This is a collection of things that we have learned and think might be of interest.

Dollar Bills

Take along a stack of dollar bills, and a few fives. They are useful as tips, and for negotiating with street vendors. We found them to be welcome everywhere. The exchange rate is a little over 8 Yuan to the dollar, but everybody uses 8 for simplicity's sake. A one dollar tip is less than ten Yuan and more than five Yuan.

Some of our party got Yuans from ATMs, but we got an excellent rate for our traveler's checks from the hotel cashier. 

Water

Nobody drinks the tap water. It's not a matter of esthetics, it's a matter of self-preservation, even for locals. Bottled water is widely available and safe. Carry some with you. You are going to be climbing a lot of stairs in hot weather. Don't buy water from street vendors: the bottles could be refilled from the tap and resealed with a flame.

Half liter bottles of water vary in price: 40 Yuan ($5.00) from the mini-bar, 20 Yuan ($2.50) in a restaurant, 5 Yuan ($0.60) from a stand at the attraction. 1.20 Yuan ($0.15) at the local supermarket. The hotels provided a couple of free bottles in the bathroom every day. Save some for brushing your teeth.

Street Vendors

At most tourist attractions you will be mobbed by street vendors selling everything from postcards to "priceless" artifacts. If you even acknowledge their presence, they will stick to you like indigent relatives, delaying your tour and preventing you from hearing the guide. If they are offering something that you really do want to purchase, you will have to negotiate. The initial asking price is often ten times their comfortable selling price. If you decide that you don't want the item after all, they are likely to pursue you with a steadily lowering price. Always give them exact change. We were told not to expect any sort of quality: sets of "terracotta" warriors may crack and fall apart if they dry out. The trinkets are probably not handcrafted. And those aren't real Rolexes. Don't trust vendors to give you change. Even when they offer something for "wan dollah! wan dollah!" the price might go up once you start talking to them.

We did buy some good looking postcards from them, and the books seemed to be the same ones that were being offered in the gift shops, but at a substantial saving. Your guide is encouraged to bring you into particular gift shops, so his/her advice about the street vendors offerings might be biased.

We were given a cute butterfly clip as an added bonus when we bought from one vendor. Our theory is that it is given as a courtesy to other vendors to mark the suckers.

Electricity

China runs on 220 volts, 50 cycle (like most of the world). However the outlets used reflect the number of countries whose technology China has inherited. Typical hotel rooms will have one outlet which already has the TV plugged into it. The most common plug is two bladed, flat like our US plugs, but with no holes in the blades. The outlet is rather ingenious and versatile. It starts with an outlet capable of taking a 2 blade flat plug. The holes are enlarged sideways so that it can also accept a two prong round European style plug. Below that it has a three prong socket for cords that look like the one on the left. The minibar is often plugged in here.

Then you have cities such as Shanghai or Hong Kong, with a British heritage. There the hotel rooms demand the massive UK style plug seen on the right. You had best bring along a set of plug adaptors as well as an extension cord that will allow you to plug in your equipment and also plug the TV back in. Remember? One electrical outlet per room, even in our five star hotels!

Many hotels had a slot near the door where you place your room key. When you take the key out of the slot, it cuts off all power to the room. They also have a fondness for a fancy switch console next to the bed which allows you to turn the lights around the room on and off from a central location. Needless to say the lamps are wired into the switching system and cannot be unplugged to plug in something else.

The TV sets had AV jacks on the back, and a couple of them would accept a variety of TV signals. On the river cruise and in Shanghai, they would even display American NTSC style video. This is important if you have a camcorder and want to review the days shooting in the evening.

Public Toilets

Ladies (and Gentlemen), be prepared for squat toilets and no toilet paper -- carry lots of tissues. These are ceramic ovals in the floor with foot pads on each side but they flush just like Western style toilets. In a crowded tourist attraction with a restroom of 10 toilets you might have one western style toilet. But the women in our tour agreed that the squat toilets smelled better and were cleaner than the western toilet stalls anyway. In many places there is usually an attendant who keeps the place clean. Wish I had strengthened those leg muscles before leaving home! Also, the western toilets were installed over the existing plumbing for the squat variety and that left very little room to move around. Most places seem to expect you to supply your own toilet paper. Naturally, all our hotels had Western style plumbing. Beijing is upgrading it's public toilets to get ready for the bid for the 2008 Olympics.

Ease of Access

It seemed to us that China doesn't have an equivalent to our ADA. There were lots of stairs and few handrails. It would be very hard for a disabled person to navigate many of the places we visited, including the major tourist attractions.