The number comes first,
everything else follows.

Last verified: 23 August 2026

Of all the small administrative jobs waiting for you in your first week, this is the one that unlocks the others. A mainland mobile number is not a convenience in China — it is the identity layer. Your bank verifies against it, WeChat and Alipay bind to it, the courier calls it when he cannot find your gate, and hospital registration will not proceed without it. Do this before the bank, before the apartment paperwork, before anything else you were told to prioritise.

Why the number is the master key

Elsewhere a phone number is a way to be reached. Here it is closer to a national login. Almost every consumer service authenticates with an SMS code to a mainland number, and many will not accept a foreign one — the field validates the +86 format and stops there.

The consequence is a chain of dependencies. Without a mainland number you cannot reliably finish bank onboarding, and without a bank card several payment and delivery flows stay half-done. Get the SIM first and the rest unfolds in the right order — WeChat and Alipay, then the bank account, then the apartment.

The three carriers, and how they actually differ

There are three: China Mobile (中国移动), China Unicom (中国联通) and China Telecom (中国电信). Coverage across Shenzhen is good on all three, including underground on the metro. The differences that matter to a newcomer are administrative rather than technical.

• China Mobile — the largest, with the densest shop network and the best odds of a branch near home. Staff at smaller outlets are less used to foreign passports, so go to a flagship.
• China Unicom — in my experience the most used to foreign customers, partly because it has sold Hong Kong–mainland products for years. Its low-monthly-minimum plans suit people who live mostly on Wi-Fi.
• China Telecom — strong on home broadband, and often the provider a compound is physically wired for. If you already know your building, that may decide it.

With no strong preference, go to a Unicom or Mobile flagship and do not agonise. The plan is far easier to change later than the number.

Real-name registration, and the shop you choose

Every SIM in China is registered to an identity document — real-name registration (实名制). For a foreigner that means your original passport with a valid visa or residence permit inside it. A photocopy or a photo on your phone will not do.

• Original passport with valid visa or residence permit.
• Your Shenzhen address, ideally in Chinese — screenshot it from the lease.
• A payment method. WeChat Pay or Alipay on an international card usually works; flagship shops take cash.
• Your temporary residence registration slip if you have it. Not always requested, occasionally decisive.

The shop matters more than the carrier. A flagship branch (营业厅) — the large official outlets in malls and on main commercial streets — has the software, the training and the authority to process a foreign passport. The small counters selling handsets and top-ups (代理点) often cannot, and you find out after twenty minutes of hopeful pointing.

Budget twenty to forty minutes. You will do a facial capture, sign a Chinese-language contract, and leave with a working SIM. Ask the assistant to write down the monthly fee, what it includes and how to cancel, and to add your number to the carrier's app before you go.

Airport or city?

Bao'an airport normally has carrier counters in the arrivals area, and buying there is the fastest route to a working number — worth it for data in the taxi queue alone. Staffing and hours vary with the terminal and your arrival time, so do not count on it if you land late. The trade-off is choice: airport packages tend to be pricier per month than what you would sign in the city. Take one only if you need connectivity immediately; otherwise wait a day and use a flagship shop in Futian or Nanshan, both an easy metro ride away.

What a plan costs

Treat every number here as an estimate — carriers reprice constantly and promotions vary by month and by shop.

The structure most newcomers find sensible is a low monthly minimum with usage-based data on top. The China Unicom plan documented below is a fair reference point, taken from a plan sheet dated mid-2026: a monthly minimum of around ¥39, domestic calls at roughly ¥0.10 a minute, and data on a sliding scale — approximately ¥1.50/GB for the first 20GB, falling to around ¥1.00/GB above 50GB. That was one shop's offer on one date, not a standing rate card. If you use data mainly for maps, messaging and payments, expect ¥50–100 a month; fixed unlimited-style bundles generally sit in the ¥100–200 range. Long contracts buy a lower headline price, but if there is any chance you leave China within the year, avoid them.

On eSIM

Do not plan around it. Mainland support for consumer eSIM has been limited and inconsistent, and a foreign handset may not be provisioned even where a carrier nominally offers it. Assume you need a physical SIM slot. If your phone is eSIM-only, ask at a flagship before committing — a cheap dual-SIM Android from Huaqiangbei solves it permanently.

Two numbers worth keeping

Your home bank will keep sending one-time passcodes to the number you had before you moved, and losing that line while abroad takes weeks to unwind. Put it on the cheapest keep-alive tariff your carrier offers, and check what it needs to stay active — many require a paid action every few months rather than mere existence. Where your bank supports an authenticator app instead of SMS, switch now, while you can still receive the setup code.

Separately, anyone crossing into Hong Kong more than occasionally should look at a combined Hong Kong–mainland plan rather than roaming: one account, one bill, working on both sides without thought. Shared multi-line versions can bring the effective cost to somewhere around ¥100–400 per line per month, depending on how many numbers share the account and how much extra data you add. Coverage, routing and fair-use limits differ meaningfully between these products, so read the terms and confirm the current ones with the provider before you sign anything. Plan around the crossings that are actually open, too — the rebuilt Huanggang port has not opened, and no opening date has been announced.

Home broadband

Broadband here is fast and cheap by international standards, and almost always cheapest bundled with your mobile plan. Ask at the same counter where you buy the SIM.

• Find out what your building is wired for. Many compounds have an agreement with a single provider and the others simply cannot install. Ask the property management office (物业) before you sign anything.
• Check with the landlord. Some flats include an active line in the rent; some have a dormant one that only needs reactivating, which is cheaper and faster than a fresh install.
• Book the installation. By appointment, normally within a few days, though slots thin out at the end of a month. Someone must be home to let the engineer in.
• Bring the paperwork. Passport, address, often the tenancy contract — the account is registered to a real name here too.

Expect a bundle to add something modest rather than doubling the bill — often ¥50–150 a month depending on speed and contract length, with the router sometimes extra. Ask the installer to test the speed before he leaves, and to write the Wi-Fi password down.

Check what your work depends on

Some overseas services are not reachable directly from a mainland connection, and this catches people out when a tool their job depends on turns out to be one of them. I am not going to tell you how to get around that, and you should be sceptical of any guide that does — what is and is not accessible is set by regulation, not by your carrier, and it is not something a shop assistant can change for you.

What helps is preparation. Before you fly, list the services your work genuinely cannot function without and check each one against what is available here. Then take it to your employer rather than trying to solve it privately: companies operating in China normally have an established, sanctioned answer for staff who need overseas tools, and more often than not it is already handled and nobody thought to mention it. If your work depends on something your employer cannot support here, you want to know that before you sign a lease, not after.

Confirm before you commit

Carrier pricing, eligibility rules for foreign passport holders, and what documents a branch accepts all change without much notice. The above is the pattern I see repeatedly, not a guarantee. Check current terms in the shop or on the service line before you sign — 10010 Unicom, 10086 Mobile, 10000 Telecom.