Many travel to China to experience a fascinating culture and ancient history, but being out of touch with the world back home can pose some stresses. Take along your laptop when you visit China, and you'll have peace of mind knowing that your responsibilities are just a click away. Using your laptop in China is easy when you follow the right procedures. Here's how.

Purchase a short-term insurance policy for your laptop before you travel to China. If your laptop is stolen, this plan will recover your costs. See Resources below for more information.

Prepare for differences in electricity. You will need an adapter plug to accommodate plug types "A," "I" and "G" in China. You may also need a transformer. Check the transformer block on your laptop to see what voltage capacity it handles. If it cannot handle 220 to 230V, then you will need a transformer.

Pack an Internet connection kit that contains a spare phone cord, an extra Ethernet network cable, a phone adapter and a surge protector. You may not need all of these items, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

Choose a hotel that provides a dataport for laptop modems and free high-speed Internet access. You'll be able to connect to the Internet right from your hotel room. This will save you time and money.

Locate Wi-Fi hotspots to use your wireless Internet on the go. Find locations in China close to where you'll be traveling.

Use an encryption program to back up sensitive data in case your laptop falls into the wrong hands. Truecrypt, a free program, is easy to use because the encryption is real-time and automatic. The correct password will decrypt the data for you.

Tips & Warnings:

Download your photos to your laptop each night so you don't run out of camera memory.

Charge your laptop battery pack each night.

Digital phone lines are not safe for your modem. Check that the phone line in your hotel room is analog before connecting to the Internet.

Back up all important data before you use your laptop in China in case your computer is stolen.