Best eSIM roaming data plans for trips to China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan

Note: This feature was first published on 5 September 2024.

Roaming data is fast becoming a travel essential. Apart from staying connected to your family and friends, you also need it for entertainment, navigation, and payments. 

Happily, roaming data is considerably more affordable and convenient these days thanks to the widespread availability of eSIM roaming data add-on plans. These plans allow you to get roaming data without having to switch providers or even swap out SIM cards. 

So, following our article on best eSIM roaming data add-on plans for trips in Southeast Asia, here’s a look at the best offerings for a seven-day trip to China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

But before we begin with our recommendations, here are some criteria that we set for this guide.

Note 1: For the purpose of comparison, we’ve set a benchmark data usage of 500MB per day. Thus, for 7 days we considered a minimum data allocation of 3.5GB. 

Note 2: Plans featured in this eSIM roaming data plan compilation are the core offerings from each brand. In making our comparisons, we have left out the temporary promotional pricing and gone with the core pricing.  

Note 3: Recommendations made do not take into account network performance/reach and are based on overall plan proposition/offerings and value for international roaming data.

Looking at eSIM data roaming add-on plans for East Asia, it appears Wefly offers the best rates overall. 

It has a variety of packages for these four countries, with both SIM card and eSIM options. The plans range from 3 days to 15 days. Though they technically provide unlimited data, speeds get throttled each day after a certain amount.

For example, if you get the 500MB plans, you’ll have 500MB of high-speed 4G data daily, after which your browsing speed will be throttled. The upside to this arrangement is that you’ll always have data even if you have busted your daily allowance. This can be handy if you need to look up directions or hail a ride back to your hotel after a long day.

The 7-day 500MB plans sufficiently cover typical daily requirements, and the prices offered were also the best for the countries where it offered coverage. Wefly operates out of shopping portals like Shopee and qoo10, so as long as you still have internet access you’ll be able to purchase additional data top-ups if necessary.

For China, there’s also an option to take a plan for S$9.20 that gives you a total of 5GB 5G/4G data over 7 days, a worthy option if you need faster speeds or just want more data. 

Best of the rest

Here are some of the other recommended plans worth considering by country.

Regional travel:

• Jetpac’s Asia-Pacific travel plan covers 15 countries and gives you 5GB of 4G/LTE/5G data (depending on the country). This includes all of the East Asian countries we’re covering here so is another good option, especially if you intend to travel to more than one of the countries within the month. The plan is valid for 30 days and costs S$20.50.

• You could get two packs of the Zero1 2Go -China 2GB for a total of 4GB 4G data. Each is valid for 15 days, and costs S$9, bringing the total cost to S$18. However, we’d recommend going for the Zero1 2Go -China 5GB plan instead. This costs only S$0.50 more,  but gives you 5GB of 4G data, good for 30 days, meaning you’re getting an extra 1GB of data for just S$0.50 more. 

• For Japan, Jetpac has a slew of options, ranging from 1GB to a whopping 50GB. For our scenario, the 5GB Japan plan is a good option. It costs just S$12 and gives you 5GB of data on KDDI’s 4G/LTE/5G networks, valid for 30 days. 
  
   
• (Editor's note) – I used Ubigi personally when touring Japan last December. It's not the cheapest, but it provides 5G speeds and coverage was good even in the city outskirts and rural areas. It uses the KDDI and NTT DoCoMo networks. A 3GB plan will set you back US$8 (~S$10.42) and lasts 30 days. Heavy users will be happy to know there's a 10GB plan for US$14 (~S$18.24), though this only last 7 days.

• For South Korea, we’d look at Ubigi’s offerings. You can take one pack of the South Korea, 1GB, 7 days for US$6, and one of the South Korea, 3GB, 30 days for US$9. That brings your total cost to US$15 (~S$19.54) for 4GB 3G/4G/5G data.

• AirSIM has two offerings for Taiwan that are worth considering. You can take the Taiwan 7-day 4G data plan for S$14 or pay S$2 more to get the Taiwan Unlimited 7-day 4G data plan at just S$16. In both cases, you’ll be roaming on Chunghwa Telecom’s 4G LTE/3G network, but the first option will see speeds capped at 256kbps when daily usage exceeds 500MB.

