Electricity

Part of A Better Guide to Beijing’s Practical A-Z

220 volts, 50 cycles AC. Most modern portable electronic devices such as cameras, phones, laptops, and tablets are indifferent to voltages, while hairdryers, curling tongs, and shavers are not. Refer to the panel on the power supply of your device. Bathrooms of even modest hotels typically have shaver sockets with both 110-volt and 220-volt options, but will not deal with devices drawing heavier currents.

Most sockets will take plugs of both the North-American-style two flat pins and the European two round pin type. However, sockets accepting North American plugs with one wider blade or with a third round pin are very rare, so an adaptor will still be needed for these plugs. Typical hotel rooms also have one socket with the three flat-pin arrangement familiar to Australians, used for heavier duty items such as vacuum cleaners and the refrigerated minibar. High-end hotels in Běijīng are often constructed to Hong Kong specifications and have the chunky three-pins familiar to the British, but at this level either a variety of sockets is provided at desktop level, or housekeeping will anyway provide you with the adaptor or transformer of your choice.

With such a variety of sockets available it’s no surprise that adaptors can easily be found in department stores, hardware stores, electronics shops, and many other locations. For convenience take a single adaptor able to deal with multiple socket types.

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