I'm using China Unicom. Data plan is like 1RMB for 800MB per day of data.

I suppose there is some kind of political agenda behind your comment.

I am not an adventurous person and I actually debated whether to do the trip or not. I still only stay with big cities in China (and there are plenty). I find China a great place to vacation - it is relatively safe and cheap and Marriott points go a long way. It has a lot of the old stuff (although Chinese culture is best preserved in Taiwan) and the most modern of things (online payment system, for example :D). It is foreign enough yet it is familiar enough (I went to Walmart today and had dinner at Burger King tonight).

My comments were in the context of just a simple vacation in China. But I have gotten by without a local number for long time in my part time living here. Not using a local number for Didi is a plus for me, it forces the driver to use the app to send messages instead of just calling to verify that I'm really there. I've never had a situation where I needed a local number for WeChat or any mini-program, although I don't use many mini-programs.

Bank account and Meituan for sure need local number, which is what inspired me to "re-get" a local number. But for a couple weeks vacation, I don't think it's necessary to have a local number. Many of my colleagues who come for 2 week business stays don't have one. They just use their T-mobile international data roaming plan which is much better than Verizon or AT&T. The hotel we stay in moved to an SMS or WeChat verification for WiFi, for SMS, a US number is fine with their system.

I have a stupid question - why do you guys say "mini-program". Is that an App or it is something else? Don't they just say APP in Chinese or they actually call it Mini-Program?

A mini-app isn't a standalone app, it runs inside another app, usually WeChat. So inside WeChat you can download mini-apps for Mobike, WalMart and many others.

WeChat is the predominant social media platform in China. Within the WeChat app, there is an ecosystem of apps that run within WeChat, these are called mini-programs by WeChat in English. For a Chinese person speaking English, they wouldn't say that. They'd just call it an A-P-P (speaking letters individually), the same that they would call iPhone or Android apps. But these mini-programs run within the WeChat app itself.

There are a lot of them, although a lot of them are just available as separate smart phone Apps. For example, Didi is the Chinese version of Uber and can be accessed from it's own app or through a WeChat mini-program. Mobike, a bike share system, operates the same way. However there are some useful apps only available through a WeChat mini-program, like Metro (Subway/Bus) apps for major cities.

MiniPrograms (or MPs) are essentially apps that run within WeChat:

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BE...A8%8B%E5%BA%8F
https://walkthechat.com/wechat-mini-...-introduction/

When Tencent first rolled out the platform, I was perplexed as to its value/potential because WeChat already had (and still has) official accounts (OAs), which can be fairly useful when developed by intelligent people, and MPs do have feature limitations that don't encumber standalone apps.

But, after I got a taste of a few good MPs, I started to understand the fuss. The most relevant plus to for me is that they solve the "I want to keep my phone as app light as possible" dilemma. For example, while I wouldn't even contemplate the idea of downloading apps for all of my loyalty programs individually, adding MPs is no skin off my back. They are also lightening fast, both to use and bind. For example, as an experiment, I recently compared IHG's app, OA, and MP. All 3 channels provide similar information and capabilities, but I found the MP provided a significantly better user experience than the other 2 (20 seconds to complete a booking v 60 seconds and 45 seconds). Getting back my point about about app light, I wouldn't have downloaded the IHG app were it not for this exercise, so it might as not even exist, but the MP can stick around, and I actually do use it.

Thanks for the explanations about mini-programs. I hate instant messages and have resisted using things like WeChat or even Line. I still live in the e-mail world - can't stand having the phone going off all the time. I guess I should start learning these things.

I think for me, part of travelling is to observe and figure out technology in other places - North America is really not in the forefront in a lot of these places. To do that in China, it seems local phone and payment system are an important part.

The biggest "hit" on me for this trip from the no local phone problem is I could not make a reservation to visit Peking University. Since they allow 1 number 1 reservation per year, I did not want to see if people at the hotel could help me by using their number.

Yes that is a good plan. They tried to kill it recently and move all new users onto the 16RMB/month plan but thankfully it didn't work out.

I went to China Unicom today. They also have an 8 RMB/month plan that comes with 30 minutes of voice and free incoming SMS when outside China. One lady said that you cannot add data to it - you will have to switch to a more expensive plan that has data and the switching is only allowed on the next billing cycle. Another lady said that you can add data. I found the employees not as friendly as China Mobile but it might be just the offices I visited.

If you want a plan that automatically includes data, then you'll have to switch the plan at the next billing cycle. But you should be able to add a one-time data package on the telco's website or by purchase on TMall, etc. Without a package your data use will be really expensive (though there may now be a daily cap).

I've had had no big problem with CM, but make sure your phone works with its data frequencies.

With respect to Mobile v Unicom, I find the latter a little bit easier to deal with, but their service offerings/quality are remarkably similar these days. That having been said, coverage is not identical when you drill down to the street/building level. This is the primary variable I would use when choosing which one to go with.

I am an American who has been traveling to China for 30 years. I usually go twice per year for a week or 2 at a time. For years I have had a China Mobile HK pay as you go phone with a dual number sim card, so I have HK and China phone numbers. I find with WeChat I use the actual phone numbers less and less. Everyone seems to do everything on WeChat these days.

A couple of years ago my friend in China helped me to register my name so I can still use the China number. I have nothing on that phone that I care if gov't officials see.

I see that I could download the Didi app, but could I actually use it without a Chinese bank account? I know I cannot download any money on to WeChat, but would Didi accept a foreign (US) credit card? There are times it would be helpful to use Didi, I use Uber in HK frequently.