RADIO & TV

A short-wave radio receiver is worth bringing with you for world events and breaking news. The national TV outfit, Chinese Central Television (CCTV), has two English channels - CCTV4 and CCTV9. Major cities may have a second local channel, like Beijing Television (BTV). Sports news can be picked up on CCTV5 (in Chinese); your hotel may have ESPN. Many hotels have their own film channels.

Hong Kong's STAR TV broadcasts via satellite to China and CNN is also available in certain areas.

Video Systems

China subscribes to the PAL broadcasting standard, the same as Australia, New Zealand, the UK and most of Europe. Competing systems not used in China include SECAM (France, Germany, Luxembourg) and NTSC (Canada, Japan and the USA). VCD and DVD have rapidly become the standard.