Telephone and Time

Telephone

Students at the China Center have access to a wireless internet phone with premium unlimited service through Vonage. This allows students at the China Center to call any phone number in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Italy, France, Spain, UK and Ireland for free. Furthermore, parents and friends of China Center students residing in the United States can call for the price of a domestic long distance phone call to New York, and the call is free to those living in Brooklyn (718 area code).

Students also have access to telephones in the dormitory of the International Student Building and in the off-campus apartments and at the China Center. Students may receive international calls at all these locations. Students wanting to place an international phone call from these locations must first purchase a prepaid IP card issued by such companies as China Unicom, China Mobile and China Netcom, which are wallet-sized plastic cards available at any post office or newsstand throughout the city, including the bookstore on the mezzanine of the International Students Building.

An IP card is a prepaid phone card with a local or toll free access number and password, which can be used to place inexpensive domestic, long distance and international phone calls from any private LAN phone and some cell phones. Most have bilingual call menus. Rates vary by distance and provider, but generally speaking local calls are approximately CNY 0.30 per minute and international calls are approximately CNY 2.40 (USD 0.29) per minute for international direct dialing (IDD) calls to the U.S. IP cards are available in CNY 50 and 100 amounts, but are restricted by region, so a card purchased in one region of China may not be used in another, however there is IP network coverage across China.

Students can also purchase an IC Card to use at public telephones in China. The IC card is shaped like the IP card but has a golden chip at one end where the card slides into the IC phone slot. Unlike an IP card, these are not restricted by region and can be used wherever there are designated IC phones. IC cards do not require a password or access number and can be used for local, long distance and IDD calls. Most IC phones have a button that switches between Chinese and English screens. Amounts typically vary from CNY 20 to 100 and the rate for local calls is CNY 0.20 for the first three minutes and CNY 0.10 every six seconds after. IDD calls with an IC card vary by distance and provider and are much more expensive than the IP Card.

Students in China are unable to use most phone cards purchased in the U.S. to place calls from China to the U.S. However, the online provider Pin City has a service called Qlink that allows a user in China to purchase time and trigger an international call from a LAN phone via the internet. While this requires both an internet connection and a phone line, it is by far the cheapest means to call the U.S. from China, with rates at USD 0.058 per minute. Some students prefer to use Skype, an Internet telephony program that allows users to talk over the Internet for free to any other user with the same program.

The university arranged off-campus student apartments are equipped with phones, but students must first pay a CNY 300 deposit to activate the line for local, long distance and international service. Monthly phone charges are deducted from the deposit. Since the phone company issues bills on the 26th of each month, and it is not possible to calculate local service charges prior to this date, it is necessary to give one month notice to the landlord so service can be terminated on the 26th of the month prior to the end of the lease.

Cellular Phone

It seems that now almost everyone has a cellular phone in China, from the GM from Shanghai having his power lunch at a trendy café to the migrant worker from Anhui cleaning the streets outside. Most people in China carry a cellular phone and this is by far the most ubiquitous means of telecommunication in China, already the world's biggest market with well over 383 million users in 2005. No wonder then many students decide to purchase a cellular phone soon after arrival. Each China Center student, however, has the option to receive a Nokia Model 1110 cell phone for the duration of the semester, which will require an additional $80 deposit that will be returned on the last day of the semester only if the cell phone is not lost, damaged or stolen. Students are also encouraged to use the China Center cell phones temporarily during extended field trips outside the Hangzhou area, in case of emergency or to facilitate contact between separated student groups.

Students may also purchase their own cell phone for daily use. A relatively good phone can be purchased for around CNY 800 (USD 96), although the most expensive tri-ban model with a full range of features, including digital camera and Chinese handwriting input method and Bluetooth wireless technology, can cost up to CNY 5,000 (USD 604). If you are on a restricted student budget, however, you can also purchase a Personal Handy-Phone System (PHS), which is essentially a cordless phone. It looks identical to a typical cell phone, but in Chinese is called a xiaolingotong (小灵通). Unlike a "true" cell phone (shouji 手机), PHS in China does not provide roaming and the signal coverage is not as wide or as strong as cellular coverage operating on the GSM network. PHS is, however, extremely inexpensive to purchase (around CNY 200) and are very low cost to operate, and so it is sometimes pejoratively referred to in English as a "poor man's cell phone"” Be that as it may, with already eighty-million PHS subscribers registered in China in 2005 it is a very lucrative market. We highly encourage all students to purchase either a PHS or cell phone to help facilitate communication with your advisor and for emergencies.

