Does Telus Roaming Work in China?

Telus roaming charges in China

Telus roaming in China costs C$18 a day with Easy Roam, C$70 for the 14-day Asia pass, or C$10 per MB of data with neither. Rates are from Telus’s travel page, Oct 25, 2026, before tax.

Telus option	What it costs	Data	Talk and text
Easy Roam	C$18 a day	From your plan	Calls in China and to Canada, texts to any number
Asia Easy Roam 14-Day Pass	C$70	From your plan	Unlimited within the pass area
Pay-per-use, Zone 2	Per use	C$10 per MB	C$3.50 a minute, C$0.75 per sent text

• What starts a day: using data, sending a text, making or answering a call, or checking voicemail. Incoming texts don’t.
• Telus’s pages disagree: the travel page and Easy Roam FAQ say C$18 a day, but the pay-per-use rate page still shows C$16, the price before the October 2, 2025 rise MobileSyrup reported. The FAQ ends a day at 11:59 p.m. local time, while one travel-page answer says 24 hours after first use. Texts cost C$0.75 on the rate page and C$0.60 on a billing help page. This page uses the newer price, the FAQ’s rule and the rate page’s C$0.75.
• Per phone: each travelling phone needs Easy Roam and pays its own fee, and Telus sends no running count of those days during the trip. Prepaid phones can’t roam.

Telus China roaming package: the Asia pass

Telus’s China roaming package is the Asia Easy Roam 14-Day Pass: C$70 for 14 days of your plan’s data with unlimited talk and text. Its 13 destinations are Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam; Macau isn’t one. It starts when you arrive and must be used within 30 days of being added. There’s no 7-day version, and four days of Easy Roam already cost C$72.

Telus roaming plans that include China

The 5G+ Complete Unlimited Explore plan includes China: unlimited talk and text in 68 destinations, Hong Kong included but not Macau, plus 5 GB of full-speed data a day, then up to 512 Kbps. Telus’s British Columbia and Ontario plans pages both listed it at C$125 a month before C$10 of discounts on Oct 25, 2026.

On the C$100 and C$115 5G+ Complete plans, Easy Roam is from C$5 a day outside their included areas; after a plan change, Telus says that rate can take up to 30 days to apply. The five-year price lock excludes Easy Roam rates.

Telus data roaming in China

Telus data roaming in China uses your monthly plan’s data, on Easy Roam or a pass. You can add a top-up in My TELUS, and use beyond your plan costs what it would in Canada.

• Speed: Telus’s travel page gives no daily speed cap, but iPhone in Canada wrote in October 2026 that Telus caps full-speed roaming at 5 GB a day, as Bell does.
• C$100 cap: iPhone in Canada says carriers must stop data roaming charges at C$100 a billing cycle unless you agree to pay more, which at C$10 per MB is 10 MB. Telus has asked the CRTC to drop the cap.
• Background data: Telus says app refresh, push notifications, OS updates and find-my-device pings can trigger Easy Roam, so switch data roaming off on days you want to skip.

How to turn on Telus data roaming in China

1. From each travelling phone, text ROAM to 7626 to check for or add Easy Roam, or ASIA14PASS for the Asia pass; My TELUS works too. Telus says texts to 7626 are free, even abroad, and don’t trigger Easy Roam. Its agents can’t add Easy Roam for you.
2. Turn on data roaming (iPhone: Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options > Data Roaming; Android: Settings > Network and Internet > Mobile Network > Roaming). Telus’s free welcome text on arrival says which rates apply.

Does Telus work in China without a VPN?

Telus’s website doesn’t cover routing, but a Telus support account says roaming data should get past the firewall. The posts below are from a May 2026 r/telus thread about a six-day China trip:

• On June 3, 2026, a Telus support account wrote that roaming traffic in China is “routed all the way back through the core network here at home”, so “you should bypass the ‘Great Firewall’ entirely” and reach Google Maps, Gmail and social media without a VPN.
• Asked on July 30, 2026 about connection problems, the original poster replied: “No it was great.” The next day, another Telus support account wrote that a coworker’s Easy Roam had worked fine in China.
• One member predicted “brutal” latency, “but it will work”.

For backup routes, see WhatsApp in China, Gmail in China and Google Maps in China.

Wi-Fi is another matter: BGR’s July 2026 explainer puts local Wi-Fi in China behind the Great Firewall, so blocked apps on hotel or café Wi-Fi need a VPN. Install one before you fly, and see VPN for hotel Wi-Fi in China and eSIM or VPN for China.

Telus roaming in China vs a travel eSIM for a 7-day trip

Over seven days in China, unlimited eSIM data costs about half as much as the Asia pass, unless your plan gets Easy Roam at C$5 a day. The table uses each provider’s Oct 25, 2026 price for one person in Canadian dollars; Telus’s exclude tax.

Telus or eSIM	China data	7 days
Telus Easy Roam	From your plan	C$126
Telus Asia Easy Roam 14-Day Pass	From your plan	C$70
Nomad	Unlimited, 2 GB a day at full speed, then 1 Mbps	C$35.01
Holafly	Unlimited	C$38

• 10 days: C$180 on Easy Roam, from C$50 on 5G+ Complete, or C$70 for the pass, against C$46.21 on Nomad and C$52 on Holafly.
• Texts and codes: travel eSIMs are usually data-only, Telus notes, so two-factor texts still come over roaming or Wi-Fi calling. Incoming texts don’t trigger Easy Roam, so keep the Telus line on, with data roaming off, for codes. See two-factor codes in China.
• Before you fly: Nomad’s checkout notice says its data plans can’t be bought on arrival in China, citing local policy.

Our eSIM comparison covers routing and slowdowns for each eSIM. Bell and Rogers customers have their own guides, Bell roaming in China and Rogers roaming in China, and using your phone in China covers phones and SIM cards.