The ¥5 SIM Card That Keeps Your WeChat Alive From Abroad. And Everything Else About Getting a Chinese Number.

There’s a specific kind of panic that happens about six months after you leave China.

You try to log into WeChat. Or Alipay. Or your Chinese bank app. And it asks for a verification code — sent to a Chinese phone number you no longer have. The number got recycled. Someone else owns it now. And with it, the app access you assumed was permanent.

The Chinese SIM card problem is really two problems: getting one when you arrive, and not losing it when you leave.

This guide covers both. Plus the part nobody tells you — which carrier is actually right for your situation.

The Three Carriers, in Plain English

China has three major carriers. They all cover the basics. They differ in where they’re strong and which plans they offer foreigners.

China Mobile (中国移动) is the largest carrier in the world by subscribers. If you’re going anywhere remote — western China, rural areas, Tibet, Yunnan countryside — Mobile is the default choice. Coverage elsewhere in rural and western provinces simply doesn’t match it. Plans start at ¥8/month (where available) and go up to ¥39/month for 2,000 calling minutes.

China Unicom (中国联通) is the expat default in major eastern cities. It tends to have the best 4G speeds in Beijing, Shanghai, and coastal cities. The unique feature: data plans can be shared with a secondary SIM card — useful if you have a family member also using a Chinese number. Plans start at ¥9/month for 150GB.

China Telecom (中国电信) dominates South China — Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Hainan. It also has something the other two don’t: a legitimate ¥5/month plan. No calls. 200MB data. But full SMS capability, including international roaming for receiving verification codes. If you’re leaving China and want to keep a number alive for the absolute minimum cost, Telecom’s ¥5 plan is the answer.

What You Actually Need to Bring

Registration requires:

• Passport (original) — no copies accepted
• Valid visa or residence permit — tourist visa works; students and workers use their residence permit
• A China address — your hotel address is fine for tourists; for longer stays, your company or apartment address

No Chinese ID required. No guarantor. No Chinese bank account.

The Registration Process: What Happens in the Store

Walk into an official carrier store — not a phone repair shop, not a third-party reseller with the carrier logo. Find the machines near the entrance to take a queue number (取号), wait to be called.

The process takes 5–10 minutes once you’re at the counter:

1. Staff scans your passport
2. You choose a plan — tell them: short-term or long-term, how much data, whether you need international SMS
3. Real-name registration is entered into the system
4. SIM activated, tested

The part that trips people up: secondary verification (二次实名). Some carriers require you to complete an additional identity check via their app within 24–48 hours of activation. If you skip it, the SIM appears active but calls and SMS stop working. Ask the staff to walk you through this before you leave the store.

The Magic Phrase for Keeping Your Number Abroad

If you plan to leave China but want to keep receiving WeChat and Alipay verification codes, you need international SMS roaming activated before you go. This cannot be done remotely — it must be requested in person.

At the store, say:

“我需要开通国际漫游接收短信功能，但不需要通话和流量。” > (“I need to activate international roaming for receiving SMS only — no calls or data needed.”)

Receiving SMS internationally is usually free. Sending costs ¥0.1–1 per message. Some carriers require a ¥100–300 deposit to enable this — ask upfront.

Phone Settings Nobody Tells You

Once your SIM is in:

• Enable “Data Roaming” in your phone settings. Despite the name, this just allows the SIM to register on the network — it doesn’t consume data by itself. Without it, the SIM may fail to connect.
• Disable VoLTE and 5G if you’re having signal issues. These advanced protocols can cause connection failures on foreign-registered devices — turning them off often resolves it immediately.
• Dual SIM phones: Set the China SIM as the secondary card and disable data on it. Otherwise your phone may automatically switch data traffic to the China SIM, running up charges.

How to Not Lose Your Number When You Leave

This is the part worth memorizing.

Chinese carriers recycle inactive numbers. Telecom typically recycles after 6 months of inactivity. Unicom varies by plan — 3 to 12 months. Mobile is similar to Unicom.

“Inactive” means no calls, no SMS, and no top-ups. To stay active:

Top up ¥50 every 5 months. You can do this from anywhere in the world via WeChat Pay, Alipay, or the carrier’s official app. You don’t need to be in China.

Make one call every 6 months. Calling the carrier’s customer service line (free in China, works from abroad on your China SIM when data roaming is on) counts as activity and resets the clock.

Downgrade to the cheapest plan before leaving. China Telecom’s ¥5/month SMS-only plan costs less than a coffee per month and keeps your number and OTP capability fully intact.

The ¥5 Plan Explained

Telecom’s entry plan is often called the “无忧卡” (worry-free card) or similar promotional names. The key specs:

• ¥5/month
• 200MB domestic data
• No domestic call minutes
• Full SMS capability — domestic and international

For someone outside China who just needs to keep Alipay and WeChat linked to a Chinese number, this is the complete solution. The total annual cost: ¥60. That’s less than one month of mobile phone service in most countries.

The Interactive Guide

I built a tool that asks 3 questions about your situation — tourist/worker/abroad, location, and primary use — and gives you a specific carrier and plan recommendation. It also includes the full plan comparison table for all three carriers, the step-by-step registration guide with the key phrases, and the number-preservation checklist.

👉 China SIM Card Guide for Foreigners — 2026

It covers: dual SIM phone setup, how to identify which carrier owns a number from the prefix, whether your foreign phone will work, and airport SIM card options.

Related Reading: – China Social Media Guide — 13 Platforms Compared — once you have a number, here’s where everyone actually is – China Cost of Living vs USA — 40+ Items Compared — context on how much ¥5–39/month actually represents – China 五险一金 Calculator — What Every Worker Pays — if you’re working in China, understand what comes out of your salary

Sources: China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom official plan pages; Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) real-name registration regulations; carrier store staff verification, 2026.