Best eSIM for China 2026

Airalo

• positive“I’m currently in China and using Airalo eSIM without any issues. You don’t need to get an additional VPN; all apps work (WhatsApp, YouTube, Gmail, ChatGPT.).”

  Reddit · u/Flimsy-Process230 · 2026-07-01

• negative“I'd purchase a VPN as well just in case. The last time I went back to china, I purchased an esim from airalo but it didn't work for me at all, whereas vpn was always reliable.”

  Reddit · u/Successful-Ferret124 · 2026-05-17

• negative“Do Not Trust Airalo in China – Left Stranded and Cashless. During our trip, our Airalo eSIM completely dropped its connection for 5 consecutive hours.”

  Trustpilot · Oscar Risueño Lopez-Camara · 2026-07-24

• negative“Just a heads up I purchased the unlimited connection in China and it’s almost unusably slow for anything. Half the time my apps will timeout the other half they just won’t load. To the point I’ve been stuck on the metro unable to pay. EDIT: support reached out to me but since I left China they are unable to evaluate the issue. So they made it more than right by crediting my account.”

  Reddit · u/SovietPenguin69 · 2026-06-27

• positive“I just had zero issues with Airalo.”

  Reddit · u/Odd-Boysenberry-2260 · 2026-08-10

• negative“I travelled to Japan first, Taiwan and HK, no issues. Then went to China and I had some frequent disconnections, sometimes several times per day, which I wouldn't necessarily notice right away. Going to flight mode and back usually fixed it but it was slightly annoying. eSIM was roaming from Japan so no issues with accessing all usual sites and apps blocked in China. No issues accessing Alipay or Amap either.”

  Reddit · u/TedBob99 · 2026-05-14

• positive“I'm currently in China right now, Airalo works really well.”

  Reddit · u/Inhesion · 2026-04-27

• negative“For whatever reason my wife’s Airalo eSIM stopped working in china. We went to a big, stress big, china mobile office in Chengdu and got her a physical sim. The process took 1.2 hours. Busy office. Passport is required.”

  Reddit · u/Peterspace · 2026-04-14

• negative“Used Saily and Airalo in Shanghai and Xiamen and both were horrible”

  Reddit · u/ApprehensivePrice566 · 2026-07-12

• negative“Airalo eSIMs in China were very slow.”

  X · @BuySellBA · 2026-08-11

• positive“We did 4 weeks: Beijing-Datong-XiAn-Chongqing-Leishan-Guilin-Yangshuo-Shanghai. With eSim (Airalo), everything worked. WeChat and Alipay and Trip.com is all you need. All email and WhatsApp worked. AMap is best. Didi rideshare great! China easiest travel yet!”

  X · @waltertauber1 · 2026-08-10

• positive“Just back from China -roamed with my home phone#. partner used Airalo eSim,no Firewall issues -Alipay is everywhere,WeChat rare -setup foreign card on Alipay. Use 2 different cards in case 1 has issues -setup Alipay and Didi with a phone # at home. otherwise it'll ask 4 a China”

  X · @hiddenmarkov1 · 2026-07-27
• negative“Airalo is extremely spotty switches to E (Edge) all the time”

  “Okay got Alipay to work Alipay is nice because it acts as a proxy to use other apps like Didi, and Didi won't let me sign up directly, so via Alipay it auto logs you in (kinda like OAuth) Also Meituan app lets me order food from anywhere and apparently it can arrive via a delivery robot Other handy app is Baidu Translate The challenge here is that every Western app like Google Translate, ChatGPT, Google Maps, ChatGPT etc doesn't work at all or doesn't work most of the times, so you kinda have to use the Chinese apps, like DeepSeek Of all my eSIMs my Revolut Global seems to work best, it lets me SOMEHOW open most Western sites fast with no firewall, while Airalo is extremely spotty switches to E (Edge) all the time, I also tried Airalo Hong Kong thinking I could use the Great Firewall hack but that didn't work Whatever Revolut Global eSIM is doing it works amazing in China Yesterday in the subway none of our eSIMs worked though, like we had reception but both of our phones didn't get internet to work. Also nobody spoke any English (which I understand, we're in China) and nobody can read English either So essentially we were illiterate (can't read anything), with no internet, nobody to help us. We tried getting a taxi but they wouldn't take us either because we couldn't communicate Again 99.9% of Chinese don't speak a single word of English, even in 2025, which is OK, it just makes things harder Calling the hotel with my Dutch phone SIM for €5/min ended up being the solution because they could talk to the taxi drivers So yes everything kinda works now! What I see with these travel blogs btw if I write it's difficult I get a lot of replies like "lol fucking n00b!" Which is easy to say but again it's not so easy here But that's also the fun part of China, especially after COVID tourism here from the West appears to have dropped rapidly and Western-Chinese relations have deteriorated rapidly after realizing what a threat China can be in its fast technological development etc. That makes it more interesting as a traveler though because you're the only foreigner almost everywhere I will keep you blogging what I experience next”

