Sandra, I would bring a computer with the OS that you are comfortable with. We brought an iBook. It was the best thing we did. We know the Mac OS, since it is what our desktop was and we have had no problems. We live in Shenyang and found a Mac dealer and have found peripherals at the local "Computer City." So I say bring what you know, if that is a Wintel machine so be it. But if that is a Mac go for it. If you bring a Mac if you have MSWord and MSExcel on it and MacLink you will be able to open Word and Excel documents. And just to let you know all my Chinese friends LOVE my iBook. Barbara in Shenyang

Dear Sandra: Just saw your note on this and I like to offer my two cents here: 1, Most computers(95% or more) in China use PC but there are a handle of people use Mac. Our teaching coordinator, Claudia just bought a Mac in Macau and she is quite happy with it. 2, Zhuhai is different from other parts of China as it is only half an hour trip to Macau. There are quite a few people use Mac in Macau and it is quite easy to get supplies and support there. If you really like Mac, you should be OK in Zhuhai or Shenzhen which is next to Hong Kong. I am not sure other cities in China. 3, Most if not all the schools in China use PC including ours. It will be certainly easier to exchange files if you use PC as well. 4, If you just want to buy a latop for China. It might be easier to buy it here rather than bringing it to China. The price is similar, maybe even lower here and you can get good support here with all the software you need. I hope it is helpful, Ping in Zhuhai-Gateway to China

Ping, I looked into buying a laptop in China but decided against it. I didn't find the prices in Dalian or Beijing to be that competitive, and I didn't want to rely the seller to repair stuff because I have no Chinese language skills. I did buy a desktop here and have had basically good service, there still are problems that are hard to explain to the repair man. Also, desktops generally don't have proprietary parts -- hardware basically is swappable. Not so with laptops. I finally bought a Dell laptop and have been very satisfied. The company has a good reputation for both reliability and tech support, so I bought under the assumption that the probabilities of hardward problems were very small. So far, so good. Regards, Peter

I agree with Peter's comments re relative price of laptops and especially Ping's view on PC over Mac's. They are a rare if not unknown item in PRC. So no quandary at all ! You might also consider buying a second hand laptop before you leave home. Do you really need a 1,000 megahertz with 40GB HDD and 256RAM? Probably not. Second hand laptops of say 200MHZ , 2GB HDD, 32 RAM (64 is good - maybe upgrade if need be) can be a very adequate machine for Word, Excel, Internet, e-mail and even some graphics programs like PhotoShop. ( with CD & modem too obviously). Why spend more than you have to? (It could get , er, "lost" - it happened to me) Perhaps of course your needs are different, so it depends on what they are. It makes much more sense to have it set up before you leave home. Make sure you bring CD copies of *all* the software with you , including the OS. (and especially an anti-virus.) Note: power is 220 volts in PRC. Happy travels Jeff

just to add my four cents here (i say four because my wife and daughters have an iMac and I use a Dell Inspiron laptop). Dell has a service center in Xiamen and one in Hong Kong, the one in Hong Kong is the one I have to use because my model is not available in China. this is another issue that might should be considered in this. the tech in the west is superior. while you describe yourself as a novice user, and therefore someone who probably wouldn't want or need the extra bells and whistles i wanted, you do want something that will be relatively trouble free for your time here. for that reason alone i would buy in the west, and buy something that has a service center in China--therefore Dell, IBM, Compaq, Toshiba, etc would be the reasonable way to go. the longer the warentee the better unless you plan on changing it out. also, many of these brands have some problems right now. Toshiba has a ragged name in China (apparently they dumped some lemons here) and someone else was ragging compaq and HP. i can't say about them, but in general you get what you pay for. if Pete (and probably i agree that the dell laptops are really very good-i had an IBM before this and prefer this one) convinces you to get a Dell, then you can check out two things on their website--one is the reconditioned ones (sometimes they have never been used, they were executive perc's that get traded in yearly whether they need one or not) also they have discounts for teachers and students, which brings the price down about 10%. for someone who just plans to do the basic a remanufactured latitude would probably be wonderful, or a new .... darn it what do they call the thing, it's like a students model, very lightweight, with a backpack (very highly recommended) in the logo of the uni of your choice. and finally, the mac situation here is not as dire as some would have you think. they are IMHO a better more stable computer, faster, more reliable and etc. we have been able to go just fine, why? well they don't cause trouble, and when they do it is simple to fix yourself with the manual. sure, you can't get software and service, but if you don't need service what does it matter, and if you have the software you need then what does it matter. and to conclude, i don't recommend buying here. the chinese windows OS is weaker than the english version and causes all kinds of glitches, especially when you're running english language software. then, if you buy software here it often won't work anyway, either because it is configured for chinese windows or because it was cruddy to begin with. unless you plan on being chinese for the rest of your computing life, get your machine in the US and get it based on price, what you really need, and brand reliability and service here in case of trouble--in that order of precedence. love and peace up jim alley

I'm a Mac lover from way, way back and a p.c. hater from a long, long way back; the p.c. sits next to my mac and I trust it like a sleeping rattlesnake. BUT... .....I don't think you really have much choice in a place like China. Everyone there is a Windows user or a Windows seller. I wouldn't be surprised if the best advice you get (and listen hardest to those in China!) is to not take a laptop or a desktop with you, but to take money and make the best deal there, (which should include a human mechanic inside the Windows box, IMHO) The truth be known? since advice is worth what it costs... all you *really* need is a computer that can "handle" these software/application clients: email (try Eudora Pro, you will love it); realaudio and windowsmedia audio/video plug ins; both browsers -- IE and Netscape; the MS Office Suite and dialpad so you can call home (usa?) free, plus microphone and camera. As I say, all available in China except the downloads may be a little problematic so you might take a couple of zip discs with your programs, applications and clients on those zips. They will fit in your slippers, leaving room for the stuff you just can't find..about which there was a long long list...favorite coffee? favorite hand lotion? John Hibbs www.bfranklin.edu