I have been trying to find out what plug adapter is needed for a visit to the city of Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
My hour’s Googling has just produced “China uses three types of plug” but no real indication of whether the different types are randomly scattered, or specific to region etc.
So I’m hoping the hive mind of OzBargain knows what I need… and maybe even how to get it cheap.
Get yourself a Xiaomi Power board?
From my experience it is a case of three types of plugs scattered around but I'd say the US type A is the most common. One of the three is the Australian type I so I'd say its a safe bet just to get type A just in case. The best bet is to just get universal plug from Amazon as Jimothy said but maybe avoid Heymix as I just got one and my Samsung phone refuses to take charge from it even though powerbanks accept charge (and they allegedly explode but I haven't experienced that).
Chinese here.
Check the picture in this link right below the sub title "Mainland China Power Sockets and Plugs"
In terms of voltage, all of our 240v equipment can be used there straight away as they use 220v.
as for plugs, there are 2 type of plug used in China. One is almost identical to AU plug (3 pin), though Chinese standard requires a safe inside the ground plug, so if you don't have anything poked into the ground hole, the other 2 hole is physically blocked. You can insert a plastic tooth flosser pick into the ground pin to trick this mechanism.
the other type (which is a bit more common) is similar to US standard with 2 straight pins. This has no safe, you can just use it straight away.
so for your equipment:
if it's AU plug, but only comes with 2 pins and no ground:
do tooth flosser trick, or buy something identical to this
if it's AU plug with all 3 pins:
can be used straight away.
In case only the US/JP plug is available:
get something like this
I personally find it okay to not bring any travel adapters, just buy some flosser in China as it's pretty cheap there anyway.
or bring 1 small AU power board and you'll be fine.
Fantastic answer, thanks for taking the time to write it down..
Oh, remember to buy some baby wipes when you see a grocery store in Sichuan. They eat pretty spicy, you might going to enjoy your trip but your butt hole might not like it.
Pretty much every place where a westerner might stay tends to have universal plugs that look like these: https://sunnyele.en.made-in-china.com/product/NMqExvybrRlS/C…
Considering the Australian plug is basically the same as one of the official plugs even if they didn't have a universal socket you will be fine 99% of the time without an adapter.
AU plugs ARE south Pacific plugs
Since Xi Jinping claims he owns that patch of the world it is already well equiped to be power compatible. Just go there and plug in, been there, nothing to see other than Pandas…
Google's broken again, is it?
Why not get one of those universal ones from amazon? Slide the pins to match the configuration required . As long as your adapter is 110-240 input it should be fine.