China eSIM for Beijing, Shanghai, and the high-speed rail between

China runs on the phone more completely than anywhere else: payment, taxis, train tickets, restaurant menus, and the museum entry all live in apps, and several of the apps you rely on at home don't work there at all. The best eSIM for China is one added at home, on Wi-Fi, with a VPN set up beside it, so the phone connects to 5G at Beijing or Shanghai and the tools you need are ready.

Below: how a China plan works, how to set it up before you fly, what works and what doesn't on the mainland's networks, and what to expect in the cities, on the high-speed rail, and beyond.

Asian trips tend to be multi-stop, and most travel eSIMs want a fresh profile at every airport. KnowRoaming doesn't. You add the KnowRoaming eSIM, called KR.One, to your phone once, then add a plan per trip: one country for a single-city break, the Asia plan when the route runs through several, and next year's trip on the same eSIM. Nothing to scan again, nothing to delete when you get home.

The plan's days start when you turn it on and connect in China, not at checkout. Buy it weeks ahead, add it at home, and a delayed flight costs you nothing. The full rule is in what plan validity means and when it starts.

Choose a fixed plan for a set amount of data at the lowest overall price, or an unlimited plan when you'd rather not count. Unlimited plans give you 5 GB a day at full speed, then a slower speed until the allowance resets the next day. If a fixed plan runs low, top up in the app and the extra data lands on the same eSIM.

See it in two minutes: Meet KR.One, iPhone setup with KR.One, or Samsung setup with KR.One.

Do this at home on Wi-Fi. It takes about a minute.

Before you leave

1. Get the KnowRoaming app (available on iOS and Android) and choose your China plan.
2. Tap Add. First time on this phone? The app adds KR.One and your China plan together. Already have KR.One? Only the plan is added, with nothing to scan.
3. Leave data roaming off on the KnowRoaming line until you land, and turn it off on your home line too so it doesn't run up charges in the background. Steps are in turning off roaming on your home line.

When you land

1. Turn the plan on in the app, then turn data roaming on for the KnowRoaming line. That setting lives in your phone, so the app can't flip it for you.
2. Give the phone a minute to find the network. If nothing happens, turn airplane mode on for 30 seconds and off again.

Prefer a QR code? The checkout page and your confirmation email both carry one; scan it from your phone's settings. Every tap, by device, is in adding your eSIM on iPhone, adding your eSIM on Android, and adding your eSIM on Samsung, or watch the iPhone QR walkthrough or the Samsung QR walkthrough. Still no signal after landing? Work through the no-signal checklist.

Beijing Capital and Daxing, Shanghai Pudong, and Guangzhou Baiyun all have metro or express rail links into the city, and DiDi, the ride app, works with a foreign number over data. Most visitors from Europe and much of the world can now enter visa-free for short stays; check the current rule for your passport and keep the hotel booking saved offline for immigration.

Paying is the thing to set up before you fly. Alipay and WeChat Pay both accept foreign cards now, and once they're linked they pay for everything from the metro to the street food; cash is rare, and foreign cards on their own work only in hotels and big shops. Link the app at home, over Wi-Fi, so it's ready when you land.

Mainland China blocks a range of foreign sites and apps at the network level, including Google, Gmail, Google Maps, WhatsApp, Instagram, and most Western news sites, regardless of which carrier or plan you use. A data plan can't work around it; a VPN set up before you fly can. Hong Kong and Macao are not affected. Apple Maps and Baidu Maps work for navigation; WeChat is how China messages. Read do I need a new plan for every country? if the trip continues to Hong Kong, which is a separate KnowRoaming destination.

Beijing to Shanghai is four and a half hours by high-speed train, Shanghai to Hangzhou under an hour, Guangzhou to Hong Kong under an hour on the through train. Tickets are sold on the national 12306 app and through international booking sites, with your passport as the ticket at the gate. The trains have 5G for most of the route; the tunnels through the mountains west of Xi'an and Chengdu drop out.

Beyond the rail network, domestic flights cover the west and south-west: Chengdu for the pandas, Guilin and Yangshuo for the karst, Zhangjiajie, and Lhasa, which needs a separate permit arranged through an agency.

Hong Kong and Macao are separate KnowRoaming destinations with their own plans and their own, unrestricted, networks; a China plan stops at the border. All three, and 25 more countries, are on the Asia plan, which switches networks by itself as you cross and is the better buy for a trip that takes in Hong Kong, Japan, or Southeast Asia as well. China is also on the Global plan.

The first week of October and the Spring Festival, in late January or February, are the two national holidays when a billion people travel: trains sell out weeks ahead, hotels fill, and the sights are at their busiest. Avoid them if you can; if you can't, book everything before you fly. Summer is hot and humid across the east; spring and autumn are the seasons Beijing and Shanghai are made for.

Your plan connects to China Unicom, with 5G in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and every provincial capital and 4G LTE along the high-speed lines and across the towns. Your phone picks the network automatically once the plan is on; there is nothing to choose by hand.

In the mountains of the south-west, on the Tibetan plateau, and in the far west, expect gaps on any network. Save what you need in the cities.

Most phones sold since 2019 support eSIM, including iPhone XS and later and most Android flagships from the same window. Check yours before you add a plan; it takes a few seconds. On iPhone, go to Settings, General, About and look for an EID or Available SIM. On Android, go to Settings, Network & Internet, SIMs and look for an option to add an eSIM. On Samsung, dial *#06# and look for an EID.

Your phone also needs to be carrier-unlocked. If you're not sure, carrier-locked vs unlocked: how to tell shows you where to look.

Adding a China plan doesn't touch your regular SIM. Calls and texts on your usual number keep working exactly as before. The new plan handles data while you're there, and most phones run both at once without you doing anything else. Bank codes and two-factor texts still arrive on your home number, as long as that line stays switched on.

For Asia the alternatives are a home-carrier roaming pass that resets at every border, an airport SIM counter at each arrival, or hotel Wi-Fi that stops at the lobby. A China plan added at home beats all three: one price agreed before you fly, live the second you land, and one plan across every stop on the route.

Real travelers rate KnowRoaming 4.5 out of 5 on Reviews.io. More than a decade in travel connectivity, more than 200 destinations, and support that doesn't clock off: WhatsApp and live chat, any time, any day.

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