Having a local mobile phone number in China can prove very convenient. To communicate with your Chinese friends or any other friend in china is actually very simple when you have local SIM card. If you are stuck in traffic you can call and tell someone you are late. If you have a taxi driver who doesn't understand you, you can put him on the phone with a Chinese friend, a teacher or the school administration office. People can also reach you from overseas and in a pinch you can use the phone to ring overseas (long distance calling cards are the cheap way to call overseas) .depending on your needs and the company you use, you will have many choices to get a local SIM card. This article presents the different SIM cards you can use during your stay in our school, and in China.

China Mobile and China Unicom

You should consider what company you use - there are many of them. But the most popular ones are China Mobile and China Unicom. China mobile is the largest carrier in China with the widest network coverage. And the company has   got much   more users since the introduction the “feixin”   service/software which is used for free and mass massaging. China Unicom is well known for its 3G network supply, and it’s the second Chinese carrier. China mobile call rates

The charge of your call varies, based on the different SIM cards and the region you call from.  Basically, the local call is about 0.2 CNY per minute.

Although the call fees are quite similar, each different package provides its own services. The package is determined at the time you purchase your SIM card. Each package has its own name, for China Mobile there are 3 main packages: GoTone (QuanQiuTong), Mzone (DongGanDiDai), and Easy Own (ShenZhouXing); China Unicom provides 3G, and New Power (XinShiLi).

Here is basic info for these packages:
1. CHINA MOBILE
1.1. GoTone (QuanQiuTong):
1.1.1. Internet Package:

Monthly Basic Rate (RMB)	Calling time (mins)	Available	Data	Rate (RMB/Min)
58	50	China Mainland	200M	0.25
88	200		300M	0.19
128	420		400M

1.1.2. Local calling Package:

Monthly Basic Rate (RMB)	Calling time (mins)	Available	Data	Rate (RMB/Min)	Rate (Travel)(RMB/Min)
58	260	China Mainland	30M	0.25	0.29
88	480			0.19

1.1.3. Mzone (DongGanDiDai):
1.1.3.1. Mzone Package:

Sub Package	Monthly Basic Rate (RMB)	Basic Rate Covered Services		How to register
		Message	Calling
10RMB messaging Package	10	160 messages	——	“Mzone10D” to 10086
20RMB messaging Package	20	360 messages	——	“Mzone20D” to 10086
10RMB calling Package	10	60 messages	20 mins	“Mzone10L” to 10086
10RMB calling Package	20	220 messages	20 mins	“Mzone20L” to 10086

1.1.3.2. Mzone Music Package:

Sub Package	Monthly Basic Rate (RMB)	Basic Rate Covered Services	Calling rate
26RMB Music Package	26	160 messages	Local rate：0.13 rmb/min Travel rate：0.6 rmb/min
36RMB Music Package	36	360 messages
46RMB Music Package	46	650 messages
56RMB Music Package	56	950 messages

1.1.3.3. The New Mzone Chatting Package:

Monthly Basic Rate(RMB)	Calling rate	Basic Rate Covered Services
26RMB	Local rate：0.1 rmb/min Travel rate：0.6 rmb/min	-160 messages -50MB Data -3 hours of WLAN

1.1.4. Easy Own (ShenZhouXing):
1.1.4.1. Homeland Package (JiaYuan):

Sub package	Monthly Basic Rate	Calling rate	Limitation
16RMB Package	16 RMB	Local rate：0.1 1rmb/min Travel rate：0.16 rmb/min	Cover only Minhang, SongJiang, Baoshan,Qingpu, Fengxian,Jiading, Jinshan,and Chongming

1.1.4.2. Easy Own Package (ChangTing):

Sub package	Monthly Basic Rate	Calling rate
16RMB Package	16 RMB	0.13RMB/min
Music Package	16 RMB	0.2 RMB for 1st min Free for 2nd min 0.1 RMB for 3th min on
Internet Package	18 RMB
Long distance calling Package	18 RMB

2. CHINA UNICOM
2.1. 3G Package:

Monthly Basic Rate (RMB)	Basic Rate Covered Services				Other
	Calling time (mins)	Data	Messages	Free receiving calls	Calling rate (rmb/min)	Data (rmb/KB)	Video call rate (rmb/min)	other
46	50	150MB	0		0.25	0.0003	0.60
66	50	300MB	240		0.20
96	240	300MB	0		0.15
126	320	400MB
156	420	500MB
186	510	650MB
226	700	750MB
286	900	950MB
386	1250	1.3GB
586	1950	2GB
886	3000	3GB

2.2. New Power Package (XinShiLi):

Monthly Basic Rate (RMB)	Basic Rate Covered Services	Calling rate (rmb/min)	Travel rate (rmb/min)
10	200 messages	0.18	0.60

Call overseas from china
When you get your local SIM card, you need to subscribe first from your network  provider before you can call back home directly from your new SIM card. But this way turns to be very expensive.  The cheapest way to call back home is to use an IP card and a landline. You can also use your IP card on your mobile with any local SIM card. An IP card costs about 20 to 25 CNY according to the shortage in the place you buy it, and every IP card has a credit of 100 CNY. Currently, the IP phone service has covered the whole country, providing international service between China and over 200 countries and regions. There will be instructions on each IP card to tell you how to make a call. You can also use IC card to make long distance calls.It works almost like IP cards but the rate for calls are usually much higher.

Some useful numbers for Emergencies in China mainland :
? 110 Police
? 119  Fire
? 120  Ambulance
? 122 Traffic Police
The information above is for reference only.