where to buy in beijing

conrad

Member
I classmate is using plecodict and after so much page flipping with my paper dictionary ive decided its time to buy a palm or pocket pc.
Any advice regarding what to buy palm/ppc and more importantly where to buy in beijing would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 

Jim

榜眼
conrad said:
.... and more importantly where to buy in beijing would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

The best places to buy PDAs in Beijing is in Zhong Guan Cun (中关村)where the North 4th ring road meets Zhong Guan Cun Da Jie (中关村大街) which is the hi-tech district where there are several computer markets. On the Northwest corner is the Taiping Building (太平大厦), Southwest corner has the Hailong Building (海隆大厦), there is another building directly behind the Hailong building and one directly across the street, I have forgotten the names of both. There are several floors of shops in all these buildings and only a few have PDAs so you need to shop around to find them all. Plan to spend at least a few hours shopping around comparing and try to be patient, it pays off in the end.

You can buy a magazine called Computer Shopper (电脑采购) which has price lists in the back for many computer components and a few PDAs. If the one you want isn't on the list ask the price of a few that are and you will have some idea of how much you can bargain. The magazine prices are usually pretty close to the best you will be able to get.

Look carefully at what you buy. Make sure all the bits and pieces are in the package and avoid something that looks like it has been handled by a lot of shoppers or might be a return with a problem. I assume you will want an English operating system with Chinese abilities. Many PDAs in Beijing have a Chinese OS. They can read and input English but you will be stuck with Chinese menus and dialogue boxes. So look for an English OS and bundled Chinese software.

There are other forums here with good advice about which PDAs are best for Palm OS. The Windows Plecodict just came out so I don't know if there is as much information available on those but Mike provides the best customer support around and will do his best to give you good advice. I don't know what your budget is but because you are in China I would recommend you look at phone/PDA combos simply because with Pleco's instant access you can instantly translate Chinese SMSs.

Good luck with your search. Once you have it all up and running you will wonder how you ever lived without Plecodict.
 

Andy

秀才
Beijing

Pleco is excellent, if you also need a small electronic dictionary to carry, try the 文曲星 pc1000c, it's not as fast or useful as Pleco, but it displays pinyin, has pinyin search, radical search and stroke search. I'm sure book stores all over town carry them, but I know the large bookstore at the ChangAn end of WangFuJing has them for around 270¥.
 
Top