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| Useful
Advice for Tourists Visiting China |
Electricity,
Adapters, Appliances, DVD's
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Introduction:
This page contains general information for
Tourists, and should be read in conjunction with larger
topics that have separate and dedicated pages of their
own
Topics on this page include:
Electricity
Adapters
Electrical Appliances
DVD's, CD's, Games etc
Electricity
1. Electricity is 220 Volts.
2. China has around 18 different types
of plug socket, but these are being normalised to about
four.
3. British and European appliances
will work fine in China. No problem. USA uses 110 volts,
so these will not work unless they have dual compatibility?
4. In China all major cities will have
retail stores selling a full range of electrical items
so you can easily buy here at cheap prices. This comment
is intended for those who are restricted for bulk or
weight during flights; so know there are a full range
of hairdryers and similar items readily available for
a few US Dollars. Also see our Appliances section below
for more information
Traveller's Checklist:
Remember to bring these items with you:
* Mobile phone charger
* Power leads for camera's, laptops, games machines,
and all personal electronic items
* Connection leads for Camera's, laptops, etc to a computer
(USB)
* Additional memory cards, memory sticks and chips etc,
for camera's, computers, etc (Can be purchased cheaply
here also)
* Any specific Drivers and Utility packs for rare camera's
and similar items (Stored on USB memory stick is best).
This is specifically if you intend to upload photos
onto a web space, thus freeing your camera memory. Some
internet cafe's may be using Windows 98 machines which
do not have modern style 'Plug and Play' capabilities
(Rare, but more likely than "possible"). Most
of China used XP Service Pack 1 by the way
Adapters
China has a very good range of adapters
and extension leads that are easily available on local
streets for around $2. Please buy the ones marked 15Amp,
as lower rated cables tend to melt! These have multiple
multi-interfaces, meaning they handle just about any
type of plug including: British round and square pins,
European standard plugs
Electrical Appliances
Most Chinese cities will have many retailers offering
a very full range of electrical appliances, and perhaps
some which are appealing to you for use at home? We
would advise you to buy products made by one of the
better Chinese brand names. The following are regarded
as being of good quality and reliable: Midea and Galanz
are generally considered to be the best manufacturers,
but also seriously consider: Konse, Gree, Haiar, Rongsheng
and Eternal. This list is by no means exclusive, and
price is often a good indicator of quality. Lets look
at a few examples:
1. Rice Cookers:
A Rice Cooker is a very good example of what may be
very useful in the West. These have 2 settings: Rice
or Soup. Once heated, the temperature is maintained
at 'simmer' until it is switched off. More expensive
models will do extra tricks
2. Chinese Tea Kettle
Normally these are metal, but there are ceramic and
clear glass versions for little extra. They are designed
to heat a pint or perhaps a litre of water to around
80 degrees, and then maintain the temperature. Some
have adjustable temperature settings which are better
suited to Western home use. Of course, these can be
used with any liquid, not just water. Most will have
a heat-sensor type cut-off for no liquid protection.
They are an unusual addition to your home, especially
when entertaining, and quite useful also
3. Translators
These may be of specific interest to world travellers
and people who often visit different areas of China.
Cost for a reasonable one is around Y3, 000. These normally
support a minimum of 18 World Languages, and also different
character sets such as Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese,
Korean, Thai, Indian and Arabic. Consider these if you
need to translate sentences or communicate with people
who use characters instead of ABC. For this price they
will also have a spoken output in the selected language,
and input via hand writing also. By comparison, most
mobile phones with translators only translate one word
at a time, and have other shortcomings
4. Hobs
Most electrical retailers stock a selection of portable
electric hobs, which come with large, lidded steamers.
