Xian eSIM
In Xian you connect to China Unicom or China Mobile, whichever is performing better where you are standing. The typical speed across the country is 41 Mbps. Your data starts working the moment you land, before you reach the immigration hall.
- Networks
- China Unicom and China Mobile
- Typical speed in China
- 41 Mbps typical, 10 Mbps at busy times
- 5G
- yes, non standalone
- Throttle
- None on metered plans
- Tethering
- Allowed on every plan
Plans that cover Xian
| Data | Validity | Price per GB | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | Never expires | $5.89 | $5.89 | |
| 3 GB | Never expires | $2.96 | $8.89 | |
| 5 GBMost travellers | Never expires | $2.38 | $11.89 | |
| 10 GB | Never expires | $1.89 | $18.89 | |
| 20 GB | Never expires | $1.49 | $29.89 | |
| 50 GB | Never expires | $1.36 | $67.89 |
How China compares across Asia
- Regional typical speed
- 42.95 Mbps
- Upstream networks
- 2, China Unicom, China Mobile
- 5G
- Yes, non standalone
- Next fastest nearby
- Cambodia, 42 Mbps
- Next slowest nearby
- Indonesia, 38 Mbps
- Cities with their own page
- 4: Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Xian
Landing at Xi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)
- Airport
- XIY / ZLXY
- Distance
- 25 km from the centre of Xian
- Wifi on arrival
- Free wifi in the terminalThe free wireless network is named Xian Airport Free and covers VIP lounges, check in, boarding, arrival and dining areas of the terminals.
Getting into Xian
- Xi'an Metro Line 14 (XIY)
- Airport bus routes to Xi'an and Xianyang (XIY)
Underground and on the metro
Xi'an Metro runs 13 lines. It opened in 2011. The operator does not publish whether the tunnels carry a mobile signal, so we do not claim either way.
Worth knowing about Xian
- Xi'an's airport is not in Xi'an: it sits 25 km northwest of the city, next to Xianyang, and the Metro Line 14 link to it only opened in 2019.
- Eight bus routes serve the airport, splitting between Xi'an and Xianyang, so boarding the wrong one takes you to a different city.
- Terminal 5 opened on 20 February 2025. It covers 705,500 square metres, larger than Terminals 1, 2 and 3 combined, and puts domestic and international departures on the same floor.
- Metro Line 14 now has two airport stations. Airport West serves Terminals 1, 2 and 3, and the new Airport (T5) station opened on 18 February 2025 for Terminal 5.
- Line 14 was originally the Airport Intercity Line. It runs 42.96 kilometres with 18 stations from the airport east to Heshao, and meets Lines 2 and 4 at Xi'an Beizhan.
- Xi'an North railway station, reached on Line 14, opened in January 2011 with 34 platforms and is the largest railway station in northwest China. Five high speed lines serve it.
- Xi'an Metro operates 13 lines, 284 stations and 423.2 kilometres of route. The first line opened on 16 September 2011 and the system averaged 3.81 million rides a day in 2024.
- Metro fares are distance based, starting at 2 yuan for the first 6 kilometres and rising by band. Ticket machines take 5 and 10 yuan notes and 1 yuan coins as well as Alipay and WeChat QR payment.
- QR code entry works through the Xi'an Metro app, an Alipay ride code and WeChat. The Chang'an Tong stored value card gives a 10 percent discount on standard fares.
- Real name registration is compulsory for every telephone user in China under MIIT Order 25, in force since 1 September 2013. Article 7 lists a foreign citizen's passport among the accepted documents.
- Beijing's official guidance for new arrivals says airport wifi asks for an SMS code sent to a Chinese phone number, with a passport scanning dispenser printing a username and password as the fallback for visitors without one.
- OONI reports that mainland China has blocked its website and measurement app since 7 July 2023, using DNS injection, interference with the TLS handshake and TCP level blocking of test helpers.
- GreatFire compares probes inside and outside mainland China and names the mechanism when they disagree: connection reset, DNS poisoning, or redirection to a server inside the country. It tracks over 570,000 URLs.
- In home routed international roaming a visitor's data is carried back through the home network's PDN gateway, instead of breaking out locally through the visited operator's gateway.
- The Ming city wall is a complete rectangular circuit of 13.74 kilometres, begun in 1370, enclosing 11.52 square kilometres of the old city behind a moat 18 metres wide.
- UNESCO inscribed the Silk Roads Chang'an Tianshan Corridor in 2014. The 5,000 kilometre routes network covers 33 sites in China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, five of them in Xi'an.
- Terminal 5 holds a museum of about 6,400 square metres showing relics from Shaanxi, described by the Chinese government as the world's first museum within an airport.
- Xi'an Xianyang handled 48,535,594 passengers in 2025, making it the busiest airport in northwest China and the eleventh busiest nationally.