China Step by StepPractical intelligence

Internet in China for Romanian travellers

The general comparison of roaming, a travel eSIM and a Chinese SIM is on Internet in China and eSIM vs Chinese SIM, and so is the question of when a Chinese phone number is genuinely required, including what a 12306 rail account will accept in place of one. None of that is repeated here. This page carries the part that is priced and provisioned in Romania: what Orange Romania charges for data in China, what Revolut's eSIM does and does not document, and the fact that the one official government source describing which services are blocked is Romania's own foreign ministry.

Should I do it before China?

Yes — finish this before you fly

Every item here is bought, switched on or installed through an app or a website that needs a working connection — My Orange for the roaming pass, the Revolut app for its eSIM. The failure mode they share is circular: you land without data, and the thing that would give you data can only be reached with data. Doing the whole list on home wi-fi removes the circle.

How

  1. Do before arrivalCheck that roaming outside the EU is switched on. Orange Romania's roaming pages list China, country code +86, as a roaming destination served through local partner operators, and roaming has to be activated in the My Orange app or account.1
  2. Do before arrivalBuy the roaming pass before you fly rather than using the standard tariff. Orange Romania's press release of 26 June 2026 cut the non-EU roaming zones from five to three and places China in Zona 1, where the passes are 7 days with 3 GB and 10 minutes for EUR 5 and 30 days with 20 GB and 10 minutes for EUR 16, with a PrePay base rate of about EUR 2 per GB; Smart Plus, Smart Elite and Smart Exclusive plans include 2 GB of Zona 1 roaming data a month. Those were the published prices on the day they were captured and may since have changed.2
  3. Do before arrivalIf you plan to use the Revolut eSIM, install it at home and do not assume China is covered. Revolut's help centre states that the travel data plan is purchased first, that the install prompt follows immediately in the app, and that you then have to switch the line and data roaming on manually in iOS or Android settings. It does not state which countries the travel plan covers, so coverage of mainland China is not established by that source.3
  4. Do before arrivalPrepare for the services your own government says will not work. Romania's MFA states that Chinese authorities control internet access, that some services including Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are permanently blocked, that others such as WhatsApp may be temporarily blocked, and that online products and services such as VPNs must be authorised by the Chinese government. This site does not publish ways around any of that; what it does is treat the Romanian MFA page as the official source for the claim, where the general page has to record the same point as unverified.4

What can go wrong

You land in China and discover your Orange plan has non-EU roaming switched off by default.

What to do instead Turn it on in My Orange before you leave: with roaming off and no other connection there is no way to reach the app that switches it on. A travel eSIM installed before departure is the alternative.1

You use data in China on the standard out-of-zone tariff without buying a pass.

What to do instead Buy the 7-day or 30-day Zona 1 pass in My Orange before departure; on a longer trip or with heavier use, a travel eSIM or a Chinese SIM is the cheaper path.2

You rely on a Revolut travel plan for data in China because the eSIM worked on a previous trip.

What to do instead Treat China coverage as unconfirmed, since the help centre does not list the plan's countries. Install and test on home wi-fi, and keep a second path that this page can actually source: Orange roaming switched on in My Orange before you leave, or the Zona 1 pass bought there. Buying a Chinese SIM on landing is not the fallback to plan on from here — the only official page this site holds on airport SIM counters is Beijing's own, it covers Beijing's two airports and city stores rather than the country, and it lives on the general eSIM-versus-SIM page.3

Google Maps and Gmail are your only navigation and your only copy of the booking confirmations.

What to do instead Install and sign in to replacement apps and download offline maps before leaving Romania; your own MFA states Google is among the services permanently blocked.4

Last verified and sources

Each record below is shown as provenance: who published it, what kind of document it is, how far it reaches and when we last checked it. The source’s own wording is not reproduced here — most of these documents are published in Chinese, and a translation of ours would be a paraphrase standing where a citation should be. Follow the link to read any of them in the original.

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