Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Practicalities
» There are four types of plugs - three-pronged angled pins, three-pronged round
pins, two flat pins or two narrow round pins. Electricity is 220 volts, 50 cycles AC.
» The standard English-language newspaper is the (censored)
China Daily
(
www.chinadaily.com.cn
). China's largest circulation Chinese-language daily is the
People's Daily (Renmin Ribao)
. Imported English-language newspapers can be
bought from five-star hotel bookshops.
» Listen to the
BBC World Service
(
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/tuning
)
or
Voice
of America
(
www.voa.gov
)
; however, the websites can be jammed. Chinese Cent-
ral TV (CCTV) has an English-language channel - CCTV9. Your hotel may have
ESPN, Star Sports, CNN or BBC News 24.
» China officially subscribes to the international metric system, but you will en-
counter the ancient Chinese weights and measures system that features the
liang
(tael; 37.5g) and the
jin
(catty; 0.6kg). There are 10
liang
to the
jin
.
Passports
You must have a passport (
huzhao
) on you at all times; it is the most basic
travel document and all hotels will insist on seeing it for check-in. It is now
mandatory to present your passport when buying train tickets; you will also
need it for using internet cafes that accept foreigners.
The Chinese government requires that your passport be valid for at least six
months after the expiry date of your visa. You will need at least one entire
blank page in your passport for the visa.
Take an ID card with your photo in case you lose your passport. Even better,
make photocopies of your passport - your embassy may need these before is-
suing a new one.
Public Holidays
The People's Republic of China has a number of national holidays. Some of
the following are nominal holidays that do not result in leave. It's not a great
