China eSIM: what a local SIM commits you to
A Chinese SIM card is a registered identity, kept for two years after you cancel. A travel eSIM is a foreign subscription. That difference is legal, not technical.
In this article
Buying a Chinese SIM card and installing a travel eSIM look like two versions of the same decision. They are not. One creates a telecom subscription registered against your passport and kept on file for two years after you cancel it. The other is a foreign contract that happens to work here.
Everything else about the choice, speed, price, coverage, changes from one month to the next. That one does not.
The difference is legal, not technical
A Chinese SIM is a registered identity
Chinese operators have been required to register the real identity of every telephone user since 1 September 2013, under Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Decree No. 25. The obligation sits on the operator, the consequence sits with you: no connection is made without a valid identity document, and what the document says is recorded.
A travel eSIM is a foreign subscription
An eSIM sold by an international provider is a contract with a company outside China, roaming onto a Chinese network. The Chinese registration rules apply to Chinese telecom subscriptions, and this is not one.
That is the whole of the difference, and it has consequences in both directions. You are not registering anything, and you also get none of what a registered local line provides.
Why this is the only difference that will not change
Providers appear and disappear. Prices move weekly. Routing arrangements are commercial decisions that can be renegotiated without notice, which is why a comparison written in March is unreliable by September.
A regulation from 2013 that has been in force continuously is a different kind of fact. It is the one worth understanding before the rest.
What the real-name rule requires
The regulation is short and its operative articles are specific.
| Article | What it says |
|---|---|
| 6 | The operator must require a valid identity document at connection |
| 7(4) | A foreign citizen passport is an accepted document, named explicitly |
| 9 | The operator inspects the document and records its category, the name, the number and the address |
| 10 | No valid document, no connection |
| 11 | The information is kept for two years after the contract ends |
| 13 | Failure by the operator draws a fine of 10,000 to 30,000 yuan, published publicly |
The document
Article 7 lists what counts, and a foreign passport is item four on that list. Buying a local SIM as a visitor is therefore entirely ordinary and provided for, which is worth saying because a good deal of travel writing implies otherwise.
What the operator records
Not merely that you showed a passport. Article 9 requires the operator to inspect the document and record its category, the name, the number and the address shown on it. This is a transcription, not a glance.
No document, no line
This is why kiosks and resellers offering a SIM without identity checks should be treated with suspicion. A line sold that way is either not what it claims to be or is registered to somebody else.
Two years after you leave
Article 11 requires the operator to preserve the identity information and supporting material for two years after the subscription ends. Cancelling the line does not close the record.
Nothing about that is unusual for a telecom regulation, and several countries do something comparable. It is simply a fact that belongs in the decision, and it is absent from every comparison page I have read on this subject.
The same regulation places obligations on the operator in the other direction. Article 12 requires operators to keep registered identity information confidential, forbids them from selling it or passing it on, and forbids using it for anything other than providing the service. Article 13 sets the penalty for breaches, which falls on the company rather than the customer.
What a travel eSIM does not give you
No Chinese number
A data eSIM carries no local number. Providers say so themselves when asked directly: Holafly's own China page states that its plan "does not include a local phone number for phone calls or text messages, so it is not a China eSIM with a phone number" (checked 18 September 2026).
What that costs you
Less than most guides claim, and this deserves correcting because the claim is repeated everywhere. As of 2026, Alipay registers with a foreign number. WeChat does too. The 12306 rail booking system accepts passport registration without a Chinese number.
Where SMS codes fail, the usual cause is not the absence of a Chinese number at all: it is that your home carrier filters messages from Chinese short-code servers as spam. The mechanism is different, so the remedy is different, and blaming the eSIM sends people looking for the wrong fix.
What it does cost you
Anything that genuinely requires a +86 number: some delivery apps, some local services, occasional two-factor flows on Chinese platforms built for residents rather than visitors.
If your trip depends on one of those specifically, a local SIM with its registration is the answer. If it does not, the question is smaller than it looks.
What the providers say
What follows is what each company states on its own site, with the date I checked it. A vendor's page is a reliable source for what the vendor claims, and not evidence that the claim holds. No comparison page makes that distinction, and it is the only honest way to present figures that nobody else publishes.
| Provider | What it advertises | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Airalo | China Unicom as the primary network, data only. Unlimited plans at 10.50 € for 3 days, 17.00 € for 5, 24.00 € for 7, 31.50 € for 10 | 18/09/2026 |
| Holafly | Unlimited data from 3.79 €, no local number, stated explicitly | 18/09/2026 |
The currency trap
Those prices were shown to a request resolving to Europe, in euros. The same pages serve different figures in different currencies and territories, and the conversion is not always the arithmetic one.
