Since its entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, China has made great strides in the production, import and distribution of many technological products that were once only available in the West. Mobile (cell) phones, DVD players, computer laptops and personal home entertainment systems, for example, are all now available in any city although, depending on the product, variety may be limited in less populated regions.
Although a great deal of criticism has been written in the Western press about the problems of software pirating and technology counterfeiting in China, it is difficult for us to personally find sympathy for, or assume the moral high ground in regard to, companies that are earning billions of dollars a year by selling their products for prices that all but insure they will never see the light of day in Asia. Most Chinese simply do not have access to enough discretionary income to buy a licensed copy of Windows XP at USD $200, or legitimate DVDs at prices beginning at USD $14.95.
Lenovo 3000 N200 Notebook Computer. About 5,000 RMB if you know how to bargain.
Consequently, and strictly from a consumerism perspective, foreigners should be aware that authentic computer components are extremely difficult to come by in China, as the demand for such goods simply doesn’t exist. As a rule, if a computer component manufacturer exports primarily to North America and England, it is unwise to buy that product in China because the chances are you are buying either a clone or, far worse, a legitimate but defective product that could not pass IEEE specifications in the West. Nevertheless, these products are sold at full price and with all the impressive and proper seals of authenticity and inspection attached to them (and this practice is not just limited to China—a few Western-based Internet computer companies have been shut down for engaging in precisely the same practice). Most will break or overheat within a few months time, usually just after the 6-month or 1-year guarantee expires. For the most part, when you can, buy Chinese brand names only such as Lenovo or ask the dealer which is the best brand that he sells that will give you the least amount of trouble—usually if you ask that directly, they will steer you in the right direction. This principle applies to all personal electronics as well. After a period of time, you will begin to learn which brand names are the most reliable. Beware of prices that are too good to be true (such as a SONY Playstation 2 for under USD $40) as well as prices that seem too high—in China, paying a lot more for something doesn’t necessarily make it any more real.
Most foreign teachers have reported a good deal of success and satisfaction with Lenovo laptops: A decent one, that can comfortably run Windows XP, should cost no more than 8,000 yuan (about USD $1,032). In the alternative, especially if you plan on staying in China for awhile, you should consider buying a good desktop system (P4 @ 2.6Mhz, 512MB RAM, 533MHz FSB and a 120GB HDD @ 7200RPM) with a 19" monitor, which should run you no more than 3,000 yuan! Generally speaking, AMD products (Athlon and Duron) are hard to find and when you do, the selection is very poor.
Most foreign teachers buy a DVD player their first week or so in China for English language DVDs will become their major, if not only, form of entertainment. First-run Western movies can be purchased on single-layer DVDs (DVD-5) for around 6 to 8 yuan—although the quality varies considerably. Most of the time, if you have a bad copy, the dealer will allow you to exchange it without any hassle. Sometimes a movie will be reproduced on a dual-layer (DVD-9) disk and the price for that is usually a little higher (8 to 12 yuan). If you do buy a DVD player, make sure it supports the MPEG4 (MP4) format (also known as DIVX or .avi compatible). This will allow you to download and burn .avi movies (the most common video compression format on the Internet) without first needing to convert them to VOB (video object) files (DVD format). Most newer models do support MP4 and you can buy one on sale for under 200 yuan ($28.00 US) that will work for at least a year.
Although a few Chinese cable TV stations—the most notable of which is CCTV9—have a considerable amount of English language programming, not all cable providers offer them as part of the basic package. In some areas of China, especially in the east, southeast and southern regions, satellite TV is readily available. In some cases it is legitimate; in most, you will be provided with a satellite receiver and a digital access card (smartcard) that has a hack (program) for breaking the satellite company's encryption scheme. Satellite packages vary by location and it is best to ask another foreign teacher if he or she has heard anything about satellite in that area. Satellite TV is permitted for foreigners if they live off-campus in a building approved for foreign housing (most government universities will not allow it on campus). Generally speaking, if you live and work in an area that has a 5-star hotel, you can eventually find someone to install a personal satellite system for you.
Most schools offer some form of ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) or Broadband access to the Internet. More often than not, however, it is a low-speed (i.e., 512kb/s) subscription that is connected to a router and fed into several apartments—so access will be very slow because the line is being shared. A one-year subscription to 1.5mb/s ADSL runs about 1200 yuan (about USD $170.00), if prepaid, so it is relatively inexpensive compared to the rates we are accustomed to paying in the West. However, be advised that, especially outside the three major international cities (and even there), Internet access in China tends to be unreliable. You may enjoy full 1.5mb/s access in the morning, and, by the afternoon, realize no more than 100kb/s on the same line. In addition, international bandwidth from China is very limited and spotty, so that although access to China-based sites might be acceptable, access to sites located in the West will be frustratingly slow or not even possible. Be prepared for the fact that very popular services, such as Yahoo and MSN Messenger, will be so crowded that they are often unusable due to "busy servers" (forget about using your webcam, which will produce little more than a static picture that is rarely updated).
