I don't personally own a Kindle, but I do use the Amazon App Store and Kindle Book app on my Android tablet without any problems here in China.  Amazon seems to have made their software region free, with the exception I would assume video.  3G should work fine from what I have read online.

Personally, I know you are looking at its use for mainly reading, but I would strongly suggest the Kindle Fire for all the added functionality.  Sure you won't play games, but how about some great note taking software, newspapers, weather apps, music, high-res magazines, comics, Office software for writing documents or making presentations, photo viewing, messaging services, email, and much much more!  My Mom just recently wanted an e-reader, and debated between the e-ink style or a tablet like the Nook and Kindle, and chose the Fire, and she loves the thing to death, can't go anywhere without it now.

I have a Kindle 3G which works really well here. I can access the Kindle store without a problem and I even subscribe to a newspaper which gets delivered every morning. As I have a 30-45 min bus ride to and from my Chinese lessons, it has come in really handy.

This question is very old so with all the recently blocked websites etc.  Are Kindle fire hdx still fully functional?  If not what doesn't work?  I want to bring one or two back for gifts, but only if they will work correctly - thanks

I have a Kindle, and it cannot download new books from Amazon while in China.

Kindle's used to work no problem in China. Now they no longer seem to be able to download books. I use a VPN on my computer to download books manually from the Amazon website. That's the best way to get around it.

Kindle's used to work no problem in China. Now they no longer seem to be able to download books. I use a VPN on my computer to download books manually from the Amazon website. That's the best way to get around it.

try gutenberg.org for free books for Kindle

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

the titles are old and obscure, but there are plenty of books to choose from

Thanks for the heads up everyone , since I am not too tech savvy, I guess I should ask will any of the really cool features still work if I preload the books before I come? I mostly want to preload both audiobooks as well as regular E-books so my step daughter can do immersion reading to improve her speaking abilities. I also need the features such as ex-ray and translation to work. As to Sorel’s advice, it is my understanding that few of the really cool features will work on books not bought through Amazon. I also assume this means I can’t access the Amazon cloud for storage so I would need to by a 32 or 64 GB of storage. I also read you could side load a VPN into a Fire HDX, is this really an option? I would be more than a little pissed off if I spend $500.00 + on hardware and books that are not going to work any better than on a regular Kindle

Hotwater – thanks, your input will save me some money that would have been wasted on unneeded storage, I can spend the money saved on more books for my step-daughter.