Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
New Year, and on National Day, most businesses, shops and sights will be shut, though some
restaurants stay open.
The best time to sightsee is during the week, as all attractions are swamped with local tour-
ists at weekends. Some attractions have separate low- and high-season opening times and
prices; in high season (usually March to November), places often open half an hour earlier,
and close half an hour later, and prices sometimes rise by
￥
5-10.
PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
Jan 1
New Year's Day
Feb/March
Chinese New Year (first day of first lunar month)
Early April
Qingming Festival
May 1
Labour Day
June
Dragon Boat Festival (fifth day of fifth lunar month)
September
Mid-Autumn Festival (fifteenth day of eighth lunar month)
Oct 1
National Day
Phones
Local calls are free from landlines, and long-distance China-wide calls are fairly cheap. Note
that everywhere in China has an
areacode
that must be used when phoning from outside that
locality; Beijing's is 010.
The most prevalent
public phones
are located on the outside of small stores - you won't
have to look long to find one. Simply pick up, dial and pay the amount on the meter af-
terwards. Most of these however, will not handle international calls. The cheapest way to
make long-distance and international calls is with
card phones
(
￥
0.3/min for domestic,
￥
1.8-3.2/min international, with a 50 percent discount after 6pm and at weekends). They
take
ICCards
(
IC kă
in Mandarin), which are sold at every little store and in hotels, in units
of
￥
20,
￥
50 and
￥
100. You will be cut off when the credit left on the card drops below
the amount needed for the next minute. You'll find a card phone in every hotel lobby, and
there are many booths on the street. Another option is the
IP card
, which can be used with
any phone, and comes in
￥
100 units. You dial a local number, then a PIN, then the number
you're calling. Rates are as low as
￥
2.4 per minute to the US and Canada,
￥
3.2 to Europe.
Note that calling from
tourist hotels
, whether from your room or from their business
centres, will attract a surcharge that may well be extortionate.
