Courier Companies

Several foreign courier companies operate in China with fairly standard prices. The following companies offer door-to-door pick-up and delivery.

DHL ( landline toll-free 800 810 8000, mobile phone toll-free 400 810 8000; www.dhl.com)

FedEx ( landline toll-free 800 988 1888, mobile phone toll-free 400 886 1888; www.fedex.com)

UPS ( 800 820 8388; www.ups.com)

Public Holidays

Many of the entries below are nominal holidays and do not qualify for a day off work. For more holidays and festivals, Click here.

New Year’s Day (Yuandan) 1 January.

Spring Festival (Chun Jie) 31 January 2014, 19 February 2015, 8 February 2016. Also known as Chinese New Year. Officially three days, but generally a week-long break.

Tomb Sweeping Day (Qingming Jie) First weekend in April. A three-day weekend.

International Labour Day (Laodong Jie) 1 May. Three-day holiday.

Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu Jie) 12 June 2013, 2 June 2014, 20 June 2015.

Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiu Jie) 19 September 2013, 8 September 2014, 27 September 2015.

National Day (Guoqing Jie) 1 October. Officially three days, but often morphs into a week-long vacation.

Safe Travel

Shanghai feels very safe, and crimes against foreigners are rare; even taxi drivers don’t try to rip you off. Don’t, however, end up in an ambulance: Chinese drivers never give way.

If you do have something stolen, you need to report the crime at the district Public Security Bureau (PSB) office and obtain a police report.

Crossing the road is probably the greatest danger: develop avian vision and a sixth sense to combat the shocking traffic. The green man at traffic lights does not mean it is safe to cross. Instead, it means it is slightly safer to cross, but you can still be run down by traffic allowed to turn on red lights. Bicycles and scooters regularly flout all traffic rules, as do many cars. Bicycles, scooters, mopeds and motorbikes freely take to the pavements (sidewalks), as occasionally do cars. Older taxis only have seatbelts in the front passenger seat. Watch out for scooters whizzing down Shanghai roads – especially on streets without lighting – without lights at night.

Other street hazards include spent neon-light tubes poking from litter bins, open manholes with plunging drops, and welders showering pavements with burning sparks. Side streets off the main drag are sometimes devoid of street lights at night, and pavements can be crumbling and uneven.

Scams

See our Top Tip on Click here for detailed info on Shanghai’s most common scam.

Watch out for taxi scams, especially at Pudong International Airport and outside the Maglev terminal at Longyang Rd metro station. A registered taxi should always run on a meter and have a licence displayed on the dashboard.

Taxes

All four- and five-star hotels and some top-end restaurants add a service charge of 10% or 15%, which extends to the room and food; all other consumer taxes are included in the price tag.

Telephone

Using a mobile phone is naturally most convenient. If you have the right phone (eg BlackBerry, iPhone, Android) and are in a wi-fi zone, Skype (www.skype.com) and Viber (www.viber.com) can make calls either very cheap or free.

Long-distance phone calls can be placed from hotel-room phones, though this is expensive without an internet phonecard. You may need a dial-out number for a direct line. Local calls should be free.

Phones are also sometimes attached to magazine kiosks or small shops. Just pick up the phone, make your call, and then pay the attendant (usually five mao for a local call). If dialling long-distance within China from Shanghai, prefix the number with 17909 for cheaper rates.

Shanghai has plentiful 24-hour phone bars (huaba), where international calls can be made at cheap rates.

Most international calls cost Y8.20 per minute or Y2.20 to Hong Kong. You are generally required to leave a Y200 deposit for international calls.

Note the following country and city codes:

Beijing ( 010)

People’s Republic of China ( 00 86)

Shanghai ( 021)

If calling Shanghai or Beijing from abroad, drop the first zero.

The following numbers are useful:

Enquiry about international calls ( 106)

Local directory enquiries ( 114)

Weather ( 12121)

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14