Tuesday, May 13, 2014
We had a leisurely morning, since we were waiting to hear news about Ivor. All went well in the end. Around 2:30pm we set off with Marijke and Coen to go and find remnants of the Great Wall, some 40kms north of Datong. We found a little village with 2 impressive fortress gates and quite a bit of fortress wall still standing. The perfect spot the fix Sterlin’s tire, which had picked up a screw somewhere and had started to leak. With the help of Coen and the Speedy Seal kit, the job was done in about 30mins.
Past the second gate we spotted what we thought was the Great Wall. So down a dirt road we went and there we had: the remains of the Great Wall. Once we got to a higher vantage point we could see quite a bit of it and where it would have been. Very nice to have the opportunity to see it here as well; we both saw it some years ago close to Beijing. The section here is older than the one around Beijing, and has not been restored. While we spent some time there, Ivor caught up with us.
We then drove on to Jining for the night, where we checked into one hotel, and then had to move to another one…. but that is story for later…..
Ok. Here is that story.
So we’d checked in to one hotel that we all liked: the rooms were nice, the staff were friendly. As we were all hungry we dumped our bags in the room and went out for dinner. All very nice. Upon our return to the hotel the lobby was full of police. And I mean full: there were 8 in total: 4 uniformed, 4 plain clothes. Uh-oh..
Turns out that in China not all hotels are ‘licensed to have foreigners staying’. And ‘foreigners’ does not just mean foreign nationals, no, it also means Chinese from a different province. In fact, our guide Lun, thought it might have been his registration that set off the red flags (it was never a 100% sure). We were told to sit and wait in the lobby while all of our passports were checked and double checked and lots of calls were being made. This all happened in a reasonably ‘jovial’ atmosphere, until the ‘big wig’ appeared and the whole tone changed. We were fine but the hotel was in big trouble. Apparently it is up to the hotels to turn foreigners away if they are not licensed. to host them. One of the ladies behind the desk was almost in tears. After about an hour we were told to get our stuff and we had to leave. So for us all was good, we were not in any kind of trouble. Off we went, escorted by an unmarked police car, to another hotel. The escort was presumably to then ‘negotiate’ a similar rate in the new hotel, which was more expensive than the first one. Naturally the whole check-in process took forever as, us arriving with the police, prompted them the check and double check all passports and then some. By midnight we were finally in our (new) rooms. In a Chinese hotel approved for foreigners.
I did a google search, and, instead of me trying to explain something that I just learned about, I though it better to link to a few blogs/journals explaining it:
Wade Shepard: ‘Foreigners are still banned from most hotels in China’
Tom Carter: ‘Foreigners unwelcome in Chinese Budget Hotels’
Just to link a few articles. Maybe I’ll find more later and then I’ll link them as well.
