Hotels/Hostels in Beijing and Dongbei.

[flray]

Hello all,

 

    I do not want to inquire on already treaded ground but am interested in accommodation in North East China. I am interested in very budget accommodation that is generally clean,secure and also willing to register foreigners as per the regulation.

 

Beijing- I am only staying 1 or 2 days to get over the jet lag and also will use this reservation in applying for my visa. Forums members have conveyed to me in applying for visa I most likely only need to include one hotel/hostel reservation within my full itinerary. I am looking for something near the train station as I can stash my stuff and go buy a ticket. I know nothing about Beijing but it seems pretty centrally located .  There are a fair amount of existing posts on this topic that I will sift through but if anyone has recent good experiences and information its much appreciated.

 

Dongbei- I am most likely going study at Bincai in Harbin. I will attempt to stay in their dormitories but really want a fallback plan. The other cities I am contemplating spending extended time and finding a private tutor are Dalian and Yanji.  A previous post says in Changchun its is fairly easy to find a place while Shenyang( a large city) and Qinhuangdao( a tourist city) make life difficult. Jlin, Huludao, Dandong, Yingkou,Tianjin and Qingdao are also of interest. I might to a visa run to Kinmen island so I am exploring Xiamen and Fuzhou also. I will most likely go to Korea to satisfy the requirement but Xiamen is the sister city to Sarasota ,Florida which is just to the south of where I live so I might want to make long term contacts there.

 

Thanks all in advance. 

 

[889]

There's no "the train station" in Beijing. There are several train stations. And actually, staying right near any of them is not a good idea. They're just not in great neighborhoods. The Beijing Metro is very extensive, if a bit crowded and with some longish transfers in places. All the train stations are connected by Metro. So practically you can stay just about anywhere.

 

Unless you've got some good reason to rush through, I'd strongly suggest you spend a few days in Beijing. Harbin has some interesting bits here and there, but Beijing offers so much more. Look at the booking sites -- Agoda, booking.com, English ctrip and English elong -- and try to find something in the center, say around Qianmen or Dongsi, that meets your budget. You don't say when you're travelling, but out of season especially you should be able find something reasonable. The hotels on those websites should take foreigners, except for a few marked "Chinese only" or some such.

 

For train tickets, either buy online beforehand -- ctrip charges a commission but is easy for foreigners to navigate -- or head to one of the small ticket offices dotted all over Beijing. No need to head to a station and confront the hordes at the ticket office. (But if you buy online, then you will have to pick up your actual paper ticket using your confirmation number at a ticket office.)

 

If you want to test your practical Chinese, then look at the Chinese-only official rail booking site www.12306.cn and figure out timings and departure stations for trains Beijing-Harbin. You need a Chinese bank card to actually buy tickets on the site -- unlike ctrip, which accepts foreign credit cards -- but it offers a good test of your ability to manage in Chinese. Try to register and answer the captchas!

 

 

[Lu]

5 hours ago, flray said:

I know nothing about Beijing but it seems pretty centrally located .

Something you need to know about Beijing is that it is unwieldingly huge. I agree with 889, don't try staying near a train station. Try staying near a metro station instead. Pick a line that goes to the station of your choice, if you want more convenience. The metros are packed but good.

 

For hostels, I've had good results finding places through Hostelworld and then just contacting them directly (or you could also book through the site of course).

 

Also, does Jinmen qualify as a visa run? Seeing that in theory it's in the same country (even if in practice it isn't)? I was there in 2008 and things probably changed, but do check if there are actually convenient ways of getting to Jinmen from Xiamen. Because I wouldn't be surprised if you still have to fly through a Shanghai airport, in which case you might as well go to Thailand or Japan or something. I enjoyed my stay in Jinmen well enough, but it's not exactly a tourist destination and might be rather expensive to get to for what you get for your money. (But if you do go, make sure you check out the knife shop!)

[LinZhenPu]

6 hours ago, 889 said:

You need a Chinese bank card to actually buy tickets on the site

I wonder if you got a Union Pay card issued overseas such as by Bank of China Australia if that would work. You can get them at post offices all over Australia. Shouldn't be hard getting a Union Pay card in the US. Some guy on the Flyertalk has a Union Pay credit card issued by HSBC in the US.

[Publius]

Lol the (in)famous 12306 captcha!

Hey, welcome to Beijing. We have this big, beautiful wall~ (if you're American ). And other things worth seeing.

But staying near one of the train stations is not a good idea.

[889]

No, credit/debit cards with the Union Pay logo issued outside Mainland China do not work on 12306. Besides, to register he would need a Chinese mobile number.

 

Yes, taking the ferry Xiamen-Jinmen-Xiamen works as a visa run. You're leaving and then re-entering Mainland China, just as crossing at Hong Kong.

[LinZhenPu]

5 hours ago, 889 said:

No, credit/debit cards with the Union Pay logo issued outside Mainland China do not work on 12306.

Well that sucks. Is there any website they do work on?

[889]

Yes, as I mentioned you can buy rail tickets with a foreign card on English ctrip, but it's more expensive than buying on 12306 because ctrip charges something, sometimes disguised as insurance or such. Also, ctrip doesn't necessarily list all the trains or available seats, so sometimes you can find a ticket on 12306 that's not on ctrip, though this isn't too common.

 

Ctrip also doesn't give you the thrill of beating that captcha.

[flray]

I was thinking I could start an account with Bank of America because I had read about their association with China Construction Bank. It seems as they sold their interest a few years back. I still might start a small account as they are an international Bank and my primary bank is quite small. I could start another account specifically for this trip and just eat the 5 Usd of so user fee for Atm.

 

 I had the idea  of using a pre paid credit card. I could limit my liability by having someone keep it full and if a large charge is attempted it will just be declined. I could also get another normal credit card with a low balance. I will check out the Union Pay Card.

 

My sister  works for HSBC dealing with foreign operations in her specialty. She doesn't have knowledge with regards to China or Mandarin but works on a regular basis with a team from Guangzhou.  The only problem is there are only brick and mortar branches on the other side of my state 100's of miles away. 

 

I will probably deal with the masses to buy tickets at the various train stations or at a ticket office as suggested by 889.

 

Thanks