Data SIM for China
 

China Unicom has a 3 gigbyte SIM for about $55. It worked extremely well in our Samsung Android Tablet everywhere we went - city and rural. Never a dead spot. (Piranha uses the same carrier - never saw loss of signal. At times set up the tablet to act as a hot spot for wife's old ipad.
I knew this rather new SIM was available before leaving. I figured it would be easy to pick up near our hotel in Bejing (first stop). Didn't look too hard because didn't have an immediate need.
Won't go into details - but regular shops that sell SIMS don't carry this. Had to locate a company store. Few people are really fluent in English - but did locate store in Shanghi a few days later. Dropped the SIM in the tablet and it immediately started to work. I was afraid there would be complicated instructions in Mandarin to read in order to set it up.

MISTAKE I made - China blocks internet access to Facebook, Youtube, AND NY Times and CNN websites (among lots of other things.) I should have set up a VPN service before arriving. I had never done that before.

There is a dealer: China 3G Mobile Broadband / China 3G SIM card, for rental, hire and sale That will deliver your data SIM to the first hotel you arrive at and pick it up from the last hotel AND provide you with a VPN to use with the card. I think the total cost for renting the SIM from them for a month (3 gigabyte pkg.) is about $75.

mike

You can buy China unicom sims (the only provider with 3G service) in newstands and better still unicom shops, where they can setup the right tariff for you. I use a prepaid sim with the 66rmb (10$) 'student' package which gives 300mb+50mins+120sms. They speak english in the unicom shops.

Just be warned I think most of the packages activate for a calendar month, so it'll expire at the end of the month and charge you again from your credit on the 1st.

A VPN is essential, as even google is blocked intermittently. VPNs work fine on windows pptp, but for some reason are incredibly difficult to get working on android devices.

The Data SIMs for China that we (prepaidsimcard.org) resell are valid for 90 days. The 90 days period starts the first day you start to use it, and not by calendar month. You can find them here: Prepaid China SIM Card €29,90

All instructions are in English.

If anyone is going to China - I'll send them my China Unicom SIM card. don't know whether it can be recharged. I bought it in mid April.

I'm going to China in the near future. I may visit you http://betdownload.com/cf/images/vtv/funny.jpg