I'm having some trouble buying a phone card. China movile and telecom are refusing to sell me a new phone card with my passport in hands, without having a Chinese friend present his ID.
Has there been any recent change in rules? I always bought phone cards by myself with my passport in the past. Can anyone recommend me an agency?

Did you go to larger stores? Smaller stores maybe do not want to deal with paperwork for foreignors.

My wife said that's because the person behind the counter doesn't know how to enter a non-Chinese name. She may be right, or not. I had to have her help to get mine updated.

The other problem I always had was simply paying money for the phone service. It always took a half hour with them always trying to sell more service. Now I just pay by WeChat and get a discount.

Last time I had an issue with my phone number that I had previously registered, I too had to go to a larger business.

These small shops on every other street corner are not able to deal with foreigners and passports.

easier if you can borrow a Chinese person's ID. If not, try find the biggest shops

Also note that (according to my latest information anyway) only China Unicom is able to provide 4G to foreign phones.

@JanJan
Foreign phones or foreigner's phones?

I'm not knowledgeable of the technical details, but generally phones bought abroad. I bought my phone from Europe, and was stuck with China Mobile's 3G until I realized to switch to Unicom.

@allpage. Some foreign phones regardless of who owns them. Likewise a smartphone, iPhone for example, bought here, may not work on foreign networks. The technical details i'l leave to someone who knows more.

Maybe try it in university town, I heard there is no trouble. They know how to deal with the papers cause a lot of foreign students live there and even the offers are not too bad.