new to Shanghai

You land at Pudong at 11pm, you need a map, a ride-hailing app, and a message home saying you made it — and this is exactly the moment an eSIM for China earns its keep. Here's the complete, current picture: how it works, what it actually gets you, the one mistake that catches almost everyone, and how it fits alongside getting a proper local number once you're settled. What an eSIM actually is, in...

Here is the single most important practical fact about life in Shanghai: the city runs on two apps, and until they're on your phone, you can't easily buy a coffee, catch a taxi, rent a share-bike, order lunch, or pay your landlord. The good news — and it is genuinely good news, because this used to be a nightmare — is that in 2026, setting up Alipay and WeChat Pay with a foreign Visa or Mastercard...