A SIM card phone number costs only CNY 100, although more auspicious numbers may cost considerably more (including those that are easy to remember or contain multiples of the lucky numbers one, six and eight). Foreign students should bring their passport to purchase a new phone number, although not all sales clerks will request proper identification. Money can be charged to a cellular phone using plastic or paper direct charge cards (called chongzhika (冲直卡) in Chinese) in the amount of CNY 50 and 100, available at almost every post office, convenience store and newsstand. Those sold in Hangzhou do not always have bilingual voice prompts, but the vendors are often willing to charge money to your phone for you, which can be done using your phone directly or from another phone. Either way you should receive an SMS text message within one minute confirming the amount added. Depending on your cellular plan, it can be difficult and in some cases not possible to charge money to a cellular phone outside of the local province, so students planning a long trip should charge several hundred yuan before leaving Hangzhou since roaming charges can be expensive.

Rates vary according to the provider and your particular calling plan, but generally speaking local, non-roaming rates are CNY 0.60 per minute for placing a local call and CNY 1.30 per minute for placing domestic long distance. The rate for a roaming subscriber within the country is CNY 1.20 per minute to receive a local call and CNY 1.90 to receive a long distance or international call. That is to say, if a parent were to call a student on his or her cell phone while we were on a fieldtrip outside of the Hangzhou area, it would cost the student approximately USD 2.30 to receive a ten-minute call.

Some plans, however, offer great deals, such as free incoming non-roaming calls, including international calls to Hangzhou, or free SMS text messaging. When deciding on a plan, the first consideration is the provider, with China Mobile (Zhongguo Yidong) and China United Telecommunications Corp or Unicom (Zhongguo Liantong) being the two most popular competitors. All Unicom phone numbers begin with 130, 131, 132 or 133 and money is charged to them by calling 10012 in Zhejiang province and following the voice prompts in Chinese. China Mobile phone numbers begin with 135, 137, 138 or 139 and are charged by dialing 13800XYZ505, where XYZ represents the area code (571 in Hangzhou).

Unfortunately, even the Zhejiang China Mobile voice prompts are entirely in Chinese, but following these instructions you should be able to charge your phone even if you do not yet speak the language: 1. Dial 13800571505 on your cell phone 2. After the Chinese recording, enter the pound sign (#) to charge the cell phone used to place the call 3. After the next recording, enter "1" to direct charge. 4. After the next recording, enter the Card Number (kahao卡号), the ten-digit number under the line stating the value of the card, followed by the pound sign (#). 5. After the next recording enter the Password (mima 密码), the eight-digit number under the Card Number, followed by the pound sign (#), and disconnect the call after the next recording. If successful you will receive a text message from China Mobile within one minute in Chinese, displaying the date of the charge on the first line and the amount charged on the second line.

The Chinese language customer service number for China Unicom is 10010 and for China Mobile is 1860 X 0 X 0.

How to Dial

When dialing a Chinese phone line from the United States, dial the IDD (International Direct Dialing) prefix (from the U.S. dial 011) + country code (for China dial 86) + the 2-3 digit city code (for Hangzhou dial 571) + the 8-digit phone number. This is how to dial the China Center from the United States: 011-86-571- 87952051. Of course the China Center is also equipped with a Vonage internet phone and from the United States you can simply dial: 1+718+554-0876.

When dialing a long-distance Chinese phone line from within China, dial the NDD (National Direct Dialing) prefix (in China dial 0) + the 2-3 digit city code (for Hangzhou dial 571) + the 8-digit phone number. This is how to dial the China Center from outside Hangzhou but within China: 0-571- 87952051.

When dialing a local Chinese phone line from within the city code, simply dial the 8 digit number. This is how to dial the China Center from Hangzhou: 87952051.

When dialing a long-distance Chinese mobile phone number from a phone line within China, dial the NDD (National Direct Dialing) prefix (in China dial 0) + the 11-digit phone number. This is how to dial the Academic Director's mobile phone in Hangzhou from another city within China: 0-13777875751. Do not dial the prefix 0 when calling a Chinese mobile phone from outside the country. This is how to dial the Academic Director's mobile phone from the U.S.: 011+86+13777875751.

When dialing a local Chinese mobile phone number from a phone line within China or long-distance mobile phone number from another Chinese mobile phone, simply dial the 11-digit number. This is how to dial the Academic Director's mobile phone from a phone line in Hangzhou or from another mobile phone anywhere in China: 13777875751.

Time

There is only one time zone in China: Beijing time, which is eight hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time or Greenwich Mean Time (UTC/GMT +8). China does not observe daylight savings time (DST). This means during the summer months in the northern hemisphere when New York is observing DST, Beijing is exactly twelve hours ahead. So if it is 8:00 A.M. on Monday morning in New York it is 8:00 P.M. Monday evening in Beijing and Hangzhou. However, during the winter months when New York is not observing DST, if it is 8:00 A.M. on Monday morning in New York it is 7:00 P.M. Monday evening in Beijing and Hangzhou. The online World Clock and other tools, which may be use for students and parents to calculate relative time across zones, are located here. Current Beijing time can be checked here.

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