A price quoted in a guide without saying which currency and which country it was fetched from is not a price. That applies to the table above as much as to anybody else's.
How to read a vendor's own claim
Claims about routing and firewall behaviour are commercial statements, not technical documentation. No operator publishes its interconnection arrangements, so there is no source against which to check them.
Treat them as intentions rather than guarantees, and do not build a trip around one.
The three ways to get online
Before comparing providers it helps to see that there are only three arrangements, and that they differ in what they commit you to rather than in what they deliver.
Roaming on your home contract
Your existing carrier bills you for using a Chinese network. No registration, no new contract, no installation, and traffic routes through your home operator, which is why services blocked domestically often still load.
The cost is the reason people look elsewhere. It remains the only option that needs no preparation at all.
A Chinese SIM or eSIM from a local operator
China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom all sell to visitors, and all of them fall squarely under Decree No. 25. You present a passport in person, it is recorded, and you get a +86 number with domestic pricing and domestic routing.
Domestic routing is the part that surprises people: a local line behaves like a local line, including for the services that are not reachable from inside the country.
A travel eSIM from an international provider
A foreign contract roaming onto a Chinese network. No registration, no local number, and traffic that leaves the country before reaching the wider internet, which is the property these companies advertise.
Three arrangements, three trade-offs, and the choice depends far more on whether you need a +86 number than on the price difference between plans.
What is not documented anywhere
The VPN question
The legal position on using a VPN as a foreign visitor is not set out in any published rule that applies cleanly to tourists. Guides assert both that it is fine and that it is forbidden, and neither cites anything.
What can be said: services that advertise firewall bypass are describing a routing arrangement, not a legal opinion, and the situation has changed more than once.
Coverage outside the big cities
Providers publish coverage as a country, not as a map. Whether a given plan performs in Tibet, Xinjiang or rural Yunnan is not documented by anybody, and the accounts that circulate are individual experiences from unstated dates.
What happens when it fails
No provider publishes what to do when an eSIM does not attach on landing, which is precisely the moment you cannot reach their website. Save the support contact and the QR code offline before departure.
Before you leave
Buy and install before arrival
An eSIM profile has to be downloaded over the internet. Doing that on arrival means needing the connection you are trying to obtain, which is the one failure that cannot be solved on the spot.
Install before departure, and leave activation for landing where the provider allows it.
Take a screenshot of the QR code and the installation instructions as well. A profile that has to be re-downloaded is the same problem in a different shape.
Keep the home SIM in the phone
Two things argue for it. Your home number continues to receive the messages that only it can receive, and a second line is a fallback if the eSIM does not attach.
Data roaming on the home line should be switched off unless you intend to pay for it.
Check the device first
Not every phone supports eSIM, and some handsets sold in mainland China have the function disabled. The provider's compatibility page is the place to check, and it is worth doing before buying rather than after.
Anyone still deciding whether they can enter the country at all will want the visa-free rules first, since that question comes before this one.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a Chinese SIM card to use Alipay or WeChat? No. As of 2026 both register with a foreign number. Where an SMS code fails to arrive, the usual cause is your home carrier filtering Chinese messages as spam rather than the absence of a Chinese number.
Can foreigners buy a SIM card in China? Yes. MIIT Decree No. 25, article 7, names a foreign citizen passport as an accepted identity document. Registration is required and is done in person.
What does the operator record? Under article 9, the document category, the name, the number and the address shown on it. Article 11 requires that information to be kept for two years after the contract ends.
Does a travel eSIM give you a Chinese phone number? No. Data-only plans carry no local number, and providers state this on their own pages.
Do you need a Chinese number to book trains on 12306? Not since 2026, when passport registration became available. Third-party platforms were the workaround before that and still work.
Should you buy the eSIM before or after arriving? Before. The profile downloads over the internet, so installing on arrival requires the connection you do not yet have.
Should you remove your home SIM? No. Keep it in the phone for messages only it can receive, and switch off its data roaming unless you intend to pay for it.
Is using a VPN legal for a visitor? No published rule answers this cleanly for tourists, and pages that state a firm answer in either direction do not cite anything. Treat confident claims with suspicion.
Will an eSIM work in Tibet or Xinjiang? Providers publish coverage by country, not by region, and nobody documents performance there. The accounts that circulate are individual and usually undated.
What do you do if the eSIM does not connect on landing? Save the provider's support contact and your QR code offline before departure. Once on the ground without data, reaching their website is the problem you are trying to solve.
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