The rule that surprises people is not that you need identification — it is how much identification, and that a shop cannot bend it.
Real-name registration, and the face scan#
Every Chinese mobile number is tied to a verified identity. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's notice on real-name registration required carriers, from 1 December 2019, to run a facial comparison at physical points of sale before a number is activated: your live face, checked against the photo in the document you are registering with.
For a foreign visitor that means:
- Your original passport, not a copy or a photograph of one.
- An official carrier outlet — China Mobile, China Unicom or China Telecom — or an airport arrivals counter. Convenience stores and market stalls cannot do this, whatever they tell you.
- Ten to thirty minutes of paperwork, so do not do it with a train to catch.
China Unicom's international counters are generally the easiest for a foreign passport, because the staff handle visitors routinely and some speak English.
The catch nobody mentions in the shop#
A Chinese SIM puts you behind the Great Firewall. It is a domestic connection, so Google, WhatsApp, Instagram and the rest are unreachable on it exactly as they are for everyone else in the country. If you want the open internet on a Chinese SIM you need a working VPN on top, installed before you arrive.
This is the whole trade. A local number is genuinely useful — some apps, Wi-Fi logins and delivery services want one — but it does not buy you the internet you are used to.
The alternative worth weighing#
A travel eSIM or your own SIM roaming often reaches the open internet without a VPN, because the traffic exits through a network outside mainland China. That depends on how your provider routes it rather than on the technology, and it is worth testing in the first ten minutes after landing.
Neither option is simply better. Roughly:
- A travel eSIM suits a short trip where you mainly want your usual apps to work and cannot be bothered with paperwork.
- A Chinese SIM suits a longer stay, someone who needs a local number for verification codes, or anyone who wants more data for the money — accepting the VPN dependency.
You can also run both, with the local SIM for data-heavy domestic use and roaming for anything the firewall would otherwise eat.
Before you decide#
- Check your phone is unlocked and, for an eSIM, that it supports one. An older handset may not.
- Install what you need at home. Without the Play Store or a VPN you cannot fix an app you forgot.
- Airport counters cost more than a city carrier shop, and are worth it on arrival day.
For the app set that makes a Chinese connection workable and what the firewall actually blocks, see the guide to internet, VPNs and apps in China; for the routing question behind the eSIM choice, does an eSIM bypass the Great Firewall?