  X · @levelsio · 2025-11-26

• positive“Get an esim from Airalo and you can access everything. Additional for Wifi Internet, book a month of Astril VPN. I'm traveling to china frequently, works brilliantly. You cannot exist in CN without a working mobile connection, don't try it.”

  X · @skinny_energy · 2025-12-21

• negative“It doesn't work well at all with Airalo”

  X · @levelsio · 2025-11-26

• question“Claude recommended services like Airalo, but I reckon, given your experience, this wouldn’t work?”

  X · @zmbnski · 2026-08-10

• positive“I used Airalo during my super short trip to China last time I was there, and it worked flawlessly. I bought the package beforehand and activated it beforehand as well. When my plane landed I immediately has full access. I believe it is routed through Singaporean servers, so that should also be fine for you I believe?”

  Reddit · u/MikeThePenguin__ · 2026-04-19

• positive“I’ve back and forth UK, HKG and mainland China using Airalo and have been for many years with no issues.”

  Reddit · u/Puslinch-Komet · 2026-03-21

• positive“I used Airalo Asia esim, Firsty and Roamless in China without any issues, but these are esim providers only”

  Reddit · u/bpbp216 · 2026-06-15

• positive“For the vast majority of them you don’t. Right now I’m using Airalo and it has worked flawlessly for me.”

  Reddit · u/Flimsy-Process230 · 2026-06-16

• question“I’ve used both Airalo and Nomad but have always installed them before getting to China, so not too sure if it’s different if you’re already there. Was considering the Trip ones this year, but might pass.”

  X · @rooneycanary · 2026-07-03

• question“Hi!! This is so urgent but I'm wondering exactly what the title says. I need to access TikTok, Instagram, Youtube/Google for work in Hong Kong and China. I'm looking to get the Asia plan from Airalo because I will be in other countries too. Does this by itself work, and if not, what VPN should i use thats affordable and sure to work?”

  Reddit · u/emilyccw · 2026-05-11

Holafly

• positive“Worked perfectly with no issues. Was able to access the usual Facebook, Instagram, Google including Gmail, etc while using Holafly.”

  Reddit · u/likwidfuzion · 2026-05-12

• positive“Great experience in China. Stability of connection was excellent.”

  Trustpilot · Violeta N · 2026-07-28

• negative“Tuve problemas en China con la velocidad así que los pagos se rechazaban por el tiempo que tomaba, y la conectividad estuvo fallando en momentos.”

  Trustpilot · Trejo · 2026-07-28

• positive“I have been using it for four trips to China in the last year and didn't have any issues and very good connection most of the time. I use it also as an hotspot for my laptop, so I use a lot of data.”

  Reddit · u/Low_Box_229 · 2026-04-16

• negative“It does work, but it's slow as hell. I recommend to use both Holafly and Chinese telecom as backup. When you use Alipay or Wechat to pay switching to Chinese telecom often more faster in processes the payment.”

  Reddit · u/phoenixdot · 2026-07-19

• positive“I've been using Holafly for the past 4 weeks and everythings works fine except for tiktok”

  Reddit · u/rosesandbutterflies_ · 2026-08-10

• positive“Using it as we speak. Very happy with it. It might take a few min to give you full speed. I'm on my second Sim and both times I've had to wait a few min for the Sim to get it's config etc.. Before it started working at max speed. A restart often fixes it”

  Reddit · u/ResponsibleMention21 · 2026-03-06

• positive“I’ve used it without issues as did others in my travel group. I had the China only eSIM, my friends had the Asia ESIM and we all had fast reliable service, even in very rural areas. I’ve used both esims for different trips without issue.”

