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not so old china hand
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I'm writing this from Hong Kong, having flown down through Beijing, where I stayed on a 72 hour visa (a thread on is to follow).

I came down to Hong Kong because my Mongolian visa had expired. I had a one-month visa issued in Hong Kong (that took an hour and a half to get :smile:) and extended it for one month in Ulaanbaatar (again quick and easy). However the rules are very strict: only one extension and no exceptions.

I had four choices 1) A quick trip across the Russian border, which is physically quite close. But I would need a Russian visa. And it's cold there.

                                      2) A quick trip across the Chinese border. Well not so quick it's a ten or twelve hour train journey both ways. And I would need a Chinese visa. Also it's cold there.

                                     3) Get the visa from the Mongolian Embassy in Beijing. I would need a Chinese visa and 72 hours might not be enough. Maybe cold there.

                                    4) Go to Hong Kong. No visa required and it's warm.

So I opted for HK.

I then looked a booking flights. MIAT the national airline is the only carrier to offer a direct flight: three time a week and it's expensive (around $900 return). Indirect flights through Beijing are about a half or a third of this. The cheapest option was to fly  to Beijing on Thursday with Air China and then fly on to Hong Kong on Saturday with Hong Kong Airlines. To do this I had to get a 72-hour visa (see next thread).

That gave me a couple of nights in Beijing to look up old friends. Since I didn't expect to spend much time in a hotel room I opted for the cheapest option and stayed in a youth hostel for 80RMB a night (less than ten quid).

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Dave Hounddriver
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19 minutes ago, not so old china hand said:

That gave me a couple of nights in Beijing to look up old friends. Since I didn't expect to spend much time in a hotel room I opted for the cheapest option and stayed in a youth hostel for 80RMB a night (less than ten quid).

You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!

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not so old china hand
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I had to break off so I thought it best to start a new post....

I spent most of my two days in Beijing in one of my favorite watering holes, Tim's Texas BarBQ Central Park. It's rather like standing in Piccadilly Circus, if you stay there long enough you will meet everybody you know.

The first question "I got asked is have you noticed any changes?" Well it's only five months since I left but I had the impression that things had changed (or changes in the pipeline had speed-ed up).

The Communist Party is definitely clamping down on the country. I witnessed this both when arriving at and when departing from the airport.

On arrival I went through the process of getting a 72 hour transit visa on arrival (I'll do a separate post on that). The process took two and a half hours.... Then having collected one's baggage from "Lost and Found" because it had be taken off the carousel one exits through customs who are now much more active. The Green Channel is now a row of turnstiles. To get through you must place your passport under a scanner and an image is taken of the details page.

On departing I had to open my suitcase for customs, then again at check-in (twice). For what reason? They could see a suspicious looking mechanism in the suitcase (an old-style Samsonite clamshell. Turned out that it was the spring latch for the flip-up handle.

To add insult to injury they spotted a little flint and steel (survival fire-lighting kit) and confiscated it despite my pointing to the packaging lable that says "TSA Approved".

The final chapter in the saga was when I went though security. I had taken out all the items with batteries in them: my laptop, iPad, camera, phone, electric hair clippers.

My bag was sent back and I was told to take out the chargers too. Certainly a first for me.

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Jack Peterson
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4 minutes ago, not so old china hand said:

The Communist Party is definitely clamping down on the country.

So it would seem :smile: for better or worse  Scratching Head.jpg

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not so old china hand
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1 hour ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!

Many times I have had people come through town and comment that they are paying for a five-star hotel and all they use it for is to crash out and take a shower before checking out. For 80RMB (ten quid) I had the bed and access to a shower. If I didn't like it I could leave and I'd only be a tenner out of pocket. In fact it worked very well. So here is a short review.

I took a bunk in a four-bed dorm. I could have taken a bunk in a six bunk dorm and saved myself 10RMB

The Zhaolong International Youth Hostel

It's attached to the Zhaolong (Great Dragon) hotel which was one of the first international-class hotels in Beijing.

I booked it through Booking.com. No prepayment needed. Pay cash or card on arrival

Location: walking distance from my regular watering hole.

Staff friendly and efficient. It took about two minutes, including taking my details for police registration, to check me in.

Check-in time 00 - 24 00 (a surcharge payable if you check-in before noon)

Checkout-time noon on the day of departure.

It was clean. There were floor cleaners working all the time. The (shared) bathrooms were clean and the linen on my bed was freshly laundered. Bathrooms have both squat toilets and Western Style (rather quaintly marked "Pootty Toilets.

At this price point you need to bring your own wash kit and rubber bath shoes.

 

So how did it work for me in practice? I arrived early afternoon (hence I suspect the quick check in). The room was empty so I "marked" my bed with some dirty laundry (always take an upper berth if you can) and left. I did not leave any possessions behind except those clothes. My suitcase I left behind the bar at Tims (the watering hole). All the things I needed I kept with me in a small backpack.

When I returned some time after midnight my room mates were asleep. I'm an early riser so was up about six. Had the shower room to myself. Dressed and left. Room mates still sleeping.

Couldn't have worked out better.

An afterthought  I have frequently traveiled by train through China. The soft class sleepers I traveled in were about the same level of comfort and cleanliness.

And on a philosophical note. Is not first-class air travel a flying dormatory with a shared bathroom,

Edited by not so old china hand
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Dave Hounddriver
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45 minutes ago, not so old china hand said:

Many times I have had people come through town and comment that they are paying for a five-star hotel and all they use it for is to crash out and take a shower before checking out.

Yep, that's me.  But I love the feeling of luxury for those few hours after traveling in, as you say:

45 minutes ago, not so old china hand said:

a flying dormatory with a shared bathroom,

So while I have heard of others who do the backpacking/dormitory route I will only do that when absolutely forced, AND, I have an admiration for those who can put up with "going native" like that because I appreciate thriftiness, I just can't go that far myself.

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Old55
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Interesting, thanks for sharing. I want to visit someday not sure it will actually take place though.

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not so old china hand
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Another change. The cost of living in Beijing is now very high. I was talking to a friend who is the programme manager at an international school and he was telling me that they were having great difficulty in getting qualified and experienced teachers. And the cost of living is one of the main reasons given for turning down an offer or not renewing a contract (air pollution is another). Now my impression has always been that teachers aspire to working in an international school because the terms and conditions are generally much better than they would get at home.

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not so old china hand
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2 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

So while I have heard of others who do the backpacking/dormitory route I will only do that when absolutely forced, AND, I have an admiration for those who can put up with "going native" like that because I appreciate thriftiness, I just can't go that far myself

It was by way of an experiment prompted by the fact that I am moving from building savings to spending them and I want stay within my pension income while doing and seeing as much as I can. Would I do it again? Perhaps.

Now in Hong Kong I hear that Love Hotels offer special rates after midnight....

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not so old china hand
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On 11/05/2017 at 6:14 PM, Old55 said:

Interesting, thanks for sharing. I want to visit someday not sure it will actually take place though.

Best time to go IMHO is September / early October. Summer is hot and wet, Winter can be quite cold and Spring seems to last for about a week. Late October / early November can be quite mild (it was last week when I was there). On the other hand there may be an early cold snap.

Using the 72 hour option (which I'm about to do a post about) would give you time to see the main sights (Great Wall, Summer Palace, Tianamen).

Worth doing if it fits into a flight elsewhere.

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