Nomad eSIM
Saily
Airalo
HolaflyAiralo
42 records · 23 positive · 13 negative · 5 questions
Main complaint: slow or throttled (6)
In their words
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__ · 2026-04-19negative“I have a different take than most. I was throttled constantly with airalo (I did not buy an unlimited plan, therefore I should not be throttled) in China. When I left Chongqing and arrived in Beijing, not only was I throttled, but my connection dropped constantly as well. (My friend also had airalo and had the same issues on a different phone). Once I arrived in japan, all of these issues subsided.”
Reddit · u/flyingdonutz · 2026-05-14
More Airalo quotes (22)
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 · 2026-07-01negative“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 · 2026-05-17negative“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 · 2026-06-27positive“I just had zero issues with Airalo.”
Reddit · u/Odd-Boysenberry-2260 · 2026-08-10positive“I'm currently in China right now, Airalo works really well.”
Reddit · u/Inhesion · 2026-04-27negative“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 · 2026-04-14negative“Used Saily and Airalo in Shanghai and Xiamen and both were horrible”
Reddit · u/ApprehensivePrice566 · 2026-07-12negative“Airalo eSIMs in China were very slow.”
X · @BuySellBA · 2026-08-11positive“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 · 2026-08-10positive“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- X · @levelsio · 2025-11-26
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”
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 · 2025-12-21question“Claude recommended services like Airalo, but I reckon, given your experience, this wouldn’t work?”
X · @zmbnski · 2026-08-10positive“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 · 2026-03-21question“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 · 2026-07-03question“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 · 2026-05-11positive“I have used Airalo Asia esim on 4 occasions in China in the past year and Firsty once and both worked just fine”
Reddit · u/bpbp216 · 2026-08-28question“Does using an eSIM from Trip.com or Airalo give me 100% certainty that I can bypass the Great Firewall? In other words, will WhatsApp (and potentially other blocked services) definitely work through the eSIM without needing a separate VPN?”
Reddit · u/Discipline_Haunting · 2026-08-27negative“I bought Airalo for mainland China, 50gb for 30 days and using local apps like Didi and Amaps is hot garbage. Every query takes at least 30 seconds and pages often timeout.”
Reddit · u/luchen98 · 2026-09-07positive“Get an ESim before you depart, I personally used Airalo and went for the unlimited option. You can access any app in China without any issues. Remember that you need Alipay or WeChat to pay for EVERYTHING.”
X · @Lypnotique · 2026-09-02positive“NordVPN failed for me, so I refunded it. Airalo eSIM via Singapore ran WhatsApp, FaceTime, ChatGPT, Claude, YouTube and X. Still use hotel WiFi for Chinese apps/downloads. Remember: Hotel WiFi = usually behind the firewall International travel eSIM = Western apps still work”
X · @tilmannschatz · 2026-09-02positive“Also internet can be challenging, I got an eSIM from Airalo for Asia and it worked to go outside the firewall”
X · @levelsio · 2026-08-13