How do people in China use the phone to communicate?

[timeruler]

Hi, people in different countries use the phones differently. In Korea and Japan, most people prefer to use sms and email (which is associated with the phone) respectively due to the expensive bills. In Hong Kong, people love to talk on the phone. In North America, I don't see people talking on the phone as long and as often than those living in HK. How about China? Do people, especially those aged between 15-30, usually talk on the phone or send sms/email messages to their peer? I am trying to decide if getting a pre-paid SIM card is a better option for me than signing up for a plan in China. I plan to stay there for a few years but I am not a phone person myself.

[WestTexas]

In my experience what we would call 'pre-paid' simcards are much more common in China than they are in the US (where it seems they are mostly used by drug dealers). You can get a pre-paid card for 50 RMB that will let you send text messages and call people in your area (not long-distance) for a few months, or that's how long it is for me. As I said, this is very common, and it's easy to add more money as well. You don't need to change your number. Most foreigners I know have this rather than a monthly plan, and many Chinese do as well. I think if you are 'not a phone person', as you say (I'm not either), you will definitely save money by going with a pre-paid card. I will say that if you are calling people in other cities it will drain the money extremely fast (all 50 RMB gone in one or two long phone calls), but hey, that's what Skype and QQ are for.

[timeruler]

Thanks.

>"pre-paid card for 50 RMB that will let you send text messages and call people in your area"

Can I use the pre-paid card to surf the internet and access websites?

With it, can I use my smart phone as a mobile router to give internet access to my computer?

Do you mean that even within China, calling people in different cities is considered as long distance?

So, in China, there is no problem in using Skype?

If people in China use the phone to talk often, even I am not a phone person, I may have to do the same. That is why I asked.

I am now in Hong Kong but I travel often. So, the recommended path is to get a smart phone in Hong Kong (currently don't own one).

Then, get the pre-paid sim card for voice and data access. Am I right?

[Sam Reeves]

There's not much in the way of cell phone contracts in the mainland.... or perhaps I should say there's not much point. Some tariffs offer a monthly plan but as Westtexas said, you might as well go for the 50 quai card you can buy off the street. I would advise you to actually go and register it properly with China mobile or China unicom after however, this is simply because if you don't, and you lose your cell phone you can never get the number back. It's happened once to me and I learned my lesson.

If you register it (doesn't cost much if anything as far a I remember) you can get a list of the last numbers you dialed/messaged. It really makes life easier when you lose your phone.

In answer to the other part of your question, I'd have to say they love sending SMS, but can also talk for hours on the phone (boyfriends and girlfriends). I can't do that much in the way of on-the-phone communication so I stick to short phone calls and SMS's.

@Westtexas: For calling to another city just put this series of numbers in front of the cell phone number: 12593 so it will look like this 12593150221***** It'll save you a packet. Mind you, it's still not cheap, just 'cheaper' than without. Works cheaper to a landline though.

[timeruler]

Thanks for the info. Is the 50 quai card only for voice or voice+data (such as web browsing)?

[Sam Reeves]

The fifty quai card can be used for both, you're paying 50 for the card and number and it already has 50 quai for use on it. But to charge it up again you'll need to add the money at a small shop that has the facility, network center or online (which requires a whole other complicated set of tasks).

You can use it for data, but the charge is pretty high. If you are going to use it frequently for internet usage, then you would be better off with a fixed monthly plan from China mobile rather than a fifty quai card. If you use an iphone then China Unicom was given that to play with (by the government), so you'd go with them for that 4G tech (fast as far as I've heard). The rates are cheaper by far with a contract. I don't use one myself so I can't give you figures on the numbers. Sorry about that.

[icebear]

With the prepaid cards you can still access data, but it is very expensive - you may drain the whole card in one or two webpages.

What is common is to use a prepaid card which has "options/upgrades". These are activated by sending certain codes via SMS and will give you pieces of what you would consider a monthly plan back in the West. For example, 10 RMB to have a few hundred SMS, or 10 RMB to have "free" calls in network-city up to a certain number of minutes. They also have packages which will give you 100 MB, 500 MB, etc. The only condition is your balance has to be enough on the first of the month to activate all packages you are subscribed to (or else they all cancel), and that you can activate the package now but it wouldn't debit your account (or start) until the next 1st of the month. The prices above are just guesses from when I was using them in 2008, not sure how they may have changed.

[roddy]

You can get a pay as you go sim then add on a data package - X amount of money for Y amount of data. I'd just start off with a PAYG sim for a month or two, add on whatever data package you think you'll need, then see in a couple of months if it might make sense to change. Actual costs will vary depending on where you are in the country, how much roaming you're doing, etc.

[timeruler]

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[tooironic]

In my experience Chinese people tend to prefer calling directly, rather than sending SMSs like most people in my generation do. QQ is also commonly preferred to emailing. In fact I've found many Chinese rarely check their inbox. Both of these preferences can annoy us Aussies, especially those in my age bracket (born in the 1980s).

[Brian US]

Wonder why no one has voice mail on their cell phones. Call me old fashion, but I didn't start texting until I came to China.

[WestTexas]

Wonder why no one has voice mail on their cell phones. Call me old fashion, but I didn't start texting until I came to China.

Are you older? I think this is an age thing. I am American and I don't know anyone under 30 who uses voice mail. Text messages are so much easier. My sister and I are both under 30 and we don't use voice mail, or know anyone who does, but my brothers are over 30 and they use voice mail. I don't think I've used voice mail at all since about 2005 or 2006.

[icebear]

I agreed with WestTexas - I think voicemail is on the way out. Only my parents leave me messages on mine, anyone else will just hangup and then send a SMS or a email if they really need to a get a hold of me (or just rely on my calling back).

[Caster]

you'd better use the CMCC sim card that's the best in China. if you are a young guy need to use your phone surf on internet, just choose the M-Zone package. You have to pay maybe 25 yuan per month and you can get 300 SMSs and 30mb data amount for free. But call and reply both need to pay. If you don't need SMSs and data amount so much and you even don't need to call just reply as an old man, you can choose the 神州行 package, pay 15 yuan per month and free to reply. But you may pay much more to call out and not free for you to send SMSs and surf on Internet.

[Caster]

if you have any questions about the details just call 10086 and press 0.

[Brian US]

I always found voice mails pretty convenient while driving, and when doing business where someone gave you their office number instead of their cell. Of course this is pre-2009 when driving with a cell phone wasn't too frowned on and didn't have the magic of Siri.

In business, isn't a text still considered too informal? Since texting in China I realized how a text is much less intrusive than a call and voice mail, but are we at a point where you send that recruiter a thank-you text after the interview?

[skylee]

but are we at a point where you send that recruiter a thank-you text after the interview?

Not sure about thank-you text, but sending in resignation via SMS is not unheard of.

if you are a young guy need to use your phone surf on internet, just choose the M-Zone package.

Can an old guy use that too?

[icebear]

In business, isn't a text still considered too informal? Since texting in China I realized how a text is much less intrusive than a call and voice mail, but are we at a point where you send that recruiter a thank-you text after the interview?

I agree with this point - although usually when I was in a position to receive business related calls (i.e. not a returning student) I had a separate business line and voice-mailbox.

[Caster]

of course an old guy can use it. I mean M-Zone is designed primarily for young people.

[liuzhou]

I rather imagine that the reason voicemail has never taken off in China is related to why I trashed my telephone answering machine back in Hunan in 1997.

Every time I came back from anywhere, the machine would be full of people yelling "喂! 喂! 喂!" over and over again then hanging up. No one ever, ever left anything else.