Couple of days ago tried to buy another SIM card in 5 different offices around the city and was refused. Everywhere. Apparently you cannot buy a SIM card unless you have a shenfenzheng, or, in other words, unless you are Chinese. That's a change which came into power starting early November. Passport doesn't work - there's no such option.

Same thing happened to me yesterday. Got a new iphone as a x-mas gift and my wife had to buy a sim card for me. Starting to feel maybe we are not very welcome in this country anymore.

Same happened to me in two stores last week, they didn't say it was not allowed, just too bothersome these days. They told me it could be done at Xiao Xi Men, but I was quite a way from there. I ended up getting the guy in the shop to register a new sim for me using his ID.

I don't think this act means foreigners by any means, they just wanted to regulate the market of Sim cards as it used in many illegal activities without knowing who is the owner, so they ask the buyers to have Ids in case of buying new numbers. Foreigner can easily head to the big branches of communication companies holding their passport just as before.

I did not have any personal experience regarding this but laws have been in effect for some time now regarding the registration of SIM cards. As many people can attest, it was really simple to buy a sim card and hence, get an anonymous phone number. Unscrupulous people will use this to their advantage by sending text or making phone calls to scam people from their money. A solution put forth was to require ID to identify the owners of each number so that they can be tracked down in case criminal activity is detected. However, as anyone that has been in China for some time know, this ID requirement can be easily circumvented and will probably do little to cut down on the scams.

In the mean time, the registration system was probably made in haste and has not considered the needs of the public as evidence by the lack of ability to register your SIM card with anything other than with a Chinese ID.

They already started this safety measure a few years ago in larger cities. You would show them your passport when purchasing your sim. I am not sure if that's how it would work here though.

@tallamerican, it's not related to xenophobic behaviours, unfortunately.

I've been through about 3 SIM card since the change. Only main branches can register with your passport. Small shops, unauthorized dealers, and what not wont risk it. The telecom shop across from the north bus station will get you set up in minutes.

I just bought a SIM card in a small china unicom shop last week, with my passport photocopy...

As far as I know it only seems to be China Mobile following this rule. Telecom/Unicom are not bothering.

xb6asd has got it right. Tallamerican has got it wrong.