Holafly website didn’t display the eSim specification for China when accessing from mainland China. This may have been due to the Great Firewall of China blocking some content.
Given the reviews I decided to try.
I then discovered that mobile hotspot wasn’t enabled.(it is standard in Europe!) and I need it for work with my laptop.
I contacted the after sales team 1 hour after purchase to ask to cancel the eSim and get full refund which I am still waiting for 10 days later….
If you travel to China then USA China Unicom, telecom, or mobile. They are cheap and reliable. No sims will bypass their firewall so you need a vpn that works on china. Triple check on /r/china to ensure it works and please search before posting.
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I’ve just spent two weeks travelling around China and Hong Kong with a Holafly eSim. First, it didn’t work in Hong Kong. Second, it didn’t give a local number - just access to mobile data. But the data is fast and limitless. The VPN works perfectly and I was able to access all sorts of sites (eg Google, Facebook, Twitter) that I couldn’t access on my laptop, even with an expensive paid-for VPN trying to route through endless different countries. I set up an Alipay account and was mostly able to pay successfully, especially with businesses but there were more problems trying to pay individuals such as small traders and taxi drivers. I couldn’t use it to pay for the Beijing Metro. You can’t seem to switch the VPN off, however, which means that sometimes you are defeated by the Great Firewall of China: you are flagged up as suspicious and the transaction is refused. All in all, I wouldn’t travel again without it - though I would try to find a backup payment method (I’m not sure what!) for those times when my transactions were declined.
Was your eSim for China or Hong Kong?
I just bought one for China but I will be in Hong Kong as well. Hoping it works in Hong Kong too
How often were your transactions refused if yo had to give a percentage? More than 20%?
For China - and it didn’t work in Hong Kong, though that is less of a problem as you are never far from free wifi!