Staying connected while at Shanghai Disneyland

[Flossbolna]

I know that @PrincessInOz shared some great info about how to stay connected while in China. I just wanted to throw out the question more generally to see what other people can report. It seems like there are now quite a few who have already visited Shanghai!

We are planning to be in Shanghai for 3 days (with the 144-hour-visa), mainly just visit DL and one day, most likely with a tour guide, touring Shanghai. I really do not want to bother buying SIM-cards, getting VPNs and such. I am not on facebook, I never use whatsapp, I don't have a google account. These seem to be the problematic places everyone mentions all the time.

So, my question is: How is the Wifi availability? And does anyone know what specifically is blocked in China?

I have an Iphone as well as my whole family back home. From the research I did, it appears that IMessage, Apple Maps and ICloud are not blocked. Can anyone confirm this?

I already know from my cousin's husband, who regularly visits Shanghai on business, that he has no problem accessing his emails from the same email provider I am using.

My BF uses an aol.com email account. Does anyone have any experience with this?

I would love to read any experiences you might have had!

 

[Agent 86]

Facebook Messenger and Apple Maps appear to work fine. I can't access google.com or my gmail account.

 

[Flossbolna]

Facebook Messenger and Apple Maps appear to work fine. I can't access google.com or my gmail account.

Great! Thanks for the info!

 

[Agent 86]

Actually, I just discovered that even though it looked like Facebook Messenger was working - it actually wasn't sending any emails while I was in China! But, Bing and Yahoo both worked and I could easily access MS Outlook.

 

[Flossbolna]

Thanks for the info!

I actually found a website where you can check which URLs are blocked. Will find the link again and post it here for anyone else looking for info.

 

[disney144]

I recently returned from shanghai. I have T-Mobile (a US carrier) which has free international data. I found that when wifi was turned off, I was able to access all sites (google, gmail, Facebook, Snapchat). When on wifi, they didn't work, but when wifi was off I was able to go on Facebook.

 

[Flossbolna]

I promised to report back after my trip, so here it is.

I had decided to just not worry about internet for the three days we were there. I knew that my German email provider was not blocked in China from a relative who is there regularly on business. And as far as I could find out, most Apple services work there as well, so I counted on using my icloud email as an alternative if needed.

When I got off the plane I got a text from my German carrier (Deutsche Telekom) to inform me about roaming charges. All German carriers do that when you first log into a foreign network (I think it might be a European requirement, so this might also apply to other European carriers). There were data options and I was surprised that a 24-hour data roaming pass with 50 MB of data was only 3 €. So, I went ahead with that. And just as @disney144 reported, as long as I was using the roaming data, I could access everything on the internet. It was only when I was connected to the wifi that certain websites did not work. I mad sure to shut off a lot of things that can cause lots of data and it worked great. I got through the three days with three 24 hour passes and only paid 9 €, did not have to change a SIM card and did not have to worry about the Chinese Firewall.

So, in the end my recommendation is for short stays to look into how data roaming works with your carrier. It might end up being the best deal after all since international data has become far more affordable in recent years!

 

[Karin1984]

My findings are that I can buy packages of 100MB for 10 euro, for all three countries, China/Hong Kong/Japan. This should be plenty to update some people at home or look up maps, translations etc.
The only thing is the VPN, and I think I will go with the 7-day free trial of the Express VPN app. In Hong Kong and Japan I won't need it, so as soon as we take off in Shanghai, I will cancel the subscription.

 

[Flossbolna]

My findings are that I can buy packages of 100MB for 10 euro, for all three countries, China/Hong Kong/Japan. This should be plenty to update some people at home or look up maps, translations etc.
The only thing is the VPN, and I think I will go with the 7-day free trial of the Express VPN app. In Hong Kong and Japan I won't need it, so as soon as we take off in Shanghai, I will cancel the subscription.

I think you won't need the VPN if you use mobile data, only if you plan to use wifi. But it's better to get it, especially if you can get it free!

 

[Karin1984]

I think you won't need the VPN if you use mobile data, only if you plan to use wifi. But it's better to get it, especially if you can get it free!

Yeah... VPNs... I don't really get how it works to be honest. I understand what it does, there is also something vague, mysterious about it. I'll just apply at ExpressVPN and then fingers crossed.

By the way... When do we get to read your trip report? I didn't miss it, did I?

 

[Flossbolna]

Yeah... VPNs... I don't really get how it works to be honest. I understand what it does, there is also something vague, mysterious about it. I'll just apply at ExpressVPN and then fingers crossed.

By the way... When do we get to read your trip report? I didn't miss it, did I?

No, I am just a slow moving trip report writer...

And I was caught up in the whole photbucket disaster. Need to find a new hosting website and need to get my pictures out of there and redo all my old trip reports!

 

[cschaaf]

We have Verizon and got the same style warning texts when we landed in Shanghai. We planned on using wifi for our entire China trip (14-day River cruise/land tour with multiple hotels.) We shut off our cell antennas as soon as we got on our flight out of Detroit.

Shanghai Disney:
There was a walled garden page that asked for a mainland phone number. We didn't see any options for an international number. While walking through the park, there was a little customer service stand. We stopped and asked the CM how to access the internet. He said, "You need a Mainland China phone number" We said, "Oh, okay. We don't have one." He said, "I do. Let me see your phone". He used his phone to get a PIN, then entered it in my phone. Then used his phone to get a second PIN to enter in my wife's phone.

We had pretty solid connection all day at Disney. It would die out in some of the indoor queues, but for the most part, it worked well in the park. There was no coverage in the Downtown Disney area.

We were able to use the park app, email (Outlook and Yahoo), weather searches (though, oddly, we couldn't find any weather service that showed radar views for China), iOS messenger, and Yahoo/Bing searches. No Google sites or services worked.

Airports:
In 3 out of 4 of the airports we hit (PVG and SHA in Shanghai and Chongqing) , you needed to enter your telephone number into a login portal and it would text you a PIN. In Beijing (PEK), it would only accept a mainland China number. Alternately, you could go to a kiosk and scan your passport to get the PIN.

The WiFi worked well enough that we could check emails and do simple lookups - weather, Yahoo/Bing searches, etc. But no Google.

Hotels:
We stayed in hotels in Shanghai, Wuhan, Xi'an, and Beijing. The Shanghai hotel (Westin Bund) was the only one that used a VPN. It routed through Hong Kong and we could get to Google sites and services. If you typed Google.com, it would re-route to Google.hk and let you through.

I only noticed this in our Beijing hotel an didn't try it anywhere else, but it may work other places - I tried Google Maps multiple times throughout the trip and couldn't get it to work anywhere except the Westin Bund. In Beijing (Kerry Hotel), I did a Yahoo/Bing search for a local business.

On the business site, it had a little map icon to show their location. It was clearly a Google Maps thumbnail. I clicked it and it opened Google Maps with a .cn domain and it was full-function Google Maps. But, if I tried entering that URL straight into my browser, it wouldn't work.

I just left that map tab open the rest of the time in Beijing so I could find things that way.

TL;DR - for basic needs like email, general searches, weather, messenger apps, Disney app - but NOT Google services - you can probably get by in China on WiFi alone. It might be slow and you might hit dead spots. If you want to access any sites blocked by the China firewall, you may want to investigate VPN options. The only things we knew that were blocked were Google sites and services. We don't use other social media, but those may be blocked, too.

If you want solid service, you'll have to investigate a cellular solution (pocket MiFi, China SIM card, or an international plan through your provider).