First 72 hoursSIM card, bank account and mobile payment
SIM card, bank account and mobile payment
The order matters more than the brand of bank. A travel eSIM is data. A mainland real-name number is what receives bank texts.
- 01
Police registration receipt in hand. Many banks will not open a full account without it.
- 02
A Chinese number, in your own name, from a carrier shop. A travel eSIM will not receive most mainland OTP texts.
- 03
Alipay and WeChat Pay can often be bound with a passport and a foreign card. Short stays frequently stop here.
- 04
Then a local debit card — salary, rent, the ayi, utilities. Foreign banks: more English, fewer branches. Chinese banks: denser, English by counter.
- 05
Citibank retail personal business has left. Do not wait at a Hongqiao counter for a Citibank SMS.
Housing HSBC at Shanghai Centre sits on the Jing’an / West Nanjing Road strip. Huacao and Qingpu villas should not assume a Gubei branch is “around the corner”.
Official sources
First 72 hours
- Police accommodation registration within 24 hoursAnywhere that is not a hotel must be registered with the police within 24 hours of moving in. Hotels file for you. A friend’s sofa, a lane house and a private flat do not.
- Move-in inspection and deposit evidenceThe deposit comes back on the dated photographs you take today. WeChat-compressed pictures without a date, and no meter readings, are how both sides later tell a different story.
Each guide gives the official process with source links and effective dates, plus the pitfalls we have recorded from real cases. Anything requiring a licence is referred to registered providers only.
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