Great new mobile phone idea

[djwebb2004]

Yay! China always comes up with the greatest ideas, as befits the country with the bestest bestest civilisation in the world: mobile phone cards that cannot dial abroad!I I am sometimes left speechless...

[Wang_5i5j]

Can none of them call abroad? I think some of them can, but you need to let the service provider to active the service for you.

[pazu]

You can call 10086 and ask them to activate this service for you, some provinces have a new regulation that you need to pay Y1000 (not deposit, it appears right in your remaining credit) before you can activate it.

[Hero Doug]

Lol, for a second I thought we had a die hard Commie lover.

I can confirm though that you can get it activated, China Unicom has the service. I was going to do it up until they told me what the rate's were.

I just use Skype instead, or a phone card.

[djwebb2004]

It depends what number you have. If it begins 159- you have bought a package that cannot be activated for foreign calls. They told me I had one option: buy a new card for foreign calls...

[roddy]

What are the 159- numbers? The only other person I know who uses a 159 number is whoever runs the '24 hour massage' service, because it's on the business cards I get pushed under the door.

[djwebb2004]

I thought 159 numbers were numbers that will be able to use 3G phone services when these are launched next year or the year after that. Whereas 136 numbers won't be able to. is this right? I could have misunderstood greatly.

[zhwj]

(1) Try 17951 + 00 + country + city + number. This usually works for China Mobile accounts; I wouldn't be surprised if their 159- numbers had this option as well.

(1a) There is a wide range of IP card solutions, which would work nicely, I'd think, unless you're going to be making hours of international calls every day.

(2) What'd you expect, buying in to an experimental roll-out of a next-generation network?

[djwebb2004]

So, I bought a new phone card after specifying to the shopkeeper that I needed to dial abroad. She told me I could dial after two minutes. Sure enough - I could not dial abroad with the 2nd number either. This time, apparently, i could dial abroad if I completed the formalities. This means going to one particular shop in Kunming and queuing for over an hour to apply for the right to dial abroad. My heart sank when I saw there were 71 people in front of me in the queue. So I went back to the shop and after much argument, she sold me a third card, this time an IP card worth 100 yuan for 25 yuan. I tried a number and it worked.

I don't know why they insist on making a simple thing as complicated as possible, other than a sheer love of bureaucracy and form filling. I can't deny that England is gradually going in a similar direction, what with BBC reports that the English police are planning to fingerprint people in the street. All I can say to people coming to China is "get ready for the maximum mafan". In Kunming there is a "Living in China" guide prepared by some foreigners and for sale in the Wickerbasket shops. They advise you in that booklet not to try to do too many things in one day. In England in the lunch hour I would go and do 4 or 5 things - go to the bank, pay a gas bill, quickly take something back to a shop, pop into a record shop to buy a CD, etc - whereas in China you are recommended in that booklet to aim to do a maximum of 2 things a day. Cor blimey! I used to pack a week's work of shouxu into a lunch hour in England!

[Xiao Kui]

in China you are recommended in that booklet to aim to do a maximum of 2 things a day

This is definitely hard to accept or get used to if you are Westerner used to making the most of your time and being productive, but I think it's great advice, especially for your first year in China. Otherwise you'll just feel depressed when you look at your unfinished to-do list at the end of the day. You should have 2 or 3 things (hardcore errands) on your list, and if you get one done, you should count yourself successful, if you get the others done you can consider yourself a die-hard multi-tasker and time management guru.

After you've been here a while, know the ins and outs of how to get things done and know where things are located, you can easily get two or three times as much done in a day. But I think at the beginning, there is some wisdom in being patient with one's progress, otherwise you get very frustrated with China and with yourself.

[roddy]

You should have 2 or 3 things (hardcore errands) on your list, and if you get one done, you should count yourself successful, if you get the others done you can consider yourself a die-hard multi-tasker and time management guru.

Reminds me of when I'd just got to China and was about to head into town. One of the 'old-timers' - actually only been there for six months - asked me what I was going to do, and I said 'change money then buy a few things.' 'Wrong attitude,' he told me. 'Tell yourself you're going to try to change money. That way if you don't, you can still tell yourself you tried.'

Sure enough, the money-changing guy wasn't at the bank, presumably because it was International Money-Changing Clerk Day.

If it's of any use, shenzhouxing pre-pay cards can dail abroad directly - at least mine can. Costs a fortune though, and the IP cards are the way to go, unless you want to use Skype.