By Al Wong This is my experience in Beijing, China in the Summer of 2009. If you came to this webpage first, it's better if you start from the beginning of the story. This looks like an accident waiting to happen. But it's perfectly fine. The skin colored unit plugged into the wall is an AC 240V-->120V adaptor. The orange colored unit is a 2 to 3 prong adaptor. Then the white and gray unit is my 120V surge protector! Why does it look so complicated? Most modern AC adaptors can handle both 240V/120V already. Well, the surge protector is only rated for 120V. So I needed the AC 240V-->120V adaptor to use the surge protector. I also wanted to protect my electronics from power spikes and dips. The surge protector handles these variations in power. We've experienced at least one power failure and countless brownouts during this trip. And lastly, I needed the extra outlets that the surge protector provides. Not every hotel has multple outlets available. This particular hotel just happened to have a second outlet. Close Window