Is it still possible to get a SIM card in China as a foreigner?
According to the prepaid SIM card wiki, it is possible to get a SIM card as a foreigner in certain "flagship" stores:
The problem is recently, that most shops - even the small newsstands - only accept the machine-readable Chinese ID card. Foreign passports seem to be accepted only by the flagship stores of the providers (or at airports)
However, when I tried to buy a SIM card with data plan, they told me that they needed a Chinese ID Card (身份证), and it was not possible to register with a foreign passport. I tried 10-15 different phone stores in several major cities and they all refused.
Has anyone successfully registered a SIM card with a foreign passport recently, or is the wiki page out of date? If this is still possible, what are the "flagship" stores that do this?
Best Answer
I haven't done that but when I asked about that last year, they were very well willing to sell it to me in the main office of china telecom or some other company I don't remember which. I'd have to pay around $100 in rmb for it because it was a requirement - a deposit which would be topped up to my sim-card. All of $100 or nearly all, I don't remember. In other companies it's more or less the same. I decided I didn't want a sim-card for $100 even if it was a deposit and thus I didn't buy one. But I could have. It was in Guangzhou.
In Hong Kong you can officially buy a sim-card for 50HKD without your passport. Money - sim-card.
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