Originally Posted by RobUAIntl

Does anyone have experience using the airalo esim in china? I've used their esim's before and had good experience, but china (as always) is likely to be different. Current pricing is $28 for 10gb for 30 days (cheaper for less data) -- no phone number, just internet which works for me. Says carrier is China Unicom. Any other e-sim recommendations? I want to make sure it works as soon as I land in Shanghai as I'm always nervous as I go through the foreigner immigration line and speak no english when my wife will go through the China citizen line and I want to be able to connect in case I need translator or help.

https://www.airalo.com/china-esim

Originally Posted by gudugan

I haven’t used this but I won’t recommend it because you will get firewalled. Use a non Chinese SIM that roams into China. T Mobile works or SIM from Hong Kong

Originally Posted by gudugan

I did, but it took 2.5 hours at a China Mobile center in town which doesn’t meet the requirements. Also I need to keep paying for the plan.

You can get on arrival SIM at Shanghai airport but that also doesn’t meet the requirements.

Google Fi is a last resort backup option but it’s expensive and slow. Also I’m banned from it from too much international roaming.

Originally Posted by moondog

Try Unicom next time. You can call them at 10010 (option 2 is English) and ask them where to go to get a SIM (a lot of their stores don't sell SIMs at all, let alone to foreigners). Their English CS is really great IME (e.g. you'll never wait more than 2 minutes to get connected and the person who you talk with will be smart as a whip). And after you're enrolled, you can call the same number to drop your plan down to 8 per month. Mobile is better country-wide, but Unicom is quite solid in major cities.

SIMs on arrival at PEK or PVG are no longer an option. I just wanted to give the Unicom lady at PVG Y300 to top me up, but her offer was Y50 for WiFi access in the airport only. So, I called 10010, and they hooked me up with a free 48 hours. This allowed me to access data and pay them, plus get a taxi home.