I use Vonage in China and it is awesome. The voice quality is great and I can call 60 countries unlimited minutes for only $25 US/month. The biggest advantage over a service like Skype is I don't need a computer, and can also call using a regular home phone which I prefer. My biggest wish though is that Vonage would allow me to have a local Chinese # that would forward calls to my Vonage box. Vonage does offer a service called a Virtual #, but as of 2/27/10, in Asia they only offer Japan.

http://www.vonageworld.com/virtualNumber.html

Skype also offers an "Online Number" but in Asia they don't include China, only Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea.

http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/onlinenumber/

So I began researching some alternatives and found a Chinese company similar to Vonage called iTalkBB:

http://www2.italkbb.com/BB/enu/enu_plans.asp

The pricing and features are similar, but the main advantage is being able to have a local Chinese phone #. They also offer local Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korean #'s. I researched a bit and it seems like there are many negative reviews about poor voice quality and awful customer service, but some reviews were in 2007 and 3 years in the internet age can be an eternity. I also tried Vonage several years back and the voice quality and customer support was awful, but things have changed for the better since that time.

Anyway, would appreciate if anyone had any useful info regarding VOIP with a Chinese local #. Great for people like me who travel a lot. Thanks!