How to Get Wifi on Your Phone in China

A common challenge that all visitors to China faces is how to make calls, use apps, or just browse the internet on their phones while they are in China. Most people figure it out once they get to their hotel room since almost all hotels will have wifi. But what about when you're walking around with your American or European phone... without paying huge international roaming fees? 

I'm not an expert on telecommunications, so I advice you to consult a professional, but here are some tips:

1) Get a Chinese sim card. Many GSM-based phones can just swap out your SIM card and allows you to use the local internet and make phone calls. I believe this will require that you have to use a local Chinese phone # for receiving and making phone calls.. unless you have a dual SIM-card phone (which is unusual.) 

2) Buy a hotspot device like the one in the picture. You can get one of these at the aiport (800RMB for 4GB of data) that includes both a battery backup and sim card with pre-purchased data plan. When you're out and about in Shanghai or China, you just turn it on and it becomes a hotspot and you can then use your own international phone to make calls on Wechat, Skype, etc. Look for a kiosk like shown in the picture above.

3) Use the hotel phone. Some hotels, like the Novotel in Pudong, have started adding phones in the rooms that you just borrow for the duration of your stay. You can use them to make local (and maybe even international calls) or to surf the web when you're outside of your rooom. 

I'm sure there are many other options, but these are three that I know about. If you know of others, I'd love to learn about them! 

​Jenny