IP cards appear to be colorful with different designs. They are also collectors' items apart from their basic functionality.
Warning! You can't just simply pick up a phone in the city and call home. You need to buy an IP card. They're cheap and widely available at grocery stores and post offices. But IP cards aren't suitable for every phone but usually, you can use IP cards through fix-lined phones and cell-phones.
Domestic long-distance calls and international calls charge different fees. You can dial China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom customer service numbers to get price details.
China Mobile's IP card
dial 17950
press 2 for English service
enter card number and end with #
enter pin number
(country code) district code and telephone number and end with #
China Telecom's IP card
dial 17908
press 2 for English service
enter card number and end with #
enter code number and end with #
enter the number you want to dial and end with #
(Shanghai Daily December 11, 2006)