  Reddit · u/Shon_t · 2026-03-27

• negative“I used Holafly a couple of weeks ago. It was connected to China Mobile. I had lots of slowdown and connection issues even in Beijing and Shanghai. I ended up dumping it and using AT&T.”

  Reddit · u/Shon_t · 2026-06-12

• positive“The service worked very well for the entire 10 days I spent in China. The customer service was fast and they were very helpful. I bought an e-sim for 12 days but I only stayed 10 days in China and the price for my 2 days was refunded a few days later. I will use Holafly again!”

  Trustpilot · Máté Gábor Pap · 2026-07-08

• negative“My holafly unlimited eSIM was super fast and good last year. This year it was so slow and could barely load transit directions. I switched to trip.com and it’s been very fast and good with no problems this year so far”

  Reddit · u/AccomplishedCorgi583 · 2026-07-12

• positive“For any of you who travel a lot outside of Europe I’ve been really impressed with my Holafly eSIM on my trip to China - I’ve had full 5G coverage and it has a built in VPN plus unlimited data and can hotspot laptop. So much cheaper than if I had used my Vodafone monthly contract!”

  X · @GaryNTrader · 2025-10-29

• positive“Ich war erst kürzlich sowohl in China, als auch in der Türkei: Vpn hat jeweils tadellos funktioniert (Holafly für China über Handy + Hotspot, Nordvpn Türkei). Ohne hätte ich in China tatsächlich z.B. X nicht erreichen können, auch Youtube war extrem eingeschränkt, wenn auch nicht komplett gesperrt. Machen die Ausnahmen für Ausländer?”

  X · @Chris45544 · 2026-02-25

• negative“It does work, but it's slow as hell. I recommend to use both Holafly and Chinese telecom as backup. When you use Alipay or Wechat to pay switching to Chinese telecom often more faster in processes the payment. Chinese telecom also more faster on Alipay and Wechat mini apps, where you usually use this mini app to order food at restaurants or paying for services at museums or attractions.”

  Reddit · u/phoenixdot · 2026-07-20
• negative“New eSIM still has same stuttering and it’s driving me nuts.”

  “I’m in China at the moment, halfway through my 5 week trip. I’ve used Holafly previously no issues. However this time, I’ve been having issues with social media videos stuttering or not playing at all. I’m from Australia and I can’t watch AFL highlights as the playback just stops and never restarts. Messaging apps are working fine. No difference if I turn VPN on or off. One time just as I arrived in Beijing I lost signal altogether. Couldn’t call a Didi at all. Separate story but I had to use a cab and got scammed when the driver realised I had an issue. Got online with Holafly support and tried everything, eventually they replaced the eSIM saying it’s a VPN crackdown issue and it’s getting more and more common. New eSIM still has same stuttering and it’s driving me nuts. Is it too late to just get another eSIM? I’m not a heavy social media user, I just want to be able to scroll while I’m on the train etc. Thanks everyone for your suggestions.”

  Reddit · u/One-Tomorrow8515 · 2026-05-18

Nomad

• negative“They cap the internet speed at 30 Kbps. I have spoken with their customer service for hours over the week I've had so far of the unlimited plan I bought.”

  Reddit · u/Informal-Addendum435 · 2026-08-07

• positive“15 days last month split between Guangzhou and Chengdu. Nomad eSIM worked great the entire time and never had a problem accessing local or international services.”

  Reddit · u/rextraverse · 2026-06-18

• positive“I purchased a Nomad eSIM for China which worked remarkably well. I had full fast mobile coverage everywhere I traveled within China.”

  Trustpilot · Andrew · 2026-07-25

• negative“Purchased a 7 day eSim but but by day 3, I had no service whatsoever and had to roam.”

  Trustpilot · JW · 2026-07-22

• positive“It worked perfectly since I landed in China.”

