Traveling with a cell phone - US to China?

A friend of mine is going to Shanghai and he wants to maybe just use a pre-paid or throw-away cell phone for a week to a month. Is there anyway that he can set it up here so that it works when he arrives in Shanghai? Keep in mind that he doesn't know anyone fluent in Mandarin
Thanks

Rent a GSM phone. He should make arrangement at least 7 days before his trip. Verizon has them. I think there website is www.verizonwireless.com look under international services.

hm...not too sure about that

but maybe that cingular wireless pay as you go phone

it has no roaming or long distance fees

If he has an unlocked mobile phone he'll be able to buy a local simcard at the airport - look out for kiosks or desks with the names China Telecom or China Unicom. He'll also be able to buy a topup card (and if he acts like a 'stupid foreigner' they will load it for him) Failing that just look out for the hundreds of stores that sell mobiles, take out his SIMCARD and wave it in the air (NOT SERIOUS!). There are enough English speaking people in Shanghai to understand what he wants. DO NOT buy expensive simcards from Europe or N. America.

If his current US cellphone is a GSM, he can simply get a sim card (just say sim ca...if they get you a Simca, try again...) at a China Mobile or China Unicom when he arrives at the airport. There are kiosk selling sim cards for about 50CNY, and you can purchase additional minutes in 50, 100 CNY or more denomination. The card will work all over China, but it's better to get a new card when you go to another city so as to benefit from local rates. It's worth the 50CNY or so considering long distance charges. You will get a unique telephone number everytime you change the sim card.

Some CDMA phones also work on some Chinese networks, but it is a hit and miss and you can't really count on it. My Bell mobility cell phone worked in Shanghai (and I never got charged) but it didn't work elsewhere.

I bought a very inexpensive GSM phone from Mobal, which comes with an international sim card that I use only for emergencies (when I run out of minutes on my sim card, for example). When I arrive at my destination country, I simply buy a local sim card, and I'm in business. The phone itself is a low-cost Nokia or Motorola that supports sms and cost US$50.

CC has almost all the answers.

One more thing: please make sure that you cellphone supports 3 channels of frequency: 900/1800/1900MHz for GSM. In China, we are using 900/1800MHz，but US is 1900MHz.

http://www.telestial.com/view_product.php?PRODUCT_ID=LSIM-CN01

http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/comp/telecom/cellphone/int-service.htm

here are some good websites for your friend to check out