23.Travel Tips Modern Conveniences Electricity
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Travel Tips
Modern Conveniences
Electricity
Most household utilities in Beijing are
prepaid. If you are renting an apartment your electricity should be
connected before you move in. The charges for electricity, gas and water
are usually included in your bi-monthly utility bill from the property
management company. Otherwise you need to go to a bank or self-service
machine to buy an electricity card, pre-loaded with a certain amount of
electricity credit. Then you insert the card in the electricity meter.
If you forget, or the card runs out, then the electricity cuts off and
you have to wait until you can purchase another electricity card, so
make sure to plan ahead before public holidays. Gas is handled in the
same way. In Shanghai utilities are not prepaid in this way.
China uses 220 volt current so you will
not be able to use your North American appliances unless they include an
adapter. An external adapter will be marked 110-220v or 100-240v.
Electrical sockets in China usually have two flat or two rounded holes
(not three pins).
Laundry
When traveling or staying in Beijing you
have a few options for getting your laundry done. The tourist hotels and
some free-standing laundry services will charge a high fee per item.
Another choice is to take your laundry to a service that charges by
weight. One such service is Jing Quan, a chain of campus laundomats,
which has a location in the southwest corner of Peking University. You
do not have to be a student to use the service and if you get your load
there before 10:30am, you can pick it up again, washed, dried and
folded, between 7:00 and 9:00pm. A fairly novel concept in Beijing is
the self-serve laundromat. You can find these at the Holiday Inn Express
Beijing MinZuYuan in the Olympic Business District and at the Express
By Holiday Inn Shangdi near Tsinghua and Peking Universities.
Television
In most apartments in Beijing you will
not be able to get any channels in English. Some visitors working or
studying in Beijing invest in a 0.55m diameter personal satellite dish
to get the digital signals from Dream Satellite Television, which offers
52 channels, mostly in English.
In tourist hotels, channel 9 is often an
English language channel and there are sometimes pay-per-view movies in
English available.
Postal Service
China Post is the national postal service
and has locations all over Beijing, open from 9:00am to 5:00pm on
weekdays and on Saturday mornings. Most offices do not have
English-speaking staff. Tourist hotels offer postal service for mailing
postcards and letters. You can also use international shipping
companies, including FedEx, UPS, TNT and DHL with offices around the
city. If you are mailing any type of published material (including
books, magazines or newspapers) you need to send it from an authorized
post office. To send large or precious items that require customs
clearance use the International Post & Telecommunications Office on
Jianguomen Beidajie. You will need to leave your package unsealed as
they will insist on inspecting it. At the same office you can also
obtain money orders and telephone services both international and within
China. If you are having a package sent to you, the best chance of it
arriving promptly is to have it addressed in Chinese. To collect it you
may need to go to the local post office. Take your passport and
notification card.
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