China - never a dull moment!

[Cruiser Elite]

Actually I had a friend visiting me in China recently and they also had unrestricted access when roaming. They were roaming on China Mobile using a Taiwanese SIM (arranged through Far-east Tone in Taiwan). Facebook, instagram, google etc all no problem on 3G/4G here in Guangzhou. I was not aware that this was possible but maybe there is some kind of agreement in place with certain overseas carriers to provide unrestricted internet when roaming in China.

Take a screen shot and post it so we can identify the carrier pls.



See carrier top top left of screen shot?

 

[Mogul]

Actually I had a friend visiting me in China recently and they also had unrestricted access when roaming. They were roaming on China Mobile using a Taiwanese SIM (arranged through Far-east Tone in Taiwan). Facebook, instagram, google etc all no problem on 3G/4G here in Guangzhou. I was not aware that this was possible but maybe there is some kind of agreement in place with certain overseas carriers to provide unrestricted internet when roaming in China.

Watch out you will be told it can't happen because someone else on the net said it can't happen.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Watch out you will be told it can't happen because someone else on the net said it can't happen.

No you won't - what you will hear is me saying I was WRONG and you may have been CORRECT Mogul.

Checked again with FT China group tonight - apparently some inter SIMS roaming on Chinese networks are indeed getting around gfw of China. SingTel do - looks like all US and Candian SIMs don't - the Australian members of the group now saying its first time they have heard Australian SIMs also working - they were all very intrigued that Taiwan SIM did.

My Vodafone definitely doesn't - that prolly because of the Rec Roam agreement bw VF and CU.

 

[Mogul]

Were you using a VPN? 3 carriers in China - China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom - Facebook blocked on all carriers - List of blocked sites in China

No you won't - what you will hear is me saying I was WRONG and you may have been CORRECT Mogul.

Checked again with FT China group tonight - apparently some inter SIMS roaming on Chinese networks are indeed getting around gfw of China. SingTel do - looks like all US and Candian SIMs don't - the Australian members of the group now saying its first time they have heard Australian SIMs also working - they were all very intrigued that Taiwan SIM did.

My Vodafone definitely doesn't - that prolly because of the Rec Roam agreement bw VF and CU.

After talking to our Telstra rep last week he believes it has something to do with the encryption that Telstra use on the 4g network.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Yes sounds like something like that - too complicated for me - but it has to be something complicated like that because no matter what country your SIM originates from it must roam on 1 of the 3 Chinese networks when you enter China - and that list of sites is blocked on all 3 - yet apparently some international SIM are getting around it.

Allegedly Singapore SIMs have always worked - but my SingTel SIM I had before the VF/CU Red Roam agreement never did - anyways apologies to Mogul and Trent for doubting their reports.

 

[seanpodge]

My local China Unicom SIM is back to blocking gmail.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

My local China Unicom SIM is back to blocking gmail.

PITA isn't it - I was in PEK for 2nts last week staying at Renaissance - sending through gmail took forever / received perfectly. Then 1nt in IC in NKG and 2nts in Le Meridien in PVG - gmail worked perfectly both ptoperties - go figure.

 

[Foreigner]

Looking to book 3 nights in Beijing 25-27 dec inc.

Wonder if Xmas time it will be busy in city centre areas.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

No it won't be - got a hotel in mind? Check here - Renaissance - can get you a great deal.

 

[Foreigner]

No it won't be - got a hotel in mind? Check here - Renaissance - can get you a great deal.

Thank you. Thinking of the Sofitel or one of the Novotels.

 

[moa999]

Thought roaming phones not hitting the great wall was pretty common.

As was western hotels, and from what I understood some of the expat focussed residential buildings

 

[clazman]

We spoke to our ISP in China and told them we were a Aussie company and all of a sudden the filtering disappeared

 

[Cruiser Elite]

So how did your trip go clazman?

 

[clazman]

Throughly enjoyed the place, amazing people and different to what we are taught by western society.

Wouldn't think twice about going back, just need to learn some of the language

What blew me away was the scale of everything, how hard they work and attitude to helping

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Just amazing the number of foreigners leaving China - Beijing in particular. Companies world wide are closing offices / downsizing at a serious rate - new Admin are making it so difficult for foreigners in terms of residency rqts - just simple stupid stuff like certifying / ratifying residential addresses / status etc - a couple guys I know in Beijing spent a week trying to prove to local authorities that they actually live in the apartments they have lived for 10yrs - I don't know the full story but nothing illegal just too burdensome for them to tolerate - one is heading back to Germsny voluntarily - says it's just got all too hard.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

A pet peeve of most frequent flyers is non frequent flyers totally blocking access to luggage belts by pushing trolleys right to edge of carousel and just parking there and completely ignoring the clearly delineated yellow lines which Blind Freddy could not miss.

PEK authorities have certainly come up with a novel method of combating this ever present problem:



And:



And:



That should do the trick huh?

 

[hummel]

A pet peeve of most frequent flyers is non frequent flyers totally blocking access to luggage belts by pushing trolleys right to edge of carousel and just parking there and completely ignoring the clearly delineated yellow lines which Blind Freddy could not miss.

PEK authorities have certainly come up with a novel method of combating this ever present problem:

View attachment 59410

And:

View attachment 59411

And:

View attachment 59412

That should do the trick huh?

Don't worry they'll still go past! I haven't been to China since March.. sort of missing it actually. We got rid of apartment in Foshan and now concentrating on Philippines/Vietnam as we just got tired of China and the 'it's not my fault' attitude.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

we just got tired of China and the 'it's not my fault' attitude.

it drives me mad - nobody - and I mean NOBODY will accept responsibility for the never ceasing stuff ups - the standard answer is 'Next time we pay more attention'!

 

[Steady]

Sorry if this has already been covered but is AFF blocked in China?

 

[hummel]

it drives me mad - nobody - and I mean NOBODY will accept responsibility for the never ceasing stuff ups - the standard answer is 'Next time we pay more attention'!

I'm sort of glad someone who has been doing the importing game for 15years (i remember you writing this somewhere here) still experiences this and it's not just us. Compare to the Philippines where I had a container leave yesterday and had 3-hourly updates on production the week leading up to with photos, documentation etc Made it seem like we can do it with our eyes closed.