Tourist SIM card in China (country, people, travel, airport)

[Oistrakh12]

I'm traveling to Shanghai, China for 6 days in early January.

Does the airport sell SIM cards for a week duration? What brand do you recommend?

[GoldenTiger]

Do you want to use it for calls or just data?

China Mobile is the largest operator in China, but the LTE bands of China Unicom is more compatible with older phones that were bought outside of Asia.

If for data, I recommend getting a China roaming SIM from Hong Kong. China Mobile Hong Kong and China Unicom Hong Kong SIM cards are available for purchase in Hong Kong, and can "roam" in China for low rates with the added benefit that it bypasses the Great Firewall. Most of these don't have a mainland Chinese number anymore due to recent policy changes in China to require "real name registration" for all SIM cards.

If you don't pass by Hong Kong, you might have to register your SIM card using your passport. It used to be possible to just purchase pre-activated (using some other people's identity) from small shops, but recently, the government cut down on that. Due to all the hassles, if not using a HK SIM card, just roam from your home country's SIM. You also bypass the Great Firewall by roaming. For me, not being able to access Google, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and a lot of other apps, I almost have no use for China's Internet anymore.

[Oistrakh12]

Solely for data. I will use it with the iPhone X so idk if that makes a dofference