Before you start

Passport, and usually a residence permit or valid visa
A Guangzhou address for broadband
An unlocked, ideally dual-SIM or eSIM-capable handset
A payment method for top-ups

Step-by-step

1
Get the SIM in your first days
Any China Mobile, Unicom or Telecom shop issues one against your passport under real-name registration. Prepaid data plans are cheap. Do this before the bank and before flat viewings.
In personWho: YouDay 1–2
2
Register it in your own name, not the company's
An employer-registered number takes your bank verification and payment wallets with it when you change jobs. One extra shop visit removes the whole class of problem.
In personWho: You
3
Order broadband and check the building first
Chinese fibre is fast and cheap; installation depends on the building's wiring and landlord cooperation. Taking over an existing live line in the flat is far faster than a new install — ask at the viewing.
In personWho: You1–2 weeks
4
Sort out access to critical accounts before you fly
Email, password manager, authenticator, banking. Set the arrangement up and test it while you still have unrestricted access. If your work involves overseas customers, raise it with your employer at offer stage.
OnlineWho: YouBefore departure
5
Consider a Hong Kong or Macau data SIM in a second slot
Hong Kong and Macau operators sit outside mainland network filtering and their numbers roam on mainland towers. In the Pearl River Delta this is a common and entirely ordinary arrangement, usually as a data-only roaming plan.
Mobile appWho: You
6
Install the apps the city runs on
WeChat for social and much that is official, Alipay for payments, Amap or Baidu Maps for navigation, DiDi for taxis, Meituan and Ele.me for delivery. Google Maps does not work in mainland China.
Mobile appWho: YouWeek 1

Documents you’ll need

Passport
Residence permit or valid visa
Guangzhou address for broadband
Payment method for top-ups

Things most newcomers don’t know

For a trading business, connectivity is not a lifestyle question — it is the job.

Guangzhou's economy runs on communication with customers and suppliers outside China, and a large part of the tooling those counterparties use is unreachable from an ordinary mainland connection. Email that will not sync, video calls that fail, cloud drives that time out. Companies here solve this in various ways and the arrangement differs enormously between a multinational, a Chinese exporter and a small trading office. Ask specifically what is provided before accepting a role.

Source: community-reported

The Chinese phone number is the root of your identity, and losing it is expensive.

Real-name registration binds the number to your passport, and from there it becomes the verification anchor for your bank, Alipay, WeChat Pay, hospital bookings, delivery apps and often your building's door access. Re-establishing it after a lapse means redoing the registration and re-verifying each downstream service. Keep it topped up through long absences.

Source: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

WeChat is the business card, the payment rail and the official channel at once.

In a trading city WeChat is where deals are done, samples are discussed and payments are agreed. It is also where your landlord, building management and government service accounts reach you. Declining it is not an option. Set it up before arrival if possible — verification sometimes requires an existing user to vouch for you, which is easier to arrange from outside China.

Source: community-reported

Google Maps does not work here, and in a city of wholesale markets that matters.

China mandates a coordinate offset on published mapping data and Google's mainland base data is poor and misaligned. Amap and Baidu Maps are accurate, integrate with the metro and DiDi, and — importantly in Guangzhou — actually index the individual buildings and floors of the wholesale market complexes, which is how you find a specific supplier's booth.

Source: community-reported