Do Line and KakaoTalk work in China?
No, both are blocked. Line has been blocked in mainland China since 2015, and KakaoTalk went dark around the same time. Messages hang, stickers never send, and calls fail on any mainland network, including your hotel's wifi. Both work normally in Hong Kong and Macau. On the mainland you need a VPN or a roaming eSIM, set up before you arrive.
What actually happens when you try
Line opens, shows the chat list, and every message you send hangs with no delivery mark while the family group chat carries on without you. Calls ring nowhere. KakaoTalk fails the same way. Neither app shows an error; the Great Firewall drops their traffic silently, exactly as it does WhatsApp's.
This page is really for travelers from Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan, where Line or KakaoTalk is the phone. The blast radius is bigger than chat: Line Pay balances are unreachable, Line-based logins to other apps fail, and the KakaoTalk verification codes that Korean services love to send arrive into an app that can't receive them.
What still works without a VPN
- iMessage and FaceTime, if both ends are iPhones, which covers a lot of Japanese and Korean families.
- SMS and calls over roaming, at your carrier's rates; fine for logistics, painful for the group chat.
- WeChat, which your relatives probably don't have, but any local contact will.
How to keep the family chat alive: two real options
Option 1: a VPN, installed before you fly. Through a working VPN, Line and KakaoTalk behave normally: messages, stickers, photos, and calls. Traveler's VPN provisions a private server with an IP only you use, and for this audience the server-region choice matters: pick one near home (Tokyo or Seoul routes exist precisely for this) so calls stay low-latency. Smart routing sends Line and KakaoTalk through the tunnel while WeChat, Alipay, and local maps stay direct.
Option 2: a travel eSIM. Roaming data from home carriers or travel eSIMs exits outside the firewall, so both apps work on cellular with no VPN. Japanese and Korean carrier roaming packages are often the simplest version of this. As always: the moment you join hotel wifi, the block is back, so most travelers run both.
Verification-code warning: Korean and Japanese services that send login codes via KakaoTalk or Line will strand you mid-login in China. Switch critical accounts to SMS or authenticator codes before you fly.
Frequently asked
Do Line and KakaoTalk work in Hong Kong or Macau?
Yes, both work normally there with no VPN. The Great Firewall applies to mainland China only, and both also work normally in Taiwan.
Does Line Pay work in China?
No. Line Pay rides on Line's blocked infrastructure and isn't accepted by Chinese merchants anyway. Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay with your home card before you fly.
Will my Line account be okay while I'm in China?
Yes. Nothing happens to the account; messages queue on Line's servers and deliver when you connect via VPN or leave the mainland. Warn your groups you may be slow to reply.
Does carrier roaming from Japan or Korea beat the block?
Yes, on cellular: roaming data tunnels back through your home carrier, outside the firewall, so Line and KakaoTalk work without a VPN. On hotel wifi you're blocked again, which is what the VPN is for.
