Hi There!

We're going to be in Kunming - and continue on to Dali and Tiger Leaping Gorge for a few weeks - and was wondering which of the simcards available was best for 3G data access on an iPhone 3G?

I did some research - here and on other sites - and this is what I found, please confirm or deny:

1. China Mobile doesn't support 3G on my iphone, only GPRS/EDGE.
2. China Unicom DOES support 3G on my iphone, but has less coverage than China Mobile. however, since i'm not going anywhere in China besides the above mentioned places, i'm not sure that applies to me. how's the coverage in Kunming/Dali for Unicom? I doubt i'll need internet while doing the hike in TLG....
3. it's not the easiest thing in the world to explain to someone that I want a data only sim card. I wouldn't mind getting one with both data and talk, but I understand I have to activate the data plan in an actual store - correct?
4. this will be short term only - i'm only in China for a few weeks, so, obviously I don't want to pay lots of money for a long term contract that I will abandon...

any help is appreciated!

I cant say about other accounts but i have CMCC data and phone. i can say that in the city center Kunming it is close to useless in country areas useless.
I would not believe anything a phone sales person said.
the best advise i can give is to have no card at all and use wifi at the many hotspots, most good hotels and western restaurants have it, I use skype and sometimes fring sometimes they work well.
i have 2 phones they both work on wifi with no card, but im not using ipoo..

China Unicom 3G card should cost less than 200 RMB and last you for your whole trip, unless you start streaming videos through their 3G or something.
For Google maps, checking e-mail, Skype chats, etc you should be fine. Coverage is fine in most places.
You should make sure your iPhone is unlocked, not locked to a certain carrier, like AT&T or anything.
Also, once you put the SIM in your iPhone, you will likely have to enter certain settings in order to connect to Unicom's 3G network.
Make note of these settings, and make sure your iPhones OS allows you to enter this info (not all do):
www.beijingiphonerepair.com/[...]
Scroll down to the China Unicom 3G section. You'll need to enter that in the settings of your phone in order to use their 3G.

HI Guys!

Thanks for the info... wanted to come on here and give all the future readers the details of what i got, so that can use that info later.

first off: China Unicom has a different name in Chinese. so... they won't know what you're talking about when you say "sim card China Unicom". bring pictures - is the best advice i can give you. i was lucky enough to have my own little guardian angel that simply volunteered to help me through the entire process and spoke a few words of english...

we ended going to the China Unicom big store - i'm sorry, i couldn't tell you where it is, since by that point i was walking around quite a bit...

in the store, i got a 3G sim for 100 Yuan. i believe that gave me 150MB and 50 minutes. i added another 50 Yuan on top of that. i figured that'll cover me.

also, no setting were changed - i popped in the simcard, and it just worked - once i turned on the 3G data button. in fact, that place where i usually configure APN wasn't even there. so, no need to change any settings with the 3G sim.

they told me i could check my minutes and internet at www.10010.com - however, in great Chinese fashion, it's ALL in Chinese, so i have no idea where to go or what to do on this page.

i hope this helps people - thanks so much for your help!