I don't think pre-paid Chinese SIM cards can make International calls, can they?

you can't make international calls unless you call the operator to "register" and pay thru the roof for the privilege. Buy a LD card (such as IP Card) and use that.

You can't call IDD (which's a good thing!) with prepaid SIM cards. However I always buy such SIM cards for friends/other travellers and set it up so that they can easily call internationally with the addition of a code, and you don't have to pay through the roof for that.

Just use your hotel's IDD. You just have to check with your hotel first on the rates of international calls. They aren't really expensive in my experience.

As far as I have experienced. You can call from a prepaid China Mobile card at around 8 yuan per minute. On the other hand, you can SMS home for about 1 yuan and they can call you back. Works out cheaper overall.

Some (used to be the majority) SIM cards charge for receiving calls. Especially expensive when you're roaming domestically.

I found some more information here after my last post:

chinamobile.com/en/…easyown.html

You could also check out M Zone at the same website.

Hope this helps.