Originally Posted by
mlin32
I'd like a prepaid SIM with a local number of course.
I guess I could take the easy way out and buy one upon arrival at PKX; how much more expensive are the plans/tarifs there ? I'll be arriving on a Sunday afternoon, so I'd expect airport shops to be open.
I could also try and go to a store in the Beijing city centre with my passport, but I also don't want to spend half my day trying to get this done, even if I can speak/understand (but not read) mandarin.
At PVG a travel SIM was either 120RMB or 200RMB for a week or two. I’m leaning towards the former. This is expensive by China standards but cheap compared to your other mentioned option. I don’t know if it comes with a phone number.
The plus side is they should know how to do the passport registration so it will get done fast. The city ones may have no clue (my experience).
Originally Posted by
mlin32
So only certain stores can handle the registration ?
And now that I think about it, when I get the chinese SIM, that would kind of nullify the Alipay and WeChat Pay set up where I linked it to my foreign credit card, right ? As in, I'd have to re-setup the payments with that chinese number, or ?
You can change your phone number on Alipay and WeChat Pay if you do the right verifications. However I agree that a phone number may be overkill on a short trip unless you want to register for a bunch of local apps. Renting bikes on the street requires a local number, but it also seems to require a Chinese ID in most cases, so you might be screwed anyway.