Special Telephone Numbers

Electricity
The electricity in China is 220 volts, but the bathrooms of many luxury and medium-grade hotels also have 110-volt sockets.

Drinking Water
Only a few luxury hotels provide drinkable tap water. The bottled water is always recommended.

Work and Rest
The working week in China is from Monday through Friday. Most people do not work on Saturdays and Sundays.

National Holidays

Chinese Currency
Chinese currency is issued by the People's Bank of China.
The standard unit of Chinese currency is the Renminbi (RMB), also known as the yuan. The subsidiary units are the jiao and the fen. One yuan equals ten jiao, which in turn equals ten fen. Yuan, jiao and fen are issued both in bills and in coins. Chinese currency is issued in the following denominations: one, two, five, ten, 20, 50 and 100 yuan; one, two and five jiao; and one, two and five fen. The symbol for RMB is £¤.

Money Exchange
The circulation of foreign currencies is forbidden in the People's Republic of China. All expenditures in China must be settled with RMB(REN MIN BI, YUAN). The bank of China and other designated Chinese banks can convert foreign traveler's checks and cash, and also can cash foreign credit cards into RMB. Most of the hotels and some big stores in China provide foreign exchange service. The daily exchange rate without any exchange commission is issued by the State Administration of Exchange Control. The remainder of RMB can be only changed back to US dollars at Bank of China at the end of the trip.

Postal Service
Postal service is available at the service desks of hotels and post offices. Please use standard envelopes, write the postal code, and be sure to use enough stamps. EMS is also available in most post offices and express mail agencies.

Quarantine Service
Inbound and outbound passengers must accept health quarantine inspections by frontier quarantine services if so requested. Persons carrying such objects as microorganisms, tissues from the human body, biological products, blood, or blood products cannot enter or exit unless they apply to a health quarantine service and accept required quarantine inspections. Persons who enter or leave China carrying, or consigning shipment luggage or objects that may cause the spread of contagious disease are obliged to treat or destroy such articles as foodstuffs, drinks, and aquatic products if they are contaminated by contagious diseases.
Persons arriving from areas infested with yellow fever must present certificates of inoculation against yellow fever to the quarantine department when entering China. Any person not having the above mentioned certificate will be detained for observation until the sixth day after leaving the infested area, or such person may be inoculated and detained until the time when the inoculation is deemed effective.
Health quarantine services are obliged by law to prevent any foreigner suffering from AIDS, venereal disease, leprosy, mental illness, or active tuberculosis from entering China.