Tips for Life

A. Fee structure of taxi

B. Tips for buying train tickets

1. Buy train tickets in the ticket office at the railway stations, in the legal ticket agencies or online. To protect yourself from fraud and economic loss, don’t buy tickets from individual, especially the ticket touts and don’t allow strangers to buy the tickets for you.

2. Different ticket windows may sell tickets to different directions. Make it clear so as not to stand in the wrong queue and waste time.

3. Get the money ready while waiting your turn. Speak clearly to the ticket clerk the date of departure, train number, destination station, ticket type (hard seat, hard sleeper or soft sleeper) and the number of tickets. Check the ticket and count the money on the spot. Report it to the ticket clerk if there is anything wrong.

4. If you can’t take the train on the date of departure in the ticket, you can have the ticket endorsed once to advance the date of departure or postpone it to any date within the validity of the ticket. You can’t postpone the date of departure two hours after the train left. You can’t have the endorsement for the return ticket, through ticket and sleeper ticket.

5. You need to go to the ticket-returning window at the railway stations before the time for departure when you will return the tickets. 20% of the ticket prize will be charged for returning tickets.

6. You can go to the Inquiry Office at the railway stations whenever you need help.

C. Tips for buying air tickets

1. Valid passport, visa or residence permit is needed when you buy the ticket. Make sure that the above three documents are all valid before you go through the check-in procedures.

2. Buy air tickets in the legal ticket agencies so as to avoid fraud. According to the regulations of the civil aviation administration departments, legal ticket agencies have been issued Operation Approval Certificate by National Civil Aviation Authority. The ticket office hangs the bronze tablet designated by National Civil Aviation Authority which indicates the legitimacy of the agency. Furthermore, the legal ticket agencies can issue you the air ticket on the spot without taking any cash deposit through its networks with the ticket system of civil aviation. Don’t allow strangers to buy air tickets for you.

D. Tips for fire safety

a. Ten “don’ts” in apartments

1. Don’t connect wires and use plug boards wildly and don’t put them on inflammables.

2. Don’t use electric heaters.

3. Don’t use high power electrical appliances to avoid the overload of wires.

4. Don’t leave the electrical appliances unattended while they are working.

5. Don’t use inflammables as lamp cover; don’t shed lamp light on inflammables for too long and don’t put lamps into beds.

6. Don’t use fire as lighting and burn things in the room.

7. Don’t smoke in bed and throw the cigarette ends away carelessly.

8. Don’t keep inflammables and explosives in the room.

9. Don’t cook in the room.

10. Don’t use counterfeit and shoddy electric products.

b. Tips for escape in case of fire

1. In case of fire, cut off the electricity immediately, fight against the fire with fire extinguishers and call 119 for fire service.

2. Escape immediately in case of fire and don’t waste time saving the properties.

3. While you escape, keep calm and keep the order to avoid treading.

4. While rushing out of the burning house, keep a low profile, cover your face with a wet towel or put a wet sheet on your back to keep yourself from the smoke and fire.

5. Take stair steps instead of elevators to avoid being stuck in the building when you escape.

6. In case of severe fire you can escape with the help of such facilities as balcony and drainage pipes. Otherwise you should wait for the fire service. You must not jump from a height without protection.

7. When you are confronted with death and there are no better means, you can try to escape with the help of connected strips of sheets or ropes.

8. When you have to jump from lower storey in severe fire, first throw some quilts or clothes on the ground. Before you jump, try to slide down with the hands holding the window sill to shorten the height. Make sure you land on the ground with the feet.

9. When stuck in the room, you should shut the doors and windows and water them if possible. You can ask for help by dropping things down from the building or signaling with flash light in the dark.

E. Useful Chinese expressions