I don't think Google is ahead of Baidu 百度 when doing searches for stuff in mainland China, as that is 百度 home market. And like I said, there are other options like Microsoft Outlook/Bing for mail and searches. So I don't have great difficulty with the Firewall, but then again, I visit every year so I've learned my way around it. And plus, using the mainland SIM when roaming is cheap and lets me get around other blocked sites (for example 小红书 in the Taiwan region, RT in the European Union).

Interesting, so as long as I can bypass GFW that's not bad. I do see the Trip.com eSIMs are pretty cheap, but the advantage of 3HK is to have a number and data all in one. That will allow me to keep using my T-Mobile SIM. I just find 5GB data insufficient. I suppose I could also just run 3 eSIMs--T-Mobile, 3HK for a HK #, and then Trip.com eSIM for general data. I can switch off T-mobile momentarily when I need to do SMS verification in China. But it's a bit messy that way.

Even protons email is blocked in China.

I agree with you that in China you almost have no choice but to use Baidu for searches. My experience using it, however, has been terrible. It isn't even comparable to Google searches. DeepSeek will probably kill Baidu searches much sooner than ChatGPT/Gemini/Claude would render Google searches useless. I also don't expect Bing searches to be any better in China since they're pretty lousy elsewhere.

All is correct, but I just don't see what does a HK number gives you. I don't think there is any difference if you use +852 or +1 or whatever in Mainland, they either accept non +86 or not.

The reason I got that SIM was to link it to some HK wallets that only accept a +852 number and I was outside of HK, so needed to buy the esim remotely.

Regarding Google - yes a lot of companies use it's infrastructure - Google sheets etc. Also for Android phones you would benefit from having Google play to download and update apps from abroad/back home. Also some websites just don't load properly even if they are not explicitly blocked.

With the launch of the iPhone Air in China, can you get an eSIM for regular phones now? It would be nice to not have to carry a second phone just for a physical +86 SIM card. My US iPhone has no SIM card slots

No, its only for specific domestic phone models and non citizens cant get it.

iPhone 17 Air China-specific model differs significantly from models sold in other markets. It supports. and only supports, local Chinese eSIMs. Models sold in other countries do NOT support local Chinese eSIMs.

That's not exactly true. Chinese iPhone Air supports foreign SIM cards but you have to be outside of mainland to activate and use them.

Talking about e-sims, as I tend to buy Chinese phones which don't support e-sims, I bought an esim adapter, which looks like a SIM card and is inserted in one of the sim slots. It can then be used to load esim profiles (up to 50 numbers). It can then be taken out and inserted in a new phone without problems. Great for people who need to have numbers in different countries and who are prone to lose the small SIM cards. Costs around 150CNY in China.

That's interesting...but I'm not sure I fully understand what it does. It'd be great if it can be used somehow to enable the conversion of a local Chinese physical SIM into an eSIM to be used in a phone that doesn't have a physical SIM slot.

It's not just Google.
As a Canadian, when I travel I like to read the Globe and Mail online, and visit the CBC news site. Neither can
be reached behind the GFWC.
And many other websites such as Air Canada require a pass through Google analytics, or a Google captcha,
rendering them useless in China.

Interesting.....I don't have issues with the french and german news websites that I frequently use. But I think continental Europe is generally less impacted by Firewall restrictions so perhaps that is why I don't notice it as much.

It converts a Chinese non esim phone (or any other phone) to an esim compatible phone.

I saw videos of people emedding SIM slot into iPhone air, but that obviously requires some work on hardware and I guess the void of waranty.

For those of us who use local Chinese SIM in China for conveniences, it's becoming increasingly problematic to have both a Chinese SIM and other non-Chinese eSIMs/SIMs in the same phone. Apple has done away with SIM card slot in its phones since iPhone 14 in the US market, and gradually in other markets except China. Other phone manufacturers are likely to follow the same path. This divergence in phones could create as much a problem as the divergence in internet access.