  Trustpilot · Maria jose · 2026-07-27

• positive“I spent a month last November in Shanghai, the Yangtze River Cruise, Chongqing, Chengdu, JiuZhiGou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau...... where my Nomad eSIM worked fine all during that time. I purchased it online before I left for China...... Please make sure you do otherwise you cannot activate it in China!!”

  Reddit · u/Snoo_37467 · 2026-04-27

• positive“I have decent experience with Digital Nomad. (If anyone disagrees and had a better option, please write. It would be good to know :-))”

  Reddit · u/TSeral · 2026-08-09

• negative“not affiliated, but for me silent.link esim worked good for me. It's prepaid that doesn't expire after a month. It has a build in VPN, so i didnt need another VPN in china. I arrived with both Nomad eSIM and silent.link. My intent was to mostly use Nomad Sim, because the price per GB was better, but in the end i asked for a refund and used SilentLink.”

  X · @mick__net · 2026-08-11

• positive“Oh you have to get the Nomad eSIM! It’s the only thing I use in China now after trying dozens of eSIMs. I’m able to use Google, Meta, ChatGPT and Claude without a VPN on it as well. The only thing is you won’t get a Chinese phone number with it. Happy to help verify your WeChat if needed. I toggle between WeChat Pay and AliPay depending on the establishment.”

  X · @JeannaQLiu · 2025-11-26

• negative“maybe it has to do with the fact I'm using a 9eSIM adapter? But Nomad uses China Unicom, and my other SIM which is China Unicom shows 5G. Or perhaps with roaming you can only get 4G?”

  Reddit · u/EyeTechnical7643 · 2026-06-25

• question“Hi, I wonder if there are faster eSIMs than Nomad and Trip.com? While they are decent, I could really use a faster eSIM and I am willing to pay for it. When I do speed test I get at most 27 Mbps download and 7 Mbps upload, and for some applications it struggles. I heard "real" Hong Kong eSIMs (where you need to sign up with real ID) are faster since they are "higher priority" on China's towers or something. Thanks”

  Reddit · u/EyeTechnical7643 · 2026-06-11
• question“I am only able to get 4G roaming with those.”

  “Hi, I purchased Nomad and Trip.com eSIM for China. I am only able to get 4G roaming with those. I tried two different phones. The first one is Iphone 11 which doesn't support 5G it seems, but it does support eSIM natively. The 2nd one is a local Chinese OPPO phone that doesn't support eSIM natively (so I used 9eSIM adapter). With this phone I'm able to get 5G with a local China Unicom SIM (shows 5G), but the eSIM still only gave me 4G (shows R4G). I wonder had I used a phone that supports both 5G and eSIM natively would I get 5G? (such as a newer Iphone). Please tell me if you are able to get 5G with your eSIM in China and what kind of phone you are using. Thanks”

  Reddit · u/EyeTechnical7643 · 2026-06-25

• positive“Nomad eSIM is working fine. I had to restart my phone a couple times when I landed but now it is working beautifully.”

  Reddit · u/Quick-Advertising268 · 2026-07-18

• positive“Currently in Shanghai and am using Nomad. Is working fine for WhatsApp, Gmail, news etc. make sure you install the eSIM before travel and note that you cannot top up so you need to estimate your data requirements ahead of time”

  Reddit · u/capey168 · 2025-12-30

• positive“Nomad (APAC plan) routes through HK via China Unicom, so Western apps work without VPN”

  Reddit · u/stonellc · 2026-04-10

• negative“I tested Holafly and Nomad esim unlimited, but after 2gb the sim is unusable. Garbage. Holafly refunded the price of esim but Nomad has a no refund policy.”

  Reddit · u/ReasonableRedditers · 2026-07-29

Saily

• positive“Works like a charm. Traveled through ChongQing, ZhangJiaJie and ShangHai, no problems.”

  Reddit · u/avokadasdreams · 2026-03-18

• negative“Was terrible. Trip.com was way better.”

