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Electrical current in China is 220V/50Hz AC while in the US it is 110V/60Hz AC. This means that a transformer must be used to convert the 220V current to the 110V current needed for US electrical appliances to work properly, such as a hair dryer or electric shaver. International travel converters are available to take care of this.
In new construction in China, outlets like this are installed:
which can accept the US type of plug, as well as the round pronged plug found in Europe and the common plug used in China.
However, since China has as many as eight different types of plugs in use, it’s probably a good idea to bring along a variety of plug adapters.
In order to continue to post adoption news on this blog, I plan to bring along a laptop on the trip. The power block for my Macbook is autosensing for 110-220V. The laptop receives the 12 volts DC it needs no matter what the AC input is. Thus, I will not need to use a transformer with it. Apple sells a travel kit adapter to handle any plug issues.
We’ll be bringing two travel adapter kits along. One specifically for the laptop and one for other applications (primarily for battery recharging for our digital camera and other electronics).
