XML serialization, encoding

using System;

public class clsPerson
{
  public  string FirstName;
  public  string MI;
  public  string LastName;
}

class class1
{ 
   static void Main(string[] args)
   {
      clsPerson p=new clsPerson();
      p.FirstName = "Jeff";
      p.MI = "A";
      p.LastName = "Price";
      System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer x = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(p.GetType());
      x.Serialize(Console.Out, p);
      Console.WriteLine();
      Console.ReadLine();
   }
} 

taken from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/815813

1)

System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer x = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(p.GetType());

What does this line do? what is GetType()?

2) how do I get the encoding to

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
< clsPerson xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

instead of

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="IBM437"?>
 <clsPerson xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3
 .org/2001/XMLSchema">

or not include the encoding type at all?