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SIM & eSIM

Data before the plane. A Chinese number after you land.

The Home88 angle

A travel eSIM is data. A mainland SIM is a real-name +86 that can receive bank SMS. Buy the first before you fly; do the second at an official airport desk or a city carrier hall after police registration. Home88 may earn a referral fee on official pre-arrival eSIM partners. Carrier shop SIMs have no public affiliate.

Licensed corridor atmosphere — not a photo of this room. Official interiors are on the venue site.

Home88 may earn a referral fee when you buy a pre-arrival travel eSIM through an official partner programme. Mainland carrier-shop SIMs have no public affiliate we can join. A travel eSIM is usually data-only and cannot receive mainland bank SMS.

Licensed corridor atmosphere — not a photo of this room. Official interiors are on the venue site.

01

Data before the plane — not a Chinese number

Buy a travel eSIM. Keep your home line for SMS you already use.

The first night needs maps, a ride, and apps you already installed — not a +86. Airalo’s China page is a data pack on China Unicom; its help centre says telephony SMS and calls are not possible on a data-only eSIM. Nomad, Holafly, GigSky and Trip.com sell the same class of product: install on stable internet before you fly, turn the line on after landing. Check the vendor’s compatibility page and whether the phone is carrier-locked. Home88 may earn a referral fee on these links; the pack still will not receive a mainland bank code.

Housing Pudong arrivals can call a licensed car if data is already on. Huacao and Qingpu without data after last metro are a safety problem, not a gadget preference.

  • Airalo China eSIM

    Check availability

    Official China page: China Unicom, data packs. Help centre: no SMS/calls on data-only. Compatibility checker on airalo.com. Prices move — confirm at checkout. Standard affiliate rate published at 10% on Airalo’s partner FAQ.

    Housing Install before you leave home wifi. Not a reason to skip a city carrier shop later.

    Official site / gallery ↗

  • Nomad eSIM

    Check availability

    Official partner page: apply on Impact; standard affiliate rate begins at 10%, higher tiers on the dashboard. Open the China destination the day you buy. Treat it as travel data until the pack page says otherwise.

    Housing Same first-night logic as Airalo. Confirm the SKU at checkout.

    Official site / gallery ↗

  • Holafly

    Needs re-check

    Official affiliate pages exist; they do not publish a percentage — rate on the partner dashboard / apply to confirm. Open the destination page at checkout for the current China plan. Still a travel eSIM unless the page lists SMS.

    Housing Useful if your household already knows the brand. Still not a bank number.

    Official site / gallery ↗

  • Trip.com China eSIM

    Check availability

    Live listing: mainland 5G eSIM, Unicom preferred / Telecom, QR install, unlocked eSIM device (*#06# for EID). Another SKU is labelled China Unicom official product — still a travel install, not a city-shop real-name line. Affiliate: trip.com/partners — eSIM commission on the dashboard / apply to confirm.

    Housing If the family already booked hotels here, one more SKU in the same app. Still buy a mainland SIM later if they will open a bank account.

    Official site / gallery ↗

Licensed corridor atmosphere — not a photo of this room. Official interiors are on the venue site.

02

A mainland number at PVG or SHA

Passport at an official desk. Hours move. Not a same-day promise.

MIIT rules: a mainland SIM is real-name. A foreign passport is a listed ID. You cannot finish a proper Chinese mobile number entirely overseas without that check. Shanghai Airport Group’s 27 September 2024 note says the one-stop foreign-visitor centres in Pudong T1 and T2 and Hongqiao T1 sell phone SIMs, plus payment and transit cards. That is not the same as every carrier hall staying open all night. Confirm the airport site and the arrivals map the day you fly. Grey “already registered” cards are illegal and seizeable. Do not buy them in the hall.

Housing Jinqiao and Qiantan can absorb a Pudong queue. Gubei and Huacao often should take the eSIM into the city and let HR or a west-side hall do the number the next day.

  • Airport one-stop centres (PVG T1/T2, SHA T1)

    Check availability

    International arrivals — follow “International Services” / 外籍人员一站式 the day you land

    Official airport copy (2024-09-27): SIM sales, transit cards, FX, mobile payment help. “Around the clock” in that article is not a guarantee that a named carrier shutter is up at 23:40. No public affiliate.

    Housing Walk it if you land at Pudong and live east. Do not make a Qingpu school family stand here with three suitcases.

    Official site / gallery ↗

  • Named carrier halls inside the terminals

    Needs re-check

    China Telecom has been listed in Pudong T1 arrivals with daytime hours, but counter hours change. Treat it as something to check on the day, not a timetable. Passport in hand. Ask whether the pack can receive SMS, not only data.

    Housing Only worth the wait if you need +86 tomorrow morning for a bank appointment.

    Official site / gallery ↗

Licensed corridor atmosphere — not a photo of this room. Official interiors are on the venue site.

03

City shops after police registration

Own-operated halls. Ask 10086 / 10010 / 10000 before you go.

The 2026 Ministry of Commerce guide — published with MIIT and others — tells foreign nationals to take a passport or permanent-residence ID to an own-operated hall of China Telecom, China Mobile or China Unicom. Some operators support eSIM; check with the operator first. Apple’s 2 March 2026 note is narrow: only iPhone Air (A3518) and iPhone 17e (A3635) can take a mainland-carrier eSIM, and only in a store, with ID. Other iPhones, including most bought abroad, cannot install that profile. A US eSIM-only phone has no tray for a physical mainland SIM. Company HR often already holds a number for Japanese and Korean assignees — ask before you queue at Pudong.

