Are you planning a trip to China? Perhaps you will stay there for a longer working stay? You’ll need to prepare for a completely different Internet experience than what you’re used to. Besides knowing how to make WeChat – the most essential app to daily life in China – work with a digital payment service, you might want to take a step back and think about your phone. If you own a Google Pixel, should you bring it or leave it at home?
Specifically, your access to Pixel-related features and Google’s broader suite of features will depend on where you get your mobile data plan from and, if you plan to use Wi-Fi in the country, which VPN you plan to use. Additionally, with China’s continued strengthening of digital surveillance, you should also be aware of the risks to your privacy and security while in the country.
Your Google Pixel in China only works as well as your eSIM
DenPhotos/Shutterstock
Most travelers will choose to either sign up for an international roaming plan with their home carrier or purchase an eSIM plan. Regardless, if your chosen carrier has a roaming agreement with a Chinese network, your phone will route its traffic through the local network to your carrier’s home territory before continuing to your intended destination. It’s what lets you browse Facebook, upload to YouTube, and do almost anything you can on your phone, outside of China and the influence of the “Great Firewall.”
The Great Firewall refers to the Chinese government’s Internet censorship regime, which includes blocking sites operating contrary to the rules and values established by the Chinese Communist Party, as well as search engines that do not block these sites from appearing in results. This also involves active monitoring and removal of sensitive posts circulating on news and microblogging sites.
There are some extreme cases where a service will not be available while roaming. eSIMDB guidance states that if your eSIM is from a Hong Kong carrier, this means you will be using a Hong Kong IP address. You will see search results localized by Google Hong Kong, and websites that are not accessible in Hong Kong will not be accessible to you either. OpenAI, for example, has not made ChatGPT available in either Hong Kong or China, so you won’t be able to use this service while traveling. You can, however, use Google Gemini, as it was launched in the territory in March 2026.
What if you used a Google Pixel with a VPN?
Cheng Xin/Getty Images
Visitors who can’t afford large amounts of data through their cellular plan might be tempted to use local Wi-Fi networks or even a local SIM card. These signals, however, are subject to the Great Firewall, so if you’re looking to break through, you’ll need a reliable VPN. This is going to be a big challenge, as the Chinese government has imposed increasingly restrictive policies that have reduced the number of VPNs operating in the country and opened backdoors to spy on the authorized handle.
A worrying development arose from a September 2025 data leak from Geedge Networks, a Chinese web censorship company. The analysis by University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers indicates that it was involved in monitoring and/or blocking traffic to NordVPN servers, as well as a host of other categories of sites in China and other countries in which Geedge operates.
Instead of a comprehensive explanation of an ever-changing situation, you should expect difficulty getting a VPN to work and making sure the connection continues to work in China. Download an Android app store operating in China, such as Huawei AppGallery, to see your options. Be aware that your traffic may be monitored at any time, and plan to stay offline if a major incident results in an immediate flurry of censorship activity.
