At the Beach - You Can't Stay Here

 Recently, I visited a seaside resort near Beijing (okay, resort is a strong word, but you get my meaning). The place was quite nice. Hotels, restaurants, beach, entertainment, almost everything you would need... almost. This is the first in a three-part series covering the events of that weekend that might be of interest. I promise, they are all quick and informative.

  I went there with 7 other local Chinese. It was one of those weekend trips where you look forward to acting silly, having fun on the beach, eating too much and generally raising hell.

Story #1:

  Standard procedure. You arrive at location and look around for hotels. Seems easy, no? At the first hotel we went to, we starting asking about rooms, etc.  Upon seeing me, the hotel staff emphatically said that foreigners weren't allowed to stay at that hotel and we had to leave. "Odd", I thought,"but oh well, we'll go somewhere else."

  We then moved to hotel #2. This hotel seemed nicer and they also started to talk about rooms and options. Upon realizing that I was with the group, they also suddenly stopped the negotiations and insisted that we would have to stay elsewhere (actually, they were insisting that I should stay elsewhere). My friends were nice enough to close ranks with me.

  Turns out that none of the hotels in this area had "licenses" allowing them to have foreigners as guests. I never realized before. Hotels in China apparently need to apply for a special license in order to accept foreign guests. The cover story is that the government is trying to ensure that an appropriate level of quality is maintained for foreigners (I have already stayed in some horrendous hotels that were more than happy to have me as a guest).

  I suspect the real reason is to fleece the hotels for the costs of another "license". Since this area doesn't currently have many (any?) foreign visitors, there's no reason to apply for the license. I don't care if the government tries to track my movements by making hotels report all foreign guests but I don't like being told that certain hotels are off-limits. Regardless, after my friends begged and swore to the management that I wouldn't cause trouble (What? Me cause trouble? Never!), they relented and allowed me to stay.

  Lesson learned: Always take a tent with you on trips in case you're forced to camp outside.

 As you'll find out in the next story, I had it easy compared to other Chinese citizens who wanted to visit the area.