Page 113 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Beijing

Practical Information ❮❮ 111

Emergency Services credit cards. To change Purchase a SIM card at the
money, try major banks. airport or at local shops
There are English lines (you will need a passport),
for emergencies, such as Telephone and and test it before you go;
the Foreign Emergency Internet call 10100 and wait for the
Services as well as the prompt to activate inter-
Ambulance number, but Free Wi-Fi is available national calling – and ask
to save time, ask a local at most restaurants and for discount numbers for
to make the call. However, cafés; high-end hotels international calls. You can
it can be quicker to take often charge a room-usage buy top-ups from phone
a taxi to the hospital, fee, but keep public areas shops or via WeChat. Make
rather than waiting for open. You’ll need a VPN to sure your phone will work
an ambulance. access Facebook, Google, in China; GSM phones
and most Western sites. should have 900 and 1800
Currency and Popular ones are Express, Mhz frequencies or bands.
Banking Pandapow, and HideMe,
but this situation is fluid, Postal Services
The national currency is the so check reviews before
yuan (¥), also known as leaving and sign up for free Open 9am–5pm daily,
renminbi or kuai (slang). trials. WeChat offers free China Post has several
Notes come in ¥1, ¥5, ¥10, texting, voice messages, branches in Beijing,
¥20, ¥50, and ¥100 and 1 and phone and video calls though couriers are
and 5 jiao (slang: mao); coins to local and international usually faster. For next-
come in 1 and 5 jiao, and ¥1. users. Apple and Google day deliveries within the
Most banks have 24-hour maps should work with a city, it’s a good idea to ask
ATMs that take both interna- VPN, or try Ulmon or Baidu. your hotel to arrange a
tional and domestic cards, The best network kuadi – this should cost
as well as inter national provider is China Unicom. no more than ¥30.
DIRECTORY
PASSPORTS TRAVEL SAFETY Peking Union Medical
AND VISAS ADVICE College Hospital
§ 6915 9180
Australian Embassy Australian Department ∑ pumch.cn
§ 5140 4111 of Foreign Affairs
∑ china.embassy.gov.au and Trade EMERGENCY SERVICES
∑ smartraveller.gov.au
British Embassy ∑ dfat.gov.au/travel Ambulance
§ 999
§ 5192 4000 UK Foreign and
∑ gov.uk/government/ Commonwealth Office Foreign Emergency
∑ gov.uk/foreign-travel- Services
world/organisations/
british-embassy-beijing advice/China § 6525 5486
US Department of State
Canadian Embassy ∑ travel.state.gov TELEPHONE AND
§ 5139 4000 INTERNET
∑ beijing.gc.ca HEALTH Baidu
United States Embassy Beijing United ∑ baidu.com
§ 8531 3000 Family Hospital China Unicom
∑ beijing.ufh.com.cn ∑ chinaunicom.
∑ beijing.usembassy.gov § 5927 7120 com.cn
CUSTOMS Hong Kong International Ulmon
REGULATIONS Medical Clinic, Beijing ∑ ulmon.com
∑ hkclinic.com
General Administration § 6553 2288 (24 hours) POSTAL SERVICES
of Customs PRC International SOS China Post
∑ english.customs. § 6462 9112 ∑ english.chinapost.
gov.cn ∑ internationalsos.com com.cn

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