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This is why I always stay in a hotel and not with friends or Airbnbs whenever I visit China. I'm not bothered to deal with registration and the hotel takes care

This is why I always stay in a hotel and not with friends or Airbnbs whenever I visit China. I'm not bothered to deal with registration and the hotel takes care of it.

j8hn 6y ago
What most tourists don't know is that the hotel has to be registered to accept foreigners. I don't know if it's an issue any longer, but some foreigners found out the hard way after booking accommodations through Ctrip.
silverpepsi 6y ago
Nevermind that around 90% of hotels in China do not allow foreigners. It was not a fond memory dragging my heavy baggage one place to the next for half a day being rejected all over Beijing (experienced it in Shanghai and Guangzhou too) Of course the wealthy here would never know, most places priced in the top 20% expensive accept foreigners. I was a poor student and also worked as a teacher($400/mo) looking for midrange accomodations, not to spend a month's pay on a weekend trip
- dheera 6y ago
  > dragging my heavy baggage one place to the next for half a day being rejected all over Beijing Yep, one would think that for a government that cares so much about their image they would avoid visitors having to go through this nonsense. For budget travellers to Beijing -- 如家 accepts foreigners last I checked. 7天 used to but they don't anymore as of a couple years ago.
  - Razengan 6y ago
    If China really cared about their image they wouldn’t be doing all the things they try to hide.
  - powerapple 6y ago
    There were two system in the past: hotels for foreigners, designed to take passports and hotels for citizens, taking only IDs. There has been recent national system upgrades, now Chinese can use passport as identification (although still not universally). Since last year, you can use passport to check in high speed rail stations (maybe still not all of them) without queueing up in exchange for a real ticket. The direction is clear. It is a big IT system with different departments, I can imagine the problem will be gone in the future.
- kenneth 6y ago
  Never had this issue, but then again granted I stay with the nicer hotels typically part of a western chain.

This is why I always stay in a hotel and not with friends or Airbnbs whenever I visit China. I'm not bothered to deal with registration and the hotel takes care of it.

j8hn 6y ago

What most tourists don't know is that the hotel has to be registered to accept foreigners. I don't know if it's an issue any longer, but some foreigners found out the hard way after booking accommodations through Ctrip.

silverpepsi 6y ago

Nevermind that around 90% of hotels in China do not allow foreigners. It was not a fond memory dragging my heavy baggage one place to the next for half a day being rejected all over Beijing (experienced it in Shanghai and Guangzhou too) Of course the wealthy here would never know, most places priced in the top 20% expensive accept foreigners. I was a poor student and also worked as a teacher($400/mo) looking for midrange accomodations, not to spend a month's pay on a weekend trip

dheera 6y ago
> dragging my heavy baggage one place to the next for half a day being rejected all over Beijing Yep, one would think that for a government that cares so much about their image they would avoid visitors having to go through this nonsense. For budget travellers to Beijing -- 如家 accepts foreigners last I checked. 7天 used to but they don't anymore as of a couple years ago.
- Razengan 6y ago
  If China really cared about their image they wouldn’t be doing all the things they try to hide.
- powerapple 6y ago
  There were two system in the past: hotels for foreigners, designed to take passports and hotels for citizens, taking only IDs. There has been recent national system upgrades, now Chinese can use passport as identification (although still not universally). Since last year, you can use passport to check in high speed rail stations (maybe still not all of them) without queueing up in exchange for a real ticket. The direction is clear. It is a big IT system with different departments, I can imagine the problem will be gone in the future.
kenneth 6y ago
Never had this issue, but then again granted I stay with the nicer hotels typically part of a western chain.