Note to users of mobile phones in China: if you leave for 6 months and don’t use your phone, China Mobile will cancel your phone number and you can’t get it back. I left for 3 months before and everything was fine, but I guess 6 months was pushing it. The worst thing is that it took me nearly a year to remember that damn phone number! Goodbye +8613816331807, we had some good times.

On the bright side, it’s fairly easy to set up cheap international long distance with China Mobile. Just dial 10086 and ask for the “12593 plan”. When they set this up, you can dial 12593+00+country code+number for 0.4 RMB/minute international long distance (to European and North American countries). The service costs 1 RMB a month.