China Airport Wi-Fi: How Foreigners Get Online

China airport free Wi-Fi: how foreigners log in

To use the free Wi-Fi at a Chinese airport, join the airport’s free network, then log in on the page that opens. Foreigners can log in with a passport photo, a login from a passport kiosk, a code sent by text or WeChat. Which of these you get depends on the airport.

1. In your phone’s Wi-Fi settings, join the airport’s free network. The airport guides below give the network names.
2. Wait for the login page to open in your browser. If it doesn’t, open a plain http address such as http://example.com. NordVPN’s help center suggests this to bring up a Wi-Fi login page.
3. Log in with one of the methods below.

Passport photo on the login page

At Shanghai Pudong, Shanghai Hongqiao, Beijing Capital and Beijing Daxing, you can take a photo of your passport on the Wi-Fi login page. At Pudong and Hongqiao, the airport’s steps are: choose Passport Login, take a photo of your passport when prompted, and you’re online once it’s verified. At Daxing, the Beijing government says you photograph your passport’s information page on the login page.

Beijing Capital lists a passport login among its four ways to log in. IT Home, a Chinese tech news site, reported in October 2026 that you photograph your passport’s information page and the system reads it and logs you in.

Passport kiosks

Many airports have self-service kiosks that scan your passport and give you a login for the Wi-Fi page.

• Shanghai Pudong and Hongqiao: place your passport on the kiosk’s scanner and tap the screen to get a number. Enter it on the login page.
• Beijing Capital and Daxing: a 2024 Beijing government guide says the kiosks scan your passport and print a username and password.
• Guangzhou Baiyun: China Southern Airlines says kiosks in Terminal 2 scan a passport, ID card or boarding pass and give you a Wi-Fi password.
• Chengdu Tianfu: the airport says its kiosks scan your passport and print a slip with a username and password.
• Chongqing and Xiamen: 2026 travel guides report kiosks that give you a login with your passport.

Shenzhen and Hangzhou list Wi-Fi kiosks but don’t say whether they take foreign passports. At Shenzhen, a 2019 post from the airport’s official account said the kiosks took passports. Kiosks at Xi’an and Kunming are not confirmed.

If you can’t find a kiosk, ask airport staff. The 2024 Beijing government guide suggests showing them this sentence: 请问最近的无线上网身份验证自助终端在哪里? It asks where the nearest Wi-Fi identity check kiosk is.

Text code

Most airports also send a login code to your phone by text, but not every airport sends it to foreign numbers.

• Beijing Capital says its text login supports phone numbers from all countries and regions.
• Xi’an’s Wi-Fi guide says its text code works with mainland Chinese numbers only.
• Chongqing: East China Trip, a tour operator, says in a September 2026 guide that the text login is for users with a Chinese mobile number.
• Kunming: guides disagree. Travel Chengdu’s January 2026 guide says you need a Chinese number, and InYunnan’s March 2026 guide says an international number sometimes works.

At the other airports, whether the code reaches a foreign number is not confirmed. If no code arrives, use a passport login or a kiosk.

WeChat

If you already use WeChat, Pudong, Beijing Capital, Daxing, Guangzhou and Xi’an list a WeChat login. East China Trip lists one at Chongqing. Whether it works with a WeChat account registered to a foreign number is not confirmed.

China airport Wi-Fi by airport

Here is how you log in at each airport we cover. Each guide has the steps and sources.

