Whoops, meant to include a link to the sim-plan I purchased:

    http://www.sh.10086.cn/brand/m-zone/cost/0/6/322.html (basic voice+data)
    http://www.sh.10086.cn/whatsnew/event/qpp/0/5/50.html (unlimited calling to friends/family for $1/month, add-on)

DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS PERSON. I am living in Shanghai, I am from america. My company has sent over 200 people from the US & the UK to Shanghai. Nobody has ever had a phone confiscated. Heck, nobody has even come close to having anything confiscated.I suspect there are some details missing from this story as to who they were, where they were going or what they were doing.

China cell phone basics:

I recently accepted a long-term (2-year) assignment in Shanghai. As an american the basic approach to cell phone marketing is very different and could use some clarification. First of all all phones & cell plans are separate. You buy a an "unlocked" phone, then you buy a sim card. Put the card in the phone & it works. 90% of sim cards are pre-paid. Typically you put down $15 dollars (100 rmb) and you are good for a week to a month, depending on usage. The other 10% are monthly subscription plans that require a bank account in a chinese bank.

I live in Shanghai and there are 3 major carriers:
China Mobile: The biggest company in the world, overall very good coverage
China Unicom: Second biggest presence in Shanghai
China Telecom: I don't know very much about them

If you want 3G you'll have to choose your phone/provider carefully. China Mobile uses TD-SCDMA, this is a technology developed in china and pretty much used only in china. You'll have to buy a Chinese phone to use it. China Unicom uses W-CDMA, which is widely available in the US. China telecom uses CDMA2000. My company provides China Mobile sim-cards and my iphone co-workers only get access to the edge network.

I recommend buying an "unlocked" phone before you go to china and a sim card when you arrive. The primary reason is that unless you speak chinese you will have difficulty using the phone & any pre-installed apps. You can change the language of some (android) phones, but this doesn't cause all the app's to magically speak chinese....which can be very frustrating. I would go with an W-CDMA phone & china unicom so that you can use it when you return to the states. Both AT&T and T-Mobile off pre-paid sim-card plans for really low prices. I don't think the average american understands how much of their monthly fee goes toward the phone and how little goes to the service plan. I also recommend a smart phone. The ability to run google translate is a lifesaver.

There is a lot of hype/talk on the net about phone prices. Don't believe it. Shanghai is a large, mature, market. the vendors sell things for a fair price. If you are getting a better price its because you aren't aware of everything you are (are not) buying. That being said taxes, import duties, etc... cause prices to be about 10-15% higher than the exact same product in the us. To shop prices try www.amazon.cn, use google-chrome for realtime translation and you can see what someone in china pays for the same product. Note chinese prices are the price, including all taxes and fee's.

So what did I do:
(I had a coworker that convinced me buying a phone in china was the right move....he of course spoke chinese)

--for myself I purchased a GT-I9008L, galaxy S smart phone. I wanted data, I wanted the latest tech, my company provides me with a ChinaMobile sim card. So I went to www.amazon.cn and shopped for 3G phones. It doesn't run google market, it does run the amazon market, I'm adapting. The only complaint is the map software from the amazon market doesn't always sync to the GPS, and I have a bunch of apps I cannot use 'cause they are in chinese. As a side project I'm working on porting cyanogenmod to the phone. Unfortunately samsung locked the boot-loader. I have managed to root the phone but I have also near-bricked it 3 times trying to get the clockwork mod installed. (near-brick means I found rom's on the net and did a full factory-install of the phone 3 times to recover it)

--for my wife: I purchased an "HTC desire", followed the FAQ on cyanogenmod to get an all-english platform, bought a sim-card with this plan and life is good.

--what I would do if I where still in the states: I would buy the google nexus S and purchase a china unicom sim card when I arrived.

Skyscrapers required standing on a chair to finish, drawbridges that really worked! A classic that never got the attention it deserved!!

http://www.girderpanel.com/