How to buy a SIM card in China (what to say)

No Chinese phone number = no WeChat Pay, no Didi, no delivery. This is day-one survival. Bring your passport to any China Mobile/Unicom/Telecom shop.

What you'll say

Tap play to hear it. Everything on this page runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

Heads-up: the voice you hear here is your browser’s built-in Mandarin — the app sounds considerably better. On iPhone it uses Apple’s enhanced and premium system voices, plays at real conversational speed, and has a slow mode for practising.

This device has no Chinese voice installed, so audio can’t play here. The app doesn’t have that problem — it uses the Mandarin voices built into iOS.

我要办一张电话卡。

Wǒ yào bàn yì zhāng diànhuàkǎ.

I'd like to get a SIM card.

办 (bàn) = 'to process/set up' — the verb for all Chinese bureaucracy.

有什么流量套餐？

Yǒu shénme liúliàng tàocān?

What data plans are there?

流量 (liúliàng) = mobile data. 套餐 (tàocān) = package/plan (also means set meal!).

一个月多少钱？

Yí ge yuè duōshao qián?

How much per month?

1 more phrase in this situation — plus the real-speed audio for all 4, the listening drill, and the camera. Six situations are free in the app; this one is part of Pro.

Get Tingbudong

What they'll say back

This is the part nobody teaches. Real Mandarin comes back fast and blunt, so hear it at natural speed first.

Press play before you read. In the app, anything you miss comes back slower and then again later, until you catch it at full speed.

They say

请出示一下护照。

Qǐng chūshì yíxià hùzhào.

Please show your passport.

You can answer

好的，给你。

Hǎo de, gěi nǐ.

Sure, here you go.

They say

这个套餐一个月三十九，二十G流量。

Zhège tàocān yí ge yuè sānshíjiǔ, èrshí G liúliàng.

This plan is 39 a month, with 20GB of data.

You can answer

好，就要这个。

Hǎo, jiù yào zhège.

OK, I'll take this one.

Other situations in Admin & banking

Opening a bank account Police registration (24-hour rule)