Belkin has one but it says it has a Chinese outlet, but I thought the Chinese outlets were like North American ones without the holes.

 

If you can clarify your question a little more, maybe others can help you better. First, are you trying to bring Chinese electrical equipment into the US or are you trying to bring US electrical equipment to use in China? Next, what kind of equipment are these, are they standard 110v 50/60 cycle or 220v 50/60 cycle? Finally, does the equipment have its own voltage converter?

We got a table lamp as a gift while in China a month ago and it came with US-style plugs such that we can just plug them into US sockets when we got home, with no adapters necessary. We also plugged US equipment (laptop charger) into the Chinese outlets directly (the Chinese has many different types of physical plugs, but some of the newer ones will accept US-style two-flat-prong plugs).

 

Bring US equipment to China.

I already have the laptop AC adapters (already got the world adapter kit from Apple) and I'm probably looking for a couple of other peripherals such as digital cameras and clocks.

I have no clue what voltage or cycle they are, will it matter?

And I've seen the two flat prong plugs which they say are China's. They look strikingly similar to the US, except of course they don't have the holes in it. Will US plugs fit into those kinds of outlets?

 

For laptops or small computer equipment (as in printers and portable CD burners) and camera chargers, I don't think you should have any problems. We tried all those and we didn't have any problems at all plugging them directly into the Chinese outlets. I don't know about clocks though, because I don't remember if they use 50 or 60 cycles. Most modern electronic equipment from the US will work properly in China.

But we are only talking about two-prong US plugs, not any grounded 3-prong plugs. Your bigger problem is finding outlets that will accept the US flat 2-prong plugs. There are many different kinds of outlets in use in China, ranging from the round 2-prong to the triangular 3-prong and so on. The newer outlets do have the slots superimposed on the 3-prong outlets so you can plug in a flat 2-prong US plug. But on the other hand, extention outlet strips that accept US plugs are very easy to find, so it is not a big deal unless you are going to some remote isolated area of China.

 

in my experience, most COMPUTER electronics will run fine on anywhere from 100-250V 50-60Hz, which covers pretty much the whole world. This includes laptops, external drives, cd writers and the like. The only thing needed is a cheap plug adapter.

Now, many electronics are 100-125V ONLY (such as TVs, stereos, etc) and will require voltage stepdown converters to work. These can be cheap to very expensive depending on the current requirements. For example, buying one so you can use an iron would be very expensive. These adapters don't change the Hz, so many electronic devices still won't work perfectly.

 

sorry. i thought you just said that i wouldn't have any problems finding any US flat 2-prong plugs in China.

 

[QUOTE=MrForgetable,Aug 24 2004, 01:15 PM] sorry.

 

so I would be able to just find an extension strip in China to fit the US flat prong plugs?

thanks!