Working and Opening hours – Safe Drinking water – Electricity 

Working Hours
The official working week spans Monday to Friday. Normal working hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a one-hour lunch break. Almost all government offices, institutions, schools, and other official units are closed on Saturdays. Hospitals, monuments, and museums as well as banks and post offices are usually open seven days a week from 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Hospital emergency clinics are open all the time. Shops usually stay open from 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. to 8 p.m. everyday, including public holidays. Restaurants and bars as expected stay open later at night and food can be found as late as 10:00 p.m. Some open-air restaurants stay open into the small hours. All times are approximate and vary locally.  Because of the time difference with Beijing, Western Chinese cities, such as Xinjiang, have later office opening hours. 

Safe Drinking Water
Tap water is not potable in China so buy bottled water. Some of the best hotels may provide drinking water but ask first to be sure. Bottled mineral water costing around 3 yuan, is widely available everywhere  and your hotel may provide a free bottle or two in your room.

Electricity
Electricity in China is 220V, 50 cycles, AC. Sockets are two-pin sockets and sometimes three-pin. sockets Most hotels have a socket in the bathroom for both 110V and 220V. An adapter may be borrowed from the hotel, but to be sure it’s better to bring your own adapter plug. 

Post Offices 

The Chinese postal service is reliable and efficient and some larger hotels have on-site postal services and gift shops which can usually supply stamps and send postcards for you. If outgoing mail has the destination written in Chinese characters it is helpful but not essential and most hotel staff will happily oblige if asked.

Generally 4-7 days is needed for airmail letters or postcards to reach their destination. For an even faster service, use the Express Mail Service (EMS) to send registered letters and parcels. Every city and town has Post Restante services and most hotels have branch offices, supplying stamps.

There are strict rules about how to pack a parcel. Best to take the items to the post office and pack them there, as anyway you have to obtain customs clearance for your parcel. Make sure you enclose any receipts with the parcel. At about 35% of the air cost, parcels sent by sea are much cheaper but of course take longer. A normal parcel weighing under 1 kg and sent by air, will cost about 130 yuan to the US, 120 yuan to Europe and 105 yuan to Australia.
For a small extra charge registered letters and parcels can be sent and registration forms and the obligatory customs declaration forms are in Chinese and French.
United Parcel Service (UPS), DHL, Federal Express and TNT Skypak all operate from China and you can ask your hotel reception to locate the closest office or to arrange pick up for you.