  Reddit · u/Interesting_View_772 · 2026-07-01
• negative“the connection was extremely slow and unreliable”

  “Unfortunately, after landing in China, the connection was extremely slow and unreliable. I spent about 1.5 hours at the airport just trying to book a DiDi, but the data connection was so poor that the app barely worked. During that process, I used over 200MB of data without successfully booking a ride. In the end, I purchased a different eSIM package through Trip.com, and the connection was immediately fast and stable with no issues at all. Later at the hotel, I contacted Saily support hoping for at least a partial refund, credit, or some form of compensation. However, because I had already used too much data while struggling with the unusable connection, they refused to offer anything.”

  Reddit · u/psychopro420 · 2026-05-02

• positive“Went to Guangzhou, Ganzhou (in Jiangxi), Hangzhou, Changsha in May using a Saily e-SIM and I had no real trouble with it, I was very pleased on the whole. The signal wasn’t very good in my Changsha hotel so I had to sit near the door to use the internet but besides that it worked very well everywhere.”

  Reddit · u/Useful_Hawk_1470 · 2026-07-12

• positive“Just returned from China: Pangia Pass worked well, Saily as well (5GB daily). Trip.com offers cheaper options, also with an Endpoint outside China.”

  X · @dxbspectator · 2026-08-11

• question“I'm leaving for China in a week or so and i'll be staying there for a month. I was considering buying Saily and I was wondering if it worked well and if i needed an additional VPN to go with it. Thanks <3”

  Reddit · u/AnimeAngstEng · 2026-07-01

• question“I will activate Saily or any other eSIM bedore my flight to Beijng. Is this possible or do i have to be in China for this? And do i still need to activate something like NordVPN to access Western apps. Or is just the esim enough. And is Saily good for china?”

  Reddit · u/SjekkieTime · 2026-07-29

• question“I plan on having a multi-week China trip. Has anyone used Saily in China and can share their experience? ... Why should I choose Saily then if it costs double?”

  Reddit · u/Ok-Error7731 · 2026-06-09

• positive“When I first landed in China, I was only getting a 3G signal and started panicking a little. After restarting my phone and toggling airplane mode on and off, the issue was fixed.”

  Reddit · u/Available-Wheel9699 · 2026-01-14

CMLink

• positive“I got a CMLink esim, worked pretty well and it's cheap as dirt.”

  Reddit · u/Food-Fly · 2026-05-30

• negative“I am in China but unable to make any calls I needed to telephone someone in the United Kingdom urgently but unable to make any outgoing calls online chat support useless, also email support useless I had to buy Chinese SIM to be able to make calls back to the United Kingdom.”

  Trustpilot · Granville · 2026-03-13

• positive“I used the CM link one in Guangzhou with no issues. I didn't use a VPN”

  Reddit · u/tallpete33 · 2026-06-11

• positive“I recommend cmlink for the sim card, works well in China, allows access through the great fire wall as well so you can Facebook.”

  X · @MaccaFUNKtion · 2026-08-09
• positive“CMLink e-sim worked perfectly”

  “I traveled from Shenyang to Hong Kong and CMLink e-sim worked perfectly (almost, i had 1 hour or so cut off while in train from Fuzhou to Shanwei) last 2 trips i did - more than 6 weeks all together. i think it was around 46euros and 100Gb daily data limit. highly suggested. will pick it up again for my aprils trip. no need for VPN then - i use S24 ultra so i just took the e-sim there with my finnish normal simcard and they work perfectly together. (however no chinese phone number so i wasnt able to snatch too much of food deliveries but i had help from the locals haha)”

  Reddit · u/hulaQuez · 2026-04-06

• positive“I used trip.com as well $13 us for 24 days 1GB a day on the cmhk/cmlink (china mobile) it worked well with Surf shark VPN in Beijing Xi'an, and Chongqing. I had a few issues the hotel I was staying at in Guiyang but outside no issues. Google, YouTube, whatsapp, and Instagram worked well with it.”

  Reddit · u/Affectionate_Corgi15 · 2026-02-13

CUniq

• positive“I’ve had good success with the Cuniq sim cards in the past. Bypasses the firewall so no problem with WhatsApp etc.”

  Reddit · u/lammy82 · 2026-06-24

• positive“I've used the eSIM from this brand many times, and it works well in China. I can access Google and Facebook using their eSIM.”

  Reddit · u/EngineeringPure9468 · 2025-11-12

CTExcel

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