For Visitors to our Beijing Hutong Courtyard B&B:

Getting a temporary Chinese SIM card together with a pay as you go top-up card when you travel to China is a very sensible thing to go. You may not realise how expensive it is if you use your own non-Chinese mobile phone number for either making or receiving the calls in China. For whatever reason that you travel in China, you cannot avoid calling people. e.g. call hotels, restaurants, booking tickets, asking information, also receiving calls from someone.... All of these, if you use a local SIM card and top-up phone card, it will make big difference on you phone bill. Because you will be out most of the time, it will be much more convenient to use you own mobile phone rather than use the land line phones.

You can buy Chinese SIM card and "pay as you go" phone card from our Beijing Courtyard B&B for both local and international calls. It requires your mobile phone to be GSM 900 standard and fully unlocked. If you do want to get a "Chinese SIM CARD" when you arrive, please make sure that UNLOCK your mobile phone before you travel to China.

In the old days you bought a phonecard when travelling. Nowadays you put one into your cellphone! "The SIM Card is the new Phone Card".