Update on SIM card on arrival at PVG.

Immediately on exiting immigration and baggage reclaim, and at the end of the zig-zag barriers, there is a counter on your right that sells SIM cards. It's under a title 'business services' or something.

These used to be China Mobile, but seems to only be Unicom now.

For non-data - the price quoted was RMB250 for '250 minutes call time'.

I asked 'what about a RMB100?' (this used to be the price of the China Mobile SIM).

If you are in Shanghai only, there is a RMB150 option. Not sure about the actual call cost (they quoted .1 per text), but it lasted 7 days with pretty heavy use.

All up it took about 30 seconds to purchase and get the phone running. This is compared to 1+ hours visiting an actual China Mobile or Unicom store where you have to take a number, queue, choose your phone number, queue some more, 'speak' to an officer (usually language difficulties), show passport etc etc.

While the SIM call rates at the airport are more expensive than buying in town, the time saving is huge. Well worth it if you are there for a short stay where you are unlikely to use up all of your credit on a cheaper call rate anyways.