These are designed for cooking at table. The metal pan
is about 1 foot wide and 4 inches deep. It is normally
filled with water, herbs and spices. Diners then dip
thinly sliced raw meat, vegetables, and other foods
into the pan and cook as required. It is a most relaxing
and enjoyable way of eating. Some pans have two or more
internal partitions, and these are used for different
spices. Often one is for hot chillie, and the other
for cooling coconut milk. You can do what you like actually
The hobs themselves are very reliable and come in many
designs, including modern glass and more traditional
ceramic hob versions. Controls vary, and often these
are labeled in both Chinese and English. Simple ones
have heat settings plus on and off switch. Others have
additional timers and can do tricks regarding presets
for different types of food. What is generally universal
is that they have cut-out sensors to prevent damage
from a dry pan. This is great in general, but means
you cannot use these to warm small items such as Spanish
coffee making pots, or heat a cup of water
5. DVD Players:
These are very common and play anything! I seriously
mean any format from any world region. Chinese players
do not have a specified World Region (USA 1, UK and
Europe 2, etc), so they will play all world regions,
and also non region discs
Formats played are virtually anything you can imagine.
DVD, CD, VCD, HVCD, MP3, HDVD-9 and many more
Languages could be more important, as often Western
players are engineered deliberately not to read disc
headers that are not in English, or specific World Languages.
Chinese made players play anything.
Types of Players: Nearly all are single disc machines
that come with full remote control, and a dozen rear
outputs for sound and vision. They often have two KTV
microphone sockets on the front, but do not have headphone
sockets
Quality: Players can be banded into 3 Classes:
A. Premium. Virtually all the well
known International Brands such as Sony, Hitachi, National
Panasonic, Toshiba, Samsung, Sanyo etc. These will cost
around Y1, 000 and give excellent service for many years
B. Good Chinese Brands such as Skyworth,
TCL, Jinli, Congli will also give excellent service
and are basically just as good as the premium brands.
These cost around Y650
C. Cheap Chinese brands are best avoided,
as whilst these tend to work fine for a while, after
a few months you may need to replace the heads or other
components. They may also be a bit finicky about which
discs they will play = poor quality heads. Price range
around Y400
Note:
If you buy any Chinese appliance then it will come with
a Chinese plug. Instead of changing many plugs at home,
you may prefer to take home a Chinese extension lead
with multiple outlets, and only change the one power
plug on this.
DVD's, CD's, Games etc
DVD's, CD's and Games are all easily available on virtually
any Chinese street. Quality does vary, and any good
retailer will play the disc for you, and offer you a
full refund or exchange (your choice) if your player
has problems with it. Difficult if you are in another
country by then.
If you buy to play in your home country, then you are
restricted to what your home player or computer will
support re formats, regions etc = all the global marketing
con tricks. You can expect around 30% of discs not to
play on your machine at home - simply because the format
or file header is not supported by your equipment. Only
1% of these discs may actually be faulty, so try a different
machine or buy a Chinese player
Prices vary according to presentation and quality. Cheap
ones are about 2 for $1USD, and come in thin plastic
wrappers with box insert inside. Standard boxed versions
are about $1 each. Retailers often inflate prices for
foreigners, sometimes by whole decimal points! Offer
Y7 for any standard DVD, CD, or game; and do not pay
more than Y12 ever
Gamers will find all the major current platforms supported,
plus some cross-platform options also. Certainly Sony
Playstation, X-Box, Nintendo, PC, and other latest machines
have full sets of games available everywhere, plus also
some versions for older players and formats
Notes about Copyright issues:
China is regarded as being one of the copy centres of
the world, and in the past this was entirely justified.
Central Government in Beijing has been aggressively
addressing these issues over the last couple of years,
and now licence agreements are becoming standard practice
and illegal copies outlawed and destroyed. Therefore
most of what you can buy in China today is legal, complies
with International Copyrights, and is sold under a licencing
agreement.
Please note that China Expats does respect and support
Artists copyright. We do not respect global monopolies
who become extremely rich at the expense of the buying
public and the artists themselves. Neither do we respect
Industry protectionist policies, such as world regions
and other devices solely designed to make even more
money for already rich people and their companies. We
do believe that media should be affordable by ordinary
people regardless of where they live in the world
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| This
information is as supplied by the Chinese Embassy in
UK, as dated 20th June 2008, and/or other reliable sources.
Please check this information yourself as it may alter
without notice, and whilst we try our best to ensure
it is correct, please do not hold us responsible for
any errors - this is intended as a simple guide only |
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