Housing Jing’an and Lujiazui can walk into a flagship hall after the police slip. Villa belts should attach the errand to a weekday in town.

  • China Mobile real-name (passport listed)

    Check availability

    Official page cites MIIT Order 25. Foreign citizen passport is an accepted personal ID. Halls, authorised agents and the online hall are named — foreign passports still fail at many agents. Hotline 10086. No public affiliate.

    Housing Pick a hall on the corridor you already visit for the bank, not a random mall kiosk.

    Official site / gallery ↗

  • China Unicom hall finder

    Check availability

    Official store locator — set province to Shanghai. Call 10010 and ask “own-operated hall, passport new line”. First-time mainland eSIM is widely described as in-hall only, not a partner shop. Confirm that sentence on the day.

    Housing Unicom is the network many travel eSIMs already use. A later real-name Unicom line is not automatic from Airalo.

    Official site / gallery ↗

  • Apple: mainland carrier eSIM

    Check availability

    Published 2 March 2026. Only two China-sold models. Store ID check. Mainland cannot install an overseas-carrier eSIM on those phones. Point clients here instead of a blog list.

    Housing

    Official site / gallery ↗

Licensed corridor atmosphere — not a photo of this room. Official interiors are on the venue site.

04

Why a Chinese number is not optional for a posting

Tourist Alipay can use a foreign number. Payroll banks usually cannot.

PBOC’s 2024 foreign-visitor payment guide and the 2026 commerce guide both say you may register WeChat and Alipay with a foreign or a Chinese number, then add an overseas card. Limits and fees are whatever the app shows that day DiDi’s own app, the same guide says, accepts a foreign number. HSBC, CMB and most payroll banks still send login SMS to a mainland mobile. 12306 sells tickets to a passport; the Chinese app path often wants a domestic number when payment fails. 12123 accepts a passport and then slows down. School and compound WeChat groups assume +86. Citi retail is gone — do not tell anyone to wait for a Citi SMS. A 240-hour visitor can stop at data plus a foreign-card wallet. A family on a work residence cannot.

Housing The first rent transfer is often WeChat. Build the number into the viewing week, not the weekend after school starts.

  • PBOC payment guide + 2026 commerce guide

    Check availability

    Official: download, register with a number, bind a card, scan. Foreign or Chinese number is allowed in the 2026 guide. Visa / Mastercard / JCB / AmEx / Diners / Discover / UnionPay are named. Fees stay on the app page.

    Housing Short-stay clients can finish this in a serviced apartment. Long-stay clients still need the bank step.

    Official site / gallery ↗

  • 12306, 12123, DiDi

    Check availability

    Passport rail tickets on the English 12306 site. 12123 / Shanghai 122 for licence and fines. DiDi global page plus the 2026 guide’s foreign-number signup. Data-only eSIMs do not collect those SMS codes.

    Housing Weekend Suzhou trips fail in the Chinese app, not at the station gate — fix the number before Friday.

    Official site / gallery ↗

Licensed corridor atmosphere — not a photo of this room. Official interiors are on the venue site.

05

Hong Kong, HR, roaming — and what we will not sell

A HK number is not +86. Grey SIMs are illegal. Roaming rates are your home carrier’s.

CSL and China Mobile Hong Kong publish tourist SIMs and eSIMs — useful on a HK layover, sometimes with a mainland data add-on. CMHK’s own travel-data guide says activate before entering the mainland. That is still not a Shanghai bank SMS. 1O1O is a premium HK postpaid brand, not the default landing card. Home-country roaming keeps a number you already bound to Alipay; Japanese and Korean HR desks often issue a corporate line — ask. We do not refer pre-real-named grey SIMs or borrowed IDs. Mainland carrier shops have no public affiliate we can join. Travel eSIM partners do; disclose it.

Housing A Hong Kong stop does not change which Shanghai corridor you rent. It only changes whether you have data in the jetway.

  • csl Discover Hong Kong tourist SIM

    Check availability

    Official tourist page: HK/Macau data and local voice; separate mainland data add-ons listed. Real-name required. Confirm today’s HKD price on that page. A HK number does not replace HSBC Shanghai SMS.

    Housing For passports that transit HKG. Irrelevant to a Qingpu school run.

    Official site / gallery ↗

  • China Mobile Hong Kong prepaid / eSIM

    Check availability

    Official prepaid and eSIM hubs. June 2026 travel-data eSIM guide: activate before entering the mainland. Compatibility on the CMHK eSIM page — use their checker.

    Housing Same HK-layover logic. Still buy a mainland real-name line if the posting is a year.

    Official site / gallery ↗

  • Company SIM or home roaming

    Needs re-check

    HR inventory is not on a public page — ask the mobility desk. Roaming: open your home carrier’s international page; Either path can keep a number you already use. Neither is a grey SIM.

    Housing If HR already covers Gubei, skip the airport queue and spend the hour on police registration.

    Official site / gallery ↗

Plans, desk hours and which hall accepts a passport all change. Check the official page the morning you go.

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