had some friends buy a phone in Huaqiangbei or elsewhere, thinking they will have a nice new phone to take back to their home country. Because on the outside they could be identical to a Samsung or HTC that they have seen before, but the radios inside are incompatible. It would be easy to do for some non-technically minded shoppers to make this mistake.
Good video
You are right but now they operate as mobile service provider too, with very competitive pricing & decent coverage in big cities. With the "Three nets merging project" (a rough translation for 三网合一), there have been quite a bit of growth for China Telecom. It'd be great if you cover this in the vid :)
yes
well i had cellpohone with signe in SFR in france ,i cant use 3G in China too, but i can dial numbers no matter what in both side
Very similar to Southamerica. The cellular phone stuff is the very same. But similarities stop at the Banking System. Over here you Need to prove you are earning About 2 Minimum Monthly wages to open and have an bank account. But the governement was so wise to haircut the Banks at the interest rates they can charge for credit Cards. So now more and more prepaid credit Cards show up. Which is a good Thing since you spend only if you have Money.
But still over here it's similar to the HSBC System where you have to show earnings to even open an account. Thats why not to many people over here have an bank account since they simply do not have the means to open one. Sad Banks run like that. But less spending traps can snap over people (since over here people once they have something they are spend happy and dont save).
Question: I got a blackberry, wish to still receive my emails while im in china ( will be having china unicom phone), how does it work?
here in canada, I need to visit a website and register my emails in order to receive emails on BB, is it the same in china?
Its not "of course", some countries have different frequency bands, which (at least in the past) some devices bought in e.g: EU dont have.
yeah, you are right. p.s. 中国移动(China Mobile)：TD-SCDMA；中国联通(China Unicom)：WCDMA；中国电信(China Telecom)：CDMA2000
most people in China buy a phone ("unlocked") first, and then decide which carrier to use. if you want to use Unicom, you just buy a Unicom SIM card.
Enjoy all your vids so much. Thanks.
Well if you follow AT&T's definition of "4G" then it kinda is there, since 3G HSDPA+ is marketed as 4G in the US. In China/Australia/New Zealand it's still just 3G.
4G LTE won't work at the moment because the frequency's it runs on are all ready licensed. In Aus/NZ Analogue TV uses the 700mHz spectrum, I'm not sure if it's TV or another radio in China, but they can't use it just yet.
As someone mentioned, they have a proprietary version of 4G usin different freqs, but other phones cant use it
very practical thank you for shooting the video
i want people to be asking you about Huawei Towers and who's running it, Yes .
Also the little lady shacking up in Canada.
I used to have that same package, but downgraded some months back to this other deal china unicom was sporting. 25rmb a month for 500mb of 3G. Only it's not real 3g, but it's faster than 2G. I found the 3g kinda useless with such small data limits anyway, so I figured what the heck, save the money. It's fast enough to stream my google music.
Nice job. Always loved your clips. Very helpful. Thanks. I have many old phones and an Android. Guess it may work in China, but what would be my phone number then?
Riding a motorbike on a sidewalk, that's wild!
Hi, I'm going to shanghai to study abroad in about a week and was wondering if I can use my iPhone there (technically it is uses mini SIM card).. I have read many blogs on this topic and still have not reached a definite answer. If anyone reads this question plz feel free to answer.. P.S. I love this channel!
how can you hold your cam?
I'm Australia Chinese and i must say your Chinese is pretty good for a foreigner, anyway i thought TH-cam was blocked in China? isn't it blocked?
You guys are so quick...
5 years ago I bought China Mobile card to get local number and on top of that I bought IP-card (or I was buying pay-as-you-go IP card codes). Then I was typing a special prefix to international phone numbers to get overseas calls much cheaper. Do these IP cards still exist or people use Skype credits?
Oh, that makes sense then. Thanks.
Big question I have for you. I'm a bike nut, I lived in China for 2 years and am going back there in due time. Really want to know how you got your bike license?
do you know by any chance what kind of sim cards packages china unicom offers?
Is buying SIM cards in China the same today as it was when you did this video? My wife has a Nexus 4 which will mostly be used for voice. I have a Nexus 5 & interested is lots of 3G data, we will be arriving early Oct for about 6 week stay. Appreciate SIM card advice. Great videos.
拍的很好，真实的反映了中国的生活
I remember doing this when I got my first phone in Singapore... the second hand phone market for hand phones is HUGE...i ended up getting a Nokia 3310 that had horrible battery life lol...and i went with starhub for my service...good times lol
"300MB - that will last me about a month" 😂coming from 2023 that sounds hilarious
ive just come back from china, and yes i did buy a sim (from unicom actually). its quite funny, numbers with lots of 4's in it are really cheap, while numbers with 8's in are more expensive. People pay to have nice looking numbers haha. Mine is full of zero's, not sure what the chinese think of that number.
