I just got back from a business trip to China. I carry my personal android CDMA phone in airplane mode while there and connect it to wifi hotspots in the hotel and such to check mail and what have you. I then carry an unlocked blackberry perl I bummed off of a friend in the US. The nice thing is that the phone is all in english. As soon as I checked into my hotel, I handed the concierge 100RMB and asked him to get me a sim card for the town I would be in. My traveling guide then helped me activate the sim card in the phone.

Some things to remember:
- Make sure the GSM phone operates on China frequencies (GSM in china is different than GSM frequencies in US)
- Calling plans in China are typically free inward calls so set up your friends on google voice / skype so they can call you
- The sim card I got was local only so it only worked in the town I was in, I do not know about plans that take you elsewhere
- When you activate you will get instructions to a Chinese voip tunnel which you can use to call US for cheap. This is a much cheaper way than dialing international from your new SIM.

Also to note in my research China Telcom which operates the national CDMA network requires a local address to sign up so I did not try to get my CDMA phone registered there so if trying this route good luck.

- best of luck and good travels

Also good to know all the bartenders know american for BEER but unfortunately you should probly learn the mandrin for toilet :)

I always heard that 20 mph over the limit is considered reckless driving. So their "gift" would be the fact that they are too lazy to drag your ass in. So they fudge the number and just give you a ticket.

Maybe us kids in the US don't give a damn what time it is in Grenwich England and only like to deal with our own timezones.

As an admin of multiple Google apps sites that email was sent to me for each App site administered. I don't see why the summary implies that there was no notifications, but this being Slashdot I am not surprised.