Airport	How to log in	Guide
Shanghai Pudong	Passport photo on the login page, a passport kiosk, a text code or WeChat	Pudong airport Wi-Fi guide
Shanghai Hongqiao	Passport photo on the login page, a passport kiosk or a text code	Hongqiao airport Wi-Fi guide
Beijing Capital	Passport login, a kiosk, WeChat, or a text code to any country’s number	Beijing airport Wi-Fi guide
Beijing Daxing	Passport photo on the login page, a kiosk, WeChat or a phone number	Daxing airport Wi-Fi guide
Guangzhou Baiyun	Phone number or WeChat; kiosks scan a passport for a password	Guangzhou airport Wi-Fi guide
Shenzhen Bao’an	Text code, or a password from a Wi-Fi kiosk	Shenzhen airport Wi-Fi guide
Chengdu Tianfu and Shuangliu	Tianfu: text code, or a passport kiosk that prints a login. Shuangliu: not confirmed	Chengdu airport Wi-Fi guide
Hangzhou Xiaoshan	Text code, ID document or kiosk; whether they take passports is not confirmed	Hangzhou airport Wi-Fi guide
Xi’an Xianyang	Text code (mainland Chinese numbers only) or WeChat	Xi’an airport Wi-Fi guide
Chongqing Jiangbei	Per guides: text code for Chinese numbers, WeChat, or a passport kiosk	Chongqing airport Wi-Fi guide
Kunming Changshui	Per guides: text code; they disagree on foreign numbers	Kunming airport Wi-Fi guide
Xiamen Gaoqi	Per guides: text code, or a passport kiosk in T3	Xiamen airport Wi-Fi guide

The Chongqing, Kunming and Xiamen rows come from travel guides.

Chinese free Wi-Fi: why it asks for a phone number

Chinese free Wi-Fi asks for a phone number or an ID because public Wi-Fi in China needs a real-name login. Beijing Capital airport says it offers its four login methods under public security rules on real-name authentication for public Wi-Fi (公共场所Wi-Fi实名认证).

A text code is the usual way to log in. Wander in China, a travel guide site, says in its July 2026 Chongqing airport guide that most public Wi-Fi networks in China require SMS verification. It says that without a Chinese number, or a foreign number that reliably receives Chinese texts, you can’t connect that way.

At airports, the passport login and the kiosks get around this. East China Trip describes the kiosks at Chongqing airport as designed for travelers without a mobile number.

What doesn’t work on China airport Wi-Fi

Google, WhatsApp and other blocked apps don’t work on airport Wi-Fi in China without a VPN. Airport Wi-Fi is a Chinese network, so the usual blocks apply. Airalo says Google (including Gmail and Maps), Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube and WhatsApp are generally inaccessible on local networks in China.

A roaming eSIM doesn’t help while your phone is on the Wi-Fi. Airalo says its eSIM gives full access to blocked sites “as long as you are using your eSIM data (and not the hotel Wi-Fi)”. The same goes for airport Wi-Fi: turn Wi-Fi off to use the eSIM’s data.

More on whether WhatsApp works in China and on choosing between an eSIM and a VPN for China.

Getting online when you land

When you land, you can get internet at the airport with the free Wi-Fi, a roaming eSIM or a Chinese SIM card. To use blocked apps on the Wi-Fi, connect a VPN after you log in. For the onward trip, see China high-speed train Wi-Fi.

A roaming eSIM

A roaming eSIM gives you mobile data without the airport login. Airalo says its eSIM data is routed through secure gateways outside mainland China, so blocked sites work on it without a VPN. InYunnan suggests getting an eSIM before your trip. Each provider’s routing is in our China eSIM comparison.

A Chinese SIM card at the airport

Some airports sell Chinese SIM cards. Pudong lists shops in both terminals that sell domestic and overseas SIM cards, and several are open 24 hours. Beijing Capital says domestic and international SIM cards are sold at booths around the airport, with service centers in Terminals 2 and 3. Each airport guide above covers the SIM counters its sources confirm.

A Chinese number also works with text logins that only take mainland numbers, such as Xi’an’s. A Chinese SIM uses a local network, so the same apps stay blocked on it. More on how foreigners get a Chinese phone number.

A VPN on the airport Wi-Fi

If you use a VPN, log in to the Wi-Fi with the VPN off, then connect it. NordVPN’s help center calls the login page on public Wi-Fi at hotels, airports and cafes a captive portal. It says auto-connect stops that page from loading, and a kill switch blocks all non-VPN traffic, so the page never appears.

1. Turn off your VPN’s auto-connect and kill switch, and disconnect the VPN.
2. Join the airport’s free network and complete the login.
3. If the login page doesn’t appear, open a plain http address such as http://example.com. NordVPN suggests this to bring the page up.
4. Connect the VPN, then turn the kill switch and auto-connect back on.

Set up the VPN before you travel. InYunnan says you won’t be able to download one once you’re in China. Provider-specific fixes are in our guide to using a VPN on hotel Wi-Fi in China.