eSIM configurations traveling in China

2025-07-31

Typical eSIM configurations for traveling in China

	Home eSIM	Data eSIM	China SIM (for SMS)
At home	ON	OFF	OFF
China	OFF	ON	ON
China hotel (WiFi)	ON (for a few minutes)	OFF	ON

Turning on Home eSIM in hotel is to retrieve SMS messages sent to your home mobile phone during day time.
Use fongo/Viber to check voice mail (procedure varies from carrier to carrier).

Note: hotel WiFi traffic must go through the Great Firewall, Gmail, WhatsApp, Facebook etc will not be accessible.

Let your correspondence know of your fongo/Viber number so that they can contact you when you are out and about, better yet, encourage them to upgrade to WhatsApp.