By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Passport to buy sim card?
My sim card recently broke and I went to buy another one from a random street stall and they said they needed my passport number... is this true. My visa is being processed right now, I won't get it back for another couple of weeks...
I bought mine at the airport and gave my phone number then.
I've heard of the passport thing but I thought that just if you bought it at a China mobile or China Unicom office, I didn't think the people on the street worried about it.
I had to show mine when I got international calling access and internet access on my phone. Easier thing would have been to have my wife do this.
It's been the case for a couple of years now. They want real name links to SIM cards/phone numbers.
As said above it's been the case for a few years, however it has become more strictly enforced as part of the anti-terrorism campaign since the successive bomb attacks last year.
Until then if you showed up at the Unicom/Mobile office without your passport/ID they only entered a fake name with a fake ID/passport number to get a sale, now the authorities are more serious about it so the sales agents at the operators offices might not accept to sell you a sim card without your passport (ID card if Chinese).
I understand the purpose of it for the authorities, monitoring calls and arresting the phone owner before he/she does bomb a train station or else, but I don't understand why a random street seller would ask for your passport/ID card, they already bought the sim card from the operator and it should be registered under their own ID card, except if they have a deal with some relative agent there but that would be illegal or whatever this is China I am trying to understand what can't be understood.
I think you could use your other ID. The one that says you live where you live. It has your passport number on it. Failing that, confirmation from you employer could help.
No phone for weeks will be a real challenge. Good luck.
Buy one at the news paper stand.
Hotwater:
Isn't that what a random street stall is? OP has already tried that.....
Try another street stall perhaps? I have a friend in Qingdao who bought one from a guy on the street and didn't need his passport at all
My friend is buying me one today, I'll just switch numbers... thanks for the advice!
Because the ideal of the Chinese Dream is that no one should be able to go anywhere and communicate with anyone unrecorded and un-ID-ed.
Burner phones are a big problem to that, therefore, action-reaction: anyone buying a SIM card has to leave some ID. Even random stalls on the street, because, at least in some provinces, they now have to activate the thing at the operator's central before handing out the chip, either through a computer or with a phone call.
If you're still puzzled, think of it from the other end: what form of electronic communication can you still freely use without being identifiable one way or another. The answer is none, at least for the majority.
By the way, anyone notice how certain police cars got enhanced with a good load of electronics on the roofs in some places? Guess what that is. Guess what piece of electronic most people carry everywhere everyday that emits signals and can help distinguish one particular individual from a huge mass?