Navigating the Great Firewall of China

Travelling to China puts you in unique circumstances because many popular social media platforms and services are blocked by the Chinese government. These include Google, YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, Instagram, and more. 

You can get around this by using a VPN, but even these can be blocked. Unless it's absolutely crucial, we recommend using the apps that locals do. Here are some examples:

• WeChat (微信) – Probably the most used social network in China. This gives you messaging and social media updates. It's also widely used for mobile payments in stores and restaurants.
  
   
• Alipay (支付宝) – This is Alibaba Group’s payment platform. Since it's also used by TaoBao, there’s a good chance you already have an account. Link to your credit card and use across “tens of millions of merchants” across the country. 
  
   
• GaoDe Maps (高德地图) – Use this instead of Google Maps when in China. You’ll get detailed maps and directions. You’ll get accurate route planning and real-time traffic updates. 
  
   
• Didi (滴滴出行) – Think of this as China’s equivalent of Grab or Uber. Use it to book cars, taxis, buses and even bicycles for transport. 
  
   
• Dianping (大众点评) – As the name implies, this app brings you recommendations from fellow users. Use it to find great eats around you, or even to find trustworthy shops and hotels.
  
   
• Pleco – This is a comprehensive Chinese-English dictionary that has Optical Character Recognition and handwriting support, so you can search without knowing how to pronounce characters. 

How much data do I really need?

The short answer is that more is always better. But considering budget restraints, you generally want to get just enough to cover your daily browsing needs while overseas. This would mean having enough data for maps and navigation, local apps for getting the best deals and tips at your travel destination, and, of course, data to update your socials and stay in touch with family and friends. Want to know how much data you need to keep up with your TV or movie fix? We’ve got that covered too; just refer to the table below. 

Note: These are estimates, actual figures will vary depending on various factors. Also, these estimates are based on doing nothing but that single activity for a whole hour. Your actual usage will differ since most people will be doing a mix of activities throughout the day.

According to Statista, the average person spends about 143 minutes on social media each day. That works out to around 230MB of data for social media. If we use our guideline of 500MB of data a day, this means you should have around 270MB of data remaining for other tasks like navigating, messaging, and emails. Furthermore, it's unlikely that you will spend as much time on social media while abroad since you'll likely be too occupied with other things.

Maximizing your travel data 

Now that we know how much data each activity consumes, let’s look at how to best maximize the travel data we have. 

There are three main ways:

• Preload maps and videos
• Lower quality when on the go
• Wait for Wi-Fi

Preload to skip the download

Research is usually a big part of any travel preparation, so why not download the maps you need for your trip at the same time? That gives you instant access when you need to navigate your way, and probably lowers the anxiety of being lost while waiting. Further, you won’t have to worry about spotty network coverage.

In the Google Maps, simply search your selected location, tap to expand the result, then tap the three dots at the right corner and select “Download offline map”. 

If you plan on watching shows while travelling, definitely download them before your trip. Your favourite video streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV+ all have this option. Just browse to the show you want to watch, and click on the download button.

You can do the same for music too. Both Spotify and Apple Music have the option to download entire albums and playlists. Together, these tips will help you save precious roaming data.

Go low when on-the-go

Instagram, Facebook, Spotify and WhatsApp all have built-in settings to lower their data use. These will basically let you turn off media auto downloads or lower the quality of pictures or videos downloaded when on cellular data. Netflix has a data saver option that reduces data usage to 1GB per 6 hours of video. Disney+, Apple TV+, and Amazon Prime Video all have similar options too.

However, even with these data-saving modes activated, it's clear that streaming videos consume a lot of data – relative to other online activities. Our recommendation is to hold off on streaming videos and wait until you can get to a place with Wi-Fi (more on this below).

Tap on to (trusted) Wi-Fi

The best way to conserve your roaming data is to wait till you’re on a trusted Wi-Fi network to do all your heavy downloads and uploads. Following the steps above should ensure that the apps you use don’t download in the background while you’re on roaming data. So, get your gaming fix in and watch your movies or TV shows only when you have access to a secure Wi-Fi network. To keep yourself safe, we’d recommend using a VPN service to further secure your connection, so you can download and surf with greater peace of mind. 

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