Using the Telephone

International and domestic phone calls can be placed from you hotel room or hotel's business centre. 15% surcharge on long distance calls. International calls are expensive. Reverse-charge calls are less expensive than calling overseas from China but the cheapest method to call home is with an IP card.

Mobile phones are easily available in China and easily bought and set up with a new number but you might be able to insert a new 'chip' to use your own mobile depending on what protocol standards the phone can work with. If you buy a phone in China that you want to take home, check it can handle the protocol standards of your home country. You can also use email and your favourite internet messenger program.

Card phones
Widely available and the simplest and cheapest method The two types are: 

IC Cards: To use a public telephone you'll need an IC (Integrated Circuit) card available from post offices, convenience stores and street stalls, in values beginning at 20 yuan. A brief local call is typically 0.30 to 0.50 yuan. Phones will show you the value remaining on the card when you insert it, and count down as you talk.

IP Cards: Forget about taking access numbers with you - you can call internationally for a fraction of the cost using an IP (Internet Protocol) card, available wherever you see the letters 'IP'.

Depending on where you call, a 50 yuan card can give you about an hour of talk time.
User instructions on the back, you simply dial the access number given, choose English from the menu, and follow the instructions to dial in the number behind a scratch-off panel.
If using a public phone, you'll need an IC card to make the initial local call because phone boxes don't accept cash.

Mobile use in China
If you can use your mobile in China it probably only allows you to call home and cannot be used to make local calls, so check payment rates before you leave. It may be cheaper to call home using an IP card that you can easily buy locally.

Making Calls in and out of China
China's International country code is + 86 and Beijing's Area Code is 010. to make a call to China dial the international access code: 011 in the US, 00 in the UK, for example, then the country code 86 for China followed by city code (010 for Beijing), omitting the leading zero, and then dial the number. 

So, to reach Beijing from the UK, you would dial 00-86-10-XXXX-XXXX. For calls within the same city, omit the city code, which always begins with a zero (010 for Beijing, 020 for Guangzhou, for example). Direct and International dialing are available from hotels adding a service charge of up to 15%.Even long distance rates within China are very low.

To make International Calls from China first dial 00 and then the country code (U.S. or Canada 1, U.K. 44, Ireland 353, Australia 61, New Zealand 64). Next, dial the area or city code, omitting any leading zero, and then dial the number.

Internet Access
Internet bars in Beijing are common but hard to find although most hotels and hostels offer an internet connection costing about 10 yuan per hour.
The fastest, free, in-room dial-up service is 95962 (user name and password 263).