Search for how to get connected in China and you’ll expect a rundown of SIM cards, data plans, or eSIMs. The State Council’s own guide doesn’t cover any of that. It’s older and narrower, written around making phone calls rather than getting a smartphone online. We’re reporting what it actually says, and being upfront about the gap, rather than filling it in with what seems likely to be true.
Making calls from where you’re staying
If you’re in a hotel, this is handled for you:
“Tourists can make domestic long distance calls or international calls from their hotel room and the call charge will be added into the hotel expense.”
No separate phone card or counter visit required. It goes on your bill.
Away from the hotel, the guide points to two other options: “Domestic long distance calls and international calls can be made from post offices and public phone booths near the scenic spots, shops and entertainment venues.”
The dialing codes themselves
For a domestic long-distance call, the rule is simple: “you shall first dial the area code, then the local number.”
For an international call placed from inside China, there’s an extra prefix: “you shall first dial ‘00’ (international prefix number), then the country code and the area code and finally the local number.”
Phone cards, if you need one
The guide names three places to find them: “Phone cards are available in post offices inside hotels or in the streets. Even more conveniently, most news stands in major cities also carry phone cards.”
Calling China from somewhere else
This direction gets its own two rules, split by line type. For a landline: “you must first dial the international prefix number, for example in the United States you dial 011, then dial 86 the country code for China, then the area code and local number.” For a mobile number, there’s no area code to add: “you first need dial the international prefix number, and then dial 86, then the mobile number.”
Buying a SIM or eSIM isn’t covered here
Nothing here addresses buying a Chinese SIM card, a data-only eSIM, prepaid mobile plans, or what a foreign visitor needs, a passport in most countries, to register a mobile line. If mobile data is what you actually need, this guide can’t answer that question, and neither will we by guessing. Resolve it separately, through your own carrier’s international roaming plan or once you’re at the airport, rather than assuming any of the above extends to a SIM card. That’s also the whole of what this particular source addresses, which is why this page is shorter than most others on this site.