{"id":62846,"date":"2026-06-22T17:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T09:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=62846"},"modified":"2026-06-22T17:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T09:40:12","slug":"a-phone-away-from-home-china-urged-to-provide-rental-handsets-to-aid-tourists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=62846","title":{"rendered":"A phone away from home: China urged to provide rental handsets to aid tourists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/06\/22\/81868ad7-712b-4626-a309-772e7ac5ea9d_9bb98d38.jpg?itok=rhRW1K_f&amp;v=1782120987\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A Chinese think tank is urging the country to offer foreign visitors domestically made phones packed with local apps at border entry points, allowing inbound tourists access to payment and reservation tools that devices made overseas often lack.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Inbound travellers should be able to borrow low-end 4G or 5G handsets near immigration checkpoints, such as airports, the Straits Urban Research Institute recommended in a commentary. The phones would come with eSIM cards plus pre-installed apps that could be used to show maps, process e-payments, book hotels and make emergency calls, it said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cChina\u2019s inbound tourism market continues to recover, but international tourists still face a significant \u2018digital divide\u2019 in China,\u201d according to the commentary posted Sunday on WeChat by the independent academic group, which focuses on macroeconomics, urban development and geopolitics.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The think tank cited surveys showing that more than two in three independent travellers from outside China said they were affected by \u201cthe inability to use mainstream domestic apps for booking and payment\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Foreign tourists on average must download at least six apps to \u201cmeet their basic needs\u201d while travelling, the institute said. Ready-to-use phones would meet those needs while leaving travellers with a good impression of Chinese technology, it added.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Phone sales at border entry points \u201cwould address practical bottlenecks in payment and reservation systems in the short term, while fostering China\u2019s international competitiveness in digital services in the long term, transforming inbound tourism facilitation into a window showcasing the country\u2019s digital development achievements\u201d, it said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3357929\/phone-away-home-china-urged-provide-rental-handsets-aid-tourists?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Chinese think tank is urging the country to offer foreign visitors domestically made phones packed with local apps at border entry points, allowing inbound&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4840],"tags":[2438,832,15956,469,723,484,14816,5593,8986],"class_list":["post-62846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-globetrotting","tag-aid","tag-china","tag-handsets","tag-home","tag-phone","tag-provide","tag-rental","tag-tourists","tag-urged","wpcat-4840-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}