Hi!

I'm going to travel to China and Hong Kong for my vacations, and I'm going to take my N800 with me, and I was wondering if I can use a cheap prepaid SIM card with my phone to tether my N800.
Anyone has any information on which company should I use, and how expensive would it be?

My current phone is a Nokia 5300 with Movistar Mexico

Thanks.

You won't get 3G in China because this hasn't been adopted there yet, and WLAN is not allowed due to government regulations. Instead, the Chinese use WAPI. If I were you I'd consider to buy a cheap Chinese device in China instead leaving your normal devices at home.

If you have an unlocked phone you should be able to phone with it using a prepaid SIM card from Chinese telco. GSM _is_ supported in China, and I think GPRS as well, but don't pin me on that.

Also, don't expect people in China to speak English. Be surprised when they do. Although I believe in Hong Kong downtown you'll have more chance than rural areas.

Uh... Wlan access is relatively easy to find in China. I was there with a N800 last winter and had little trouble finding internet access. Search on my i.d., this has already been discussed.

You won't find any internet in communist China. No sense in even bringing the tablet.

Right, but bring your hammer and sickle so you can join in on the various military parades

Have you been there?
Jerome seems to have been.
Notice the mention of free wifi in tourist hotels and such, which makes perfect sense. I'd be very surprised if there was no internet, or even no wifi; the only questions are what is filtered (will an SSH link to my box back home work, or do they crack down on that to keep Chinese from tunneling out?), and how widely available it is in Chinese, rather than tourist, areas.

Edit: on-topic, a quick Google on gprs china turned up this. Looks like prepaid SIMs are available for 0.6 RMB (~0.09 USD) /minute; initial cost seems to be 100 RMB (~$15). GPRS is on, but per-kB charge; to add 2GB data is 200 RMB, ~$30. Also other plans, see the link.

And Wikipedia says they have good EDGE coverage in Shanghai, as of 2007. They're doing 3G testing since this Spring, but it's weird 3G, so only if you get a phone over there. (And if it's gone public, of course.)

I'm actually in China right now with my N800. In tourist areas and cities it's very common for guesthouses and cafes to have wireless internet these days. I carry around a pocket wireless router for those occasions where I can find wired but no wireless internet (fairly rare these days).

I've never tried using my prepaid sim for data, as my understanding is it's fairly expensive, and pointless considering how common wireless networks are becoming here.

As for the other questions about restricted access and tunneling, restrictions are fairly arbitrary. Proxies work, and I've never had problems using an ssh tunnel to the US.

I mostly use my N800 for navigation (bluetooth gps + maemo mapper) while traveling by bicycle. Works brilliantly. The only quirk is that google street maps for China seem to be off by a few hundred meters for the entire country! Satellite maps are spot-on though.

I am from China,so I think maybe I can provide you some infomation about telecommunication service in China. At present, there are two wireless service provider in China, China Mobile (CMCC) and China Unicom. Both the two companies provide prepaid sim card with GSM and GPRS service for your Nokia 5300 mobile phone (if your phone is unlocked). I advice you to choose the service from China Moible.
For more detailed infomation,you can visit the China Moible's website.
http://www.chinamobile.com/en/
Or dial the China Moible's service hotline: 0086-10-10086

For other wireless service, China Mobile provides Chinese version of 3G service now,but it is just a trial network in several cities, and I think you will not get a good exprience with it. Wifi service is not widely provided in China mainland, and just can be used in some central areas of big cities, like Beijing(free),Shanghai(non-free),and also can be used in hotels.


I think the following website about hotels and flights could be useful to you.
http://english.ctrip.com/


To allnameswereout:
WAPI is not used in China.
The percentage of people who can speak english is more than you think. English teaching is an important part of China's complusory education system and college education system.

To dugomugo
Do you live on earth or some other planet now?

You seem to have fun trolling, or you haven't been to China at all..

Last time when I was in Beijing I've used SIM card (pre-paid plan M-Zone) of CMCC operator (it's largest mobile operator in mainland China).
Information about CMCC services prepaid plans you can find at English version of CMCC site:
http://www.bj.chinamobile.com/index/engsite/
There are different GPRS plans: starting from 5 Yuan (~ $0.7) for 10 Mb till 200 Yuan (~ $28) for 2Gb. Initial cost of CMCC SIM-card vary from $50 - $100 (depend on number of included services).

Suggested place to buy CMCC SIM card is official CMCC centers, because they provide fixed price for SIM card package. But need to note that it was not easy to find English speaking person there.

Regarding Chinese mainland maps: they have very detailed google-like maps (but only on Chinese):
http://go2map.com/
http://map.sogou.com/
But I didn't tried yet to add them to Maemo Mapper repository.