Hi all,
sounds like a dumb question, but its been over 3 yrs since last in Kunming.

1. Last time in Kunming they had made a new rule that foreigners could not buy a sim using their passport, only if you had an Chinese ID card could you buy one...this was the same news at many outlets...a Chinese friend ended up asking for us and explained to us the new rule...they used their ID card for us.

Is it still the same rule??

2. Last time I took an old Nokia phone for the local sim...this time if I take my iPhone (I think it is a 7) can I get a local sim to fit it? If I do that, will I def not be downloading stuff unbeknownst to me on my Australian network??? I hear these stories of people returning to $1000000 bills and I just want to make sure having a local sim in the phone detaches my phone from my home network???

Sorry to sound like a dummy...so any tips of how this is done these days would be appreciated :-)

Buy a pre-paid sim at the airport, using your passport. Many places in Kunming simply don't know how to enter a passport number into their system (much less western names). FYI - prepad your passport number with leading zeroes, until you hit 18 digits - the same number of digits in a chinese ID card.

1. It'll cut off once you hit your limit.
2. you can recharge it monthly (about ¥100-200 depending on your phone habits.
3. You may NOT be able to use 3G/4G if you buy China Mobile SIM cards - but you can still use their ancient EDGE/GPRS SLOOOOOOOW network - but wifi is prolific (just go to KFC, Macdonalds, or any cafe and ask for the password or point at your phone and silently mouth words like a fish - they'll get the idea).

I know some mobile operators in the US offer flat rate international travel packages for a month. You might want to check with your carrier.

For your sim swap question, yes they'll have a sim that will fit your iPhone, and if put in a China sim, you calls, SMS, and data all go through a local China carrier, so you can't get billed by your home carrier.

I got a new SIM with my passport last month, I went to the small China Mobile place near the railway station, they managed in the end but I don't think they see many laowai in there. Go to the larger China Mobile service hall on Renming Zhong lu for hopefully faster service. The SIM card I got was a full size card with the pre cut middle part for iPhone use.

Your iPhone 7 probably won’t work on China Mobile as already stated but to double check try www.willmyphonework.net. Also double check it’s not network locked before leaving home.

I simply walked into the China Unicom store in the city center a 护国路 right at the intersection with 南强步行街。They entered my details, copied my passport, took a picture of me and issued me a brand new sim card with which I had 3G and 4G at good speed all across town. Wasn't a super cheap deal, but I got like 10G traffic per month and it was still bellow 100 RMB.

But as far as I know not all stores are able to do that, so you may want to go right to the one mentioned above if you're close to the city center.

China Mobile and China Telecom do not have networks (or whatever technology detail) that would give most foreign-bought phones 4G.

China Unicom has. Works great in the city, but I have been in places in Yunnan where it does not have service, while China Mobile has solid 4G.

I use China Mobile on my "foreign-bought" iPhone and get 4G with no problem.