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In my travels in China I've found myself in need of a place to use my internet device. Its battery has recently ceased to hold a charge so I also need to be able to plug in my AC adaptor.

My Chinese is at a level I describe as "pre embrionic" and my attempts are usually not fully understood. Here are the kinds of things I've been trying:

  • Wi-Fi 和 电 有马?
  • 无线 和 电 有没有?

I think there are two problems. The minor one is whether to try to use a Chinese or "Universal" (English) term for Internet/Wi-Fi.

The major one is how ask if they have a place with an electric outlet/socket. Literally asking "do you have electricity" does not seem to convey my need.

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  • 1
    For the second problem, you can show them your adaptor. Body language may be more useful and easy. Commented Nov 24, 2013 at 3:26
  • Yes I usually resort to taking off my backpack and digging through it for the adaptor. I'm typically in this situation when arriving fully laden in a new city. Places like KFC and Dico's can be sometimes too crowded to do this. Commented Nov 24, 2013 at 3:31
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    I would say 你们这里有无线网和电源插座吗?
    – user58955
    Commented Nov 25, 2013 at 2:32
  • Just mime plugging in. People will understand. Of course it is always good to learn more language. But these tasks can be done without using any language at all -- and that will work as well in Nepal or Burma..... Commented Nov 17, 2014 at 20:02

3 Answers 3

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Actually the literal translation of English sounds natural in this case: 你们有Wi-Fi和电源吗? or 你们有Wi-Fi和插座吗?

Here 电源 means power source, and 插座 means electric socket.

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As a Chinese, we usually make it very simple:

请问你们这儿提供无线上网吗?

In fact I think if you wanna know whether a restaurant supports WiFi things such as WiFi devices,you can ask like this below:

请问你们无线路由器有吗?

Sometimes China Mobile will offer some specific WiFi Areas or WiFi USB device, you can also try to ask like this:

请问无线上网区在哪里?

请问无线上网卡(无线上网U盘)有吗?

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  • This doesn't answer the question of power supply, though.
    – Olle Linge
    Commented Nov 24, 2013 at 23:24
  • Hehe, yes. However power is usually linked with WiFi device such as "无线路由器" or something related to that, as far as I see.
    – xqMogvKW
    Commented Nov 25, 2013 at 7:02
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    Really?I Know lots of places that offer WiFi but not power.
    – Olle Linge
    Commented Nov 25, 2013 at 23:12
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You can just pronounce Wi-Fi or Wu(up) Xian(down). It's "you wifi he dian yuan ma? " or "you wuxian he dian yuan ma?"

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  • This is what I was trying except without the "yuan". But I think no matter how I try I get all the vowels, all the tones, and perhaps a couple of the consonants wrong. At least something goes wrong ... Commented Nov 25, 2013 at 14:46
  • What does Wu(up) Xian(down) mean? Commented Nov 27, 2013 at 19:57

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