THE ROUGH GUIDE to - Parallels Plesk Panel

international call to reach you. For more
information, check with the manufacturer
and/or your telephone service provider. It’s
also worth contacting your phone company
to ask whether they do calling cards that
can be charged to your home bill. Alternatively,
once in Beijing you can buy a GSM
SIM card from any China Mobile shop or
street kiosk, which allows you to use your
phone as though it’s a local mobile, with a
new number, as long your phone is
unlocked. The SIM card costs around ¥100,
with some variation according to how lucky
the digits are – favoured sixes and eights
bump up the price, while unlucky fours
make it cheaper. Additionally, you’ll need to
buy prepaid cards to pay for the calls.
Making and receiving domestic calls this
way costs ¥0.6 per minute; international
calls will cost considerably more.
The cheapest phones to buy will cost
around ¥400; make sure the staff change
the operating language into English for you.
You can also rent mobile phones from
China Mobile, which is most conveniently
arranged online at Wwww.china-mobile
-phones.com. The phone can be picked up
from your hotel and left there when you
leave. Phones cost ¥80, with an ¥8 per day
charge, and all calls are at the local rate.
Time
Beijing, like the rest of China, is eight hours
ahead of GMT, thirteen hours ahead of US
Eastern Standard Time, sixteen hours ahead
of US Pacific Time and two hours behind
Australian Eastern Standard Time. It does
not have daylight saving time.
Tourist information
For details of the government-run CITS
and CYTS offices, see p.25. For the
locations of Chinese tourist offices abroad,
which can book tours and tickets, see
Wwww.cnto.org/offices.htm, and for
details of English-language listings
magazines, see p.29.
Online resources
There’s plenty of online information about
China in general and Beijing specifically,
though as a general rule, avoid websites run
by official agencies such as CITS; they’re dry
as dust. Here’s a selection of sites to start
you off:
The Beijing Page Wwww.beijingpage.com.
A comprehensive and well-organized page of links,
with sections on tourism, entertainment and industry.
CCTV 9 Wwww.cctv-9.com. Featuring a live video
stream plus other programmes available to watch on
demand, this is the website of the Chinese state
television’s English-language channel.
China Business World Wwww.cbw.com.
A corporate directory site with a useful travel
section, detailing tours and allowing you to book
flights and hotels.
China Vista Wwww.chinavista.com. China-based
website with snippets about Chinese culture, history,
attractions and food.
Danwei Wwww.danwei.org. English commentary
and reporting on what’s hot in the Chinese media;
very informative, but usually blocked in China.
Friends of the Great Wall Wwww
.friendsofgreatwall.org. Covers efforts to maintain
and clean up the Great Wall, with useful links.
Sinomania Wwww.sinomania.com.
A California-based site with links to current Chinese
news stories and a good popular music section, with
MP3 downloads available.
Yesasia Wwww.yesasia.com. Online shopping for
Chinese movies, CDs, books, collectables, etc.
Youku Wwww.youku.com. With YouTube blocked,
this popular site fills the gap, with millions of clips and
home videos. In Chinese, but easy enough to navigate.
Zhongwen.com Wwww.zhongwen.com. Especially
interesting if you’re a student of Chinese, this site
includes background on the Chinese script, several
classic texts (with links to some English translations)
and even a bunch of suggested renderings into
Chinese of common first names.
Travellers with
disabilities
Beijing makes few provisions for disabled
people. Undergoing an economic boom,
the city resembles a building site, with
uneven, obstacle-strewn paving, intense
crowds and vehicle traffic, and few access
ramps. Public transport is generally
inaccessible to wheelchair users, though
a few of the upmarket hotels are equipped
to assist disabled visitors; in particular,
Beijing’s several Holiday Inns (Holiday
Inn Downtown at 98 Beilishi Lu
T010/68132299) and Hiltons (there’s one
at 1 Dongfang Lu T010/58655000) have
rooms designed for wheelchair users.
BASICS |
Travel essentials
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