Finally, many foreigners report having extreme difficulty accessing certain Western websites from within China (all one sees is a blank white page). If you have such difficulty, you can usually access the site by using a proxy server. An updated list of public proxy servers is maintained at Proxy.org. The problem with public proxy servers, however, is that they change as often as the weather does and there are often severe limitations on available bandwidth (that is, how much you can access and download from within each proxy server). For those who find themselves "stuck" on the Internet more often than than they care to be, you should consider purchasing a proxy server VIP membership which will give you much faster access and considerably more bandwidth. An excellent choice is Anonymouse.org: An annual subscription to their VIP service costs $38 (USD) per year (about half of what other services charge) and there are several options for making a payment.
Motorola Ming (A1200). 2200 RMB. Just one of the dozens of excellent smartphones available in mainland China.
Mobile communication is big business in China. By the end of the fourth quarter in 2006, China Mobile—a state owned enterprise and the largest provider—had over 247 million subscribers with an anticipated increase of two million subscribers per month. China's current total number of mobile phone subscribers is estimated to be in the region of 450 million (when you include the other provider, China Unicom), but is expected to increase to 600 million by 2009. Over 100 million mobile phones were sold in 2006 alone (Mobilecomms-technology, 2007).
China uses the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) mobile phone standard and supports 900MHz and 1800MHz frequency bands. The GSM standard uses SIM (subscriber identity module) cards for establishing service. Generally speaking, if your mobile phone provider at home uses the GSM standard and your phone is either tri- or quad-band (i.e., supports either the 900MHz or 1800MHz frequency bands), it should work in China. Those moving from North America who subscribe to Cingular (now AT&T) or T-Mobile and have tri-band cell phones should have no trouble using their phones in China (any phone store will be able to unlock the phone for you). A new SIM card will cost you 150 yuan at China Mobile and you'll need your passport to subscribe. They offer a large variety of plans to suit individual needs (based on both outgoing and incoming usage minutes and area coverage), including Internet access through GPRS (general packet radio service), which supports Internet Protocols, e-mail applications and color Internet browsing, and reception tends to be excellent.
If you need to buy a new phone, China now has a fairly wide selection of mobile phones ranging from relatively inexpensive Chinese brands (well under USD $60) to top-of-the-line imports from Motorola and Nokia (including the supercharged GPS [global positioning system] compatible N95) that are Internet-ready and offer many PDA (personal digital assistant) features with a stylus for entering data and sending SMS (short message system) messages. As a rule, mobile phone imports from America, Korea and Japan are comparable in price to what you would pay back home. Nokia Smartphones (mobile phones with PDA capabilities), with the Symbian OS (operating system), have the lion's share of the mobile phone market in China, followed closely by the Linux OS (that supports all Java-based applications), used predominantly by Motorola in China. The Windows Mobile OS comprises only 5% of the market and the Palm OS (used, for example, by the Palm Pilot and Treo) is pretty much non-existent in China. If you have a Smartphone that is generally not sold in China, you will still be able to readily find mobile repair shops to competently service it.
A very inexpensive solution for calling home is to pick up a few IP (Internet Protocol) cards (pictured on the left). These cards allow you to place oversea calls, over the Internet (using voice over IP technology) for as little as USD .08 to .11 per minute (generally speaking, as price varies somewhat by location, you can buy three cards, with a total face value of 300 yuan, for 100 yuan. One card, with a face value of 100 yuan, will provide you with about 38 minutes of call time to North America). Once the account number has been entered, it can be registered to the home telephone number so that all one needs to do is enter the 5-digit code of the IP card before dialing overseas, e.g., 17910...country code, area code + number. Another cheap solution, favored by many foreign teachers, is to use free computer-to-computer voice over IP solutions such as Skype.
Another issue worth mentioning pertains to Internet security, especially in regard to e-mail, and this is not specific to just living in China. Sending and receiving unencrypted e-mail is like mailing a post card through the postal service: anyone can read it. Especially in regard to those who are using school and university routers and, possibly, local e-mail servers, it is a very simple matter for the site administrator to flag and read mail sent from and to specific users. For this reason, you should never send unencrypted e-mail that contains private and personal information, such as credit card numbers—and this is true worldwide.
If you require absolute privacy, you need to obtain a digital certificate from a trusted certification authority. Thawte is one such global authority and they offer free digital certificates for personal use. These certificates work seamlessly with Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, as well as with Microsoft Outlook. Navigate to www.thwate.com and from the quick login drop-down box, on the upper right-hand side of the page, select “Personal E-mail Certificates” to sign up.
In addition, it has been asserted by some foreign teachers that their phone lines have been tapped. Although this is difficult if not impossible to verify, keep in mind that China does treat its national security very seriously, and that it would not be unusual for unknown foreign entities to be monitored until such time that their genuine intentions have been ascertained. However, if one is not engaged in illegal activities, there is absolutely no cause for legitimate concern. China is very strongly invested in welcoming foreigners, not in alienating them.
Mainland China uses a 220V electrical current system with plug categories D & J (three oblique prongs grounded and two flat prongs, respectively) and PAL (Phase Alternating Line) TV video formatting (common throughout Europe). If you have an appliance from home that runs on 110V and you want to bring it with you, it is not difficult to find relatively inexpensive power adapters in China, especially for low-wattage appliances such as an electric razor.
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