Connectivity
Connectivity
Sort this out before you land, not after. Once you're in China, you can't download a VPN, the apps and provider websites are both blocked, so anything you haven't installed already stays out of reach.
What you've heard about Chinese internet is true, it operates behind a system people call the Great Firewall. They’re on a different set of platforms, WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, rather than the ones you're used to.
What it does mean is that some of the most popular foreign services, Google, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Discord, and more, aren't accessible without extra setup.
VPN
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Only matters if you're relying on a local SIM or hotel WiFi instead of a roaming eSIM. Crackdowns have been frequent recently, and which providers survive changes often, sometimes within weeks.
eSIM
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Connects to a Chinese tower for signal, but routes your actual data out through a foreign gateway, often Hong Kong or Japan, before it touches the internet. Because that traffic never passes through China's inspection points, Google, WhatsApp, Instagram and Gmail work with no VPN needed.
SIM
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Solves a different problem than the eSIM: it gives you an actual Chinese phone number. That's what unlocks food delivery apps and some restaurants' QR ordering systems that require a Chinese number before they'll show a menu. Foreign apps still need the VPN above, a SIM doesn't replace that.
Roaming
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Your home carrier's own international plan, without an eSIM. Consistently the most expensive way to get online in China, and gives you none of the Firewall-bypass benefit a roaming eSIM already offers for less.
TikTok
The one exception
Expect this one to not work at all. TikTok checks more than your IP, GPS signals, your SIM's mobile country code, and device settings can all flag mainland China even through a working eSIM that's unblocking everything else fine.
Turning off location access helps, but doesn't guarantee anything. A laptop on WiFi may have slightly better odds, since it's missing some of the signals a phone gives away, but don't count on it. If TikTok matters to your trip, plan around not having it.