Help Phone incorrectly adds 1 or + when calling on global phone

[spartlow]

Background:
I have a HTC Incredible 2 with Android 2.3.4 on Verizon. I am currently in China on business and am using a China Unicom GSM SIM card (Verizon gave me a an unlock code).

Problem:
My phone keeps prefixing local Beijing numbers in my contacts so they don't work.

For example my wife's Beijing number is 136 xxxx xxxx but when I add it to my contacts it shows it as +136xxxxxxxx and when I call it it fails ("I get a Chinese voice saying this is not a valid number). Plus during the call it says "Kansas" under it. So it thinks this is an international, when really it's just a local call in Beijing. However, if I manually dial the number (don't use the contact entry) the call goes through fine. The contact does not have a plus in it so editing it doesn't help.

Likewise when calling elong.com (a Chinese travel site) their number is 40 0617 1717. That works fine if I call it manually. However after I added it to my contacts my phone insists on changing the number to 14006171717 which doesn't work. I have to actually delete the contact entry in order to call that number.

Is there some setting to say "I'M NOT IN THE US RIGHT NOW"?

 

[bberryhill0]

I know this question has been asked before but I don't know if it was ever resolved.