Travel Technology - IDD, SIM cards, etc. in Hong Kong and Beijing

I feel like I'm in the deep end of the pool here....

Just picked up an inexpensive quad band unlocked cell on eBay for use in Hong Kong and Beijing. I'm going to be in each for one week--will be used predominantly for calls to US numbers when a laptop isn't handy on my end or the States end.

I understand I'll need to buy a SIM card (I'm otherwise a Verizon customer, so this whole swap-out-SIM thing is foreign to me). Beyond that, I keep reading about pre-paid IDDs, loaded SIMS, etc. that sound more like alphabet soup than anything that makes sense. It appears that not all IDD (cards? SIMS?) are created equal--some claim low rates but round up to a full minute and/or add a ton of tarifs that actually inflate the final price.

HELP.

What are these? How do they differ? What brands do I look for? Are they all available at 7/11? The airport? After clearing immigration?

Thanks, oh wise ones.

I'm no expert, but I had looked into this before my trip to HKG a few months back. In the end I wound up with the "People's" SIM card. They had it at the 7/11 past immigration near the train station. When I asked for a SIM card, he gave me a different one, but I specified People's as that's what I had be advised to pick from FT.

It had great reception in HKG, but I'm guessing all carries will. The rates seemed very, very affordable. Much less than I was expecting. Indeed, I bought a refill card thinking I needed more talk time but when I recharged it I found I had only used something like 10% of the initial amount of minutes I started with. Needless to say, I came home with a lot of extra time on it.

I'm no expert, but I had looked into this before my trip to HKG a few months back. In the end I wound up with the "People's" SIM card. They had it at the 7/11 past immigration near the train station. When I asked for a SIM card, he gave me a different one, but I specified People's as that's what I had be advised to pick from FT.

It had great reception in HKG, but I'm guessing all carries will. The rates seemed very, very affordable. Much less than I was expecting. Indeed, I bought a refill card thinking I needed more talk time but when I recharged it I found I had only used something like 10% of the initial amount of minutes I started with. Needless to say, I came home with a lot of extra time on it.I took a 3-week trip to Beijing, Shanghai, and HK in January, and brought my unlocked tri-band phone with me. Bought a China Mobile SIM in Beijing- available in lots of places, but int'l calling (to US, but probably everywhere) will drain a card with 100RMB credit in less than 25 min, so I purchased a calling card, MAMA card, with a local number for another 100RMB- it was not completely reliable (using the cell phone to call the MAMA number), and call quality was not so great. It also only worked in Beijing- not in Shanghai!

In HK, I found a few small stores with different options, shopped around, and settled on a Peoples SIM- great reception all around, much much better intl calling rates.

Remember that mainland China SIM cards will not work in HK, and vice versa- even as close to HK as Shenzen.

Pretty large thread about this topic in the HK forum.

FWIW:

-7/11 at the airport, near the Airport Express, sells Peoples SIM cards, Owned by China Mobile but it's still a HK local network. They have two types, the one I got at the 7/11 (and they didn't give me a choice) has a higher rate for local calls but a very, very low rate for international calls. My friend there tells me that this is the cheapest.

-SIM cards can be found anywhere in the city. 7/11 and Circle K have them with different operators and pricing packages.

-The Peoples mobile ones work in Shenzhen and China Mobile SIMs in Hong Kong (and Macau/elsewhere in Mainland China FWIW) but also be aware of some possibly steep roaming charges, but it didn't seem entirely unreasonable to me. Some SIMs work in Macau as a "local" network by design but you have to specifically search those out. I never found a dual Mainland/HK SIM, but they could exist. I didn't need one though.

-The Peoples one at HKG were HK$66, I think.

Hong Kong mobile rates are among the cheapest, per minute, anywhere on the planet. Minutes overseas using the Peoples IDD one came out to something like 5 US cents a minute to call the states. It's a pretty sweet deal.

I have a China Mobile SIM with a Zhuhai (Macau border city) tel# that I can donate. Unsure of the credit, YMMV on that but my understanding is that it should be fine in Guangdong w/r/t roaming fees. I was using it in Hong Kong with perfect service so if you just want something as an emergency... send me a PM.

Note, too, that, at least in Beijing, different phone numbers will sell for different amounts, e.g. numbers with lots of 8s in them will cost more versus numbers with lots of 4s will cost less.

Note, too, that, at least in Beijing, different phone numbers will sell for different amounts, e.g. numbers with lots of 8s in them will cost more versus numbers with lots of 4s will cost less.

In Guangzhou, I saved a whopping 3 yuan by opting for a number that ended in 4. :D

In Guangzhou, I saved a whopping 3 yuan by opting for a number that ended in 4. :DHey, 30 cents is 30 cents. ;)

Hey, 30 cents is 30 cents. ;)

A yuan saved is a yuan made. ^

I was using it in Hong Kong with perfect service so if you just want something as an emergency... send me a PM.

You are too kind...thanks for the offer.... I’ll tuck that one under my hat, just in case.

Orange HK prepaid SIMs will roam in the main land, but I don't think it was a particularly great deal.