As I’ve covered in my China guide, when travelling to the country a big problem is to a get a suitable sim plan. The previous ultimate solution used to be Lebara, though that “loophole” has long since been abused into the ground. During my own trip back to China last month, I ended up using Trip.com’s eSIM instead, and honestly the value was pretty decent as well.
Now though, CMLink has finally stepped things up and launched two new UK–China monthly plans that actually look quite competitive. Taking the cheaper option as an example:
- £10.80 monthly fee
- 30GB of shared data usable in both the UK and China
- Additional 5GB usable within the EU
- 1,000 international call minutes per month (from the UK to China, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, USA and more)
- Pay-as-you-go
There’s also a £16.80 plan with 150GB of data for heavier users.
The main issue with CMLink previously was that only a tiny portion of the included data could actually be used in China, meaning you’d still have to buy additional roaming packages whenever going back, basically defeating the entire purpose. These new UK–China plans finally solve that problem, and the pricing seems quite reasonable too.
In theory, since CMLink is operated by China Mobile, signal quality inside China should also be fairly reliable. And of course, it bypasses the GFW so you have free access to Google and social medias etc.
Note that you are not bound by a monthly contract either. You could simply get a SIM card before your trip to China, pay for one month and then throw it away!
Recent Comments