I'm pretty sure that most vendors (or really, anyone with a business account) pay zero or close to it when you use foreign cards via alipay or wxpay; for txns >200, we pay the 3% surcharge, below 200, some combination of Visa, MC, Ali, Temcent, and the government covers the 3%. But, I've encountered some large ones like hospitals and subway stations, in which my foreign cards were grayed out as funding sources.

It's weird how banks vary in their treatment of foreign transactions.

I never had issues using Alipay or WeChat linked to my Mastercard in Germany. There was sometimes a multi-factor authorisation needed, which is no problem since I just open my banking appli and approuve it on the spot.
With my US bank of america card, it mostly worked, except once or twice when it asked me to verify and approve, and retry again; it went thru on the second attempt.

Only time i had issue was when the clothes wash machine at one of my hotels deducted from one's wallet balance, which is not possible for those without a linked Chinese bank account. A staff member paid on my behalf, and I transferred on WeChat to her. Problem solved.

Has anyone used esims from Holafly or TSimTech (via MobiMatter) before?

Earlier this year I used a 3HK esim in China and it worked well but going to a few countries in addition to China next month so looking into an esim with service throughout Asia.

I just used a Yo Mobile Asia Explorer eSIM in a number of different central and south east Asian counties, but that didn't include China for this trip.

Based upon my experience with Yo and their eSIM the comments I would make are that networks they have a roaming agreement with, and know the APN settings for your eSIM provider. This is because the default aettings in the eSIM were wrong, and having worked fine in one country they reset themselves to wrong APN settings during the trip when crossing a national border and roaming onto a new national network provider.

Other than those gotchas the eSIM worked well. Data breakout was in the US with Yo Mobile.
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Thanks, I'll look into Yo, their Asia Explorer package might be an option.

Curious : how long can one keep a negative balance with a Unicom SIM ? Realised that the prepaid one I bought in November is still active, so i refilled a little bit to keep the balance above zero even though I'm outside China.

I guess after a certain number of months without activity the number gets disconnected ? Any idea how long this period lasts ?

I can only speak for the China Mobile. If the balance is negative, the sim will be suspended after a month (calls, SMS (including inbound) and internet will be dissabled after a month, but the number itself will stay with you for 3 months. The best thing is to switch to one of those cheap packets like 5-8RMB a month and put 100RMB not to worry about it.

To add, you either keep money in it to keep it alive, or you cancel/let it die. If it had a negative balance for 3+ months, even if the number is still active you need to pay the entire negative balance before you can start using it again. So no benefit from doing so.

IME, Unicom (Shanghai, at least) is pretty good about bringing large negative balances down to earth (e.g retroactively apply a cheap plan) if you call them.

Has anyone successfully tested the extremly cheap trip.com E-Sim, which they offer on their App for CNY 4.00 upwards ?

No because I was unsure if it would be firewalled or not, but I used Reateago and linkesim, both worked well and price was about 5 USD for 10gb/30days

It would be great if someone, who is currently residing in China, could test the free Roamless Esim and report back if it works without someone looking over your shoulder if you try to open a website from the Alphabet company.

During my upcoming trip I will criss/cross through China, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Thailand and Turkey, but only for a few days or even hours each.

Otherwise I would go for a Airalo, Holafly etc., but Roamless seems to be a good option for the short-term trips this time.

I have just tested it in Austria and it works with Three Austria and A1/Vodafone, connects immediately (for free, I have not topped up the E-Sim yet).

In Europe it seems to route the Internet and/or calls via Proximus Belgium.

Well, the Trip.com E-Sim included in the "Diamond Rewards" is a CMLink 66 countries Global E-Sim, which - at least here in Austria - uses Orange APN (APN CMHK does not work here) and routes via Singapur. I used it here in Austria and it works pretty well, using A1/Vodafone Roaming Network.

I saw on Trip.com that on the 7th of May they sell the China E-Sim for half price.

Lebara is cancelling their free 30GB China roaming offer as of July 7, 2025.

I used 3HK my last trip and for data it was good for use in China. My question is: Is there an easy way to buy eSIM for phone # capabilities in China? I'm really just looking for a phone number for SMS Verification which we know is too ubiquitous there. It seems 3HK's Mainland China number service only allows for HK / Macau nationals to purchase.

Edit: oops, wrong post to edit. restored original.