Sorry, but at times you seem pretty rude.
Winston has a lot of pride... which reels its ugly head from time to time.
Love watching your videos
Hi, I wonder how can you drive the motorcycle in Shenzhen?
Is it 450 cylinders?? isn't it?
I thought in China can have only 250 cc.
I live in DG, motorcycles cannot go on the road during certain time of the day...
Serpentza thanks great video on how to buy a chinese sim card. I am coming to Shenzhen soon and was wondering where to buy a handset- I will be buying a local brand (THL) and the phones I have picked out are in the 900y - 1500y price range.
Just wondering your thoughts on buying from the official shops or maybe going to the large mobile phone market in Huaqiangbei?
Helpful video.
How are the prices of prepaid plans nowadays?
no problems, I can help you get a sim when you're here
it's becoz China Mobile (the world's largest, 500m sub) uses its own 4G standard TD-LTE tech, different from CDMA of US & International one, and will not work with Apple devices on 4G in China. So it has to be very slow to cover all the risk factors of going alone. Anyway, it plans to launch 4G on pan-china basis later this year to cover 344 cities and 500million users, becoming THE new international standard for 4G since int"l telcos will follow TD-LTE in order not to miss d giant Chinese mkt.
Congrats, and all the best. You make a great couple!
I was wondering the same thing.
What's the song the busker is singing it's catchy.
You living at a new place? Looks nice, great vids bud
In both Chinese and Japanese the word for the number four sounds almost exactly like the word for Death.
11:54 lol the dude was thinking why are u talking to yourself
I watched the full ad and clicked the web link :P $$$
800 rmb a month here in usa for my iphone. you got it cheap.
This is intended for people coming to China who don't have a local number
In china, we can buy SIM card freely without any registeration, you only need to charge money into the number is ok. In case of lost of your card, please register it.
After you bought that soon card, does it mean that you can call the US for free? If I have the Sim card well I still need to use Viber or WhatsApp to communicate with people in the US?
Why is that Volvo S80 just sitting on the corner...had the same phong SVC in india "Air Com"
My phone is HTC Sensation,are yours is the same with mine?
Do you think that boy thats singing even needs those crutches.. hahaa
So how is the mobile internet in China?
why do the network provider need to see your passport considering it is a pay as you go not a contract sim? Also that guy was pretty helpful in the phone shop maybe you should ask him to put the shelves in your new pad.
You forgot to mention that China Mobile has a 3G service but it only works on TD-SCDMA technology which does not work outside of China. People should be careful when buying phones not to get one with this feature for international use. China Telecom do sell mobile phones but they work on CDMA network.
老外也抢沙发 。
Was that guy actually trying to help, or was it to get you out of the shop as quickly as possible (I got the impression it was the latter)? Also, what is China like for public WiFi? I know it would be heavily restricted without a vpn, but is it there?
You were a bit snotty to the guy who was trying to help you. Get off your high horse, Winston!
You shouldnt rev a 4 stroke motor right after you have started it (wait 10 secs) because the oil isnt getting everywhere yet.
Just wait some seconds and then its still not good to rev because it is cold but much better than without oil.
prove it.
More like 2 seconds, and as long as he wasn't redlining it, there's no damage being done.
he actually correct, any motor should be at full operating temperature before revving to high RPM (
china mobile has 3g td-scdma it can reaches 200-300 kB download speed,you just need a phone that support td-scdma.
china telecom has 3g too,just like us it is a cdma network.actually china telecom has the best network,just you need a phone support cdma 3g
Wow i must be gettng old man my phones are all nokia 6230i no internet just calls and texts.. I think i may struggle with what i have just seen i would ask you to help me if you could mate i am all booked and i land in Shenzhen late on 1st October you are my first port of call hahaha.. Great vids as always you have really helped me a lot man really.. See you soon .. Please get me a sim card with some credit on it pleeeeease hahaha.. NEA..
cdma phone works here, u can chose china telcom
what is the song they guy is singing at the first news vendor ? haha its catchy i like it ! haha
hello i love your show..i have a question ..in europe the sell legal narcotics call rc drugs and its made in china so i wonder do they sell this drugs legal in china or the chinese just make them for export..
He must have thought you were crazy talking to yourself haha
Thought he was gonna ride the bike into the store XD.