Panda Phones in china?

It鈥檚 my understanding that the Panda phones are the best or only way to call the US from China. We will be in China for an adoption of our Daughter for about 12 days, anyone had any experience. How much do minutes cost, how much is a typical 10-mintest call to the us, how good is the service.

Thanks

hi there, im pretty sure that panda phones is not the only way to call america from china. as far as i know, panda is the brand of a company making super cheap low quality phones in china, mainly targetting the lower income group within the nation itself, never heard of any overseas calls service by them.

for overseas calling (to anywhere), you can get ip phone cards at the airport when you arrive, or newspaper stands when you're out on the streets, there is a wide range of different cards to choose from, just ask around which is most suitable for calling the states. a 10 min call will cost you around around just 1 buck.

check out this site for some info, but i dont recommend you to purchase it online. (ive never tried before, just a gauge for prices)
http://www.1stphonecard.com/phonecards.c...

they are pretty good but pandas dont talk very much, just chew bamboo on the end of the line

Pandaphone is a company that rents and sells cell phones,as well as SIM card to be used in GSM phones. Probably not worth. Do you already have a GSM cell phone? If so, make sure it is unlocked, then just get a China Mobile SIM card (there is also China Unicom and China Telecom) when you arrive in China. You can recharge the card in thousands of points across China. Local rates are very low, but a bit higher for international calls although you can still connect (I think the cost is $US0.19 per minute for incoming calls, and about $US1 for outgoing calls). You can also route your calls through an IP like Telestial over the internet for half the normal rate.

If you don't have a GSM cell phone, buy the cheapest package ($US50 for a Motorola C118) from Mobal, and insert a local SIM card as I do. This Motorola phone can send and receive SMS (text) and comes with an international SIM card. That international SIM card is useful but so expensive to use, so I keep it in my wallet for emergencies or if I run out of minutes on my local SIM card.