First What Is An ‘International’ Hotel?

I use the term international quite loosely. Some such hotels have ‘International’ in their title. Some do not. These hotels are typically 3.5 to 4 stars: nice hotels, but not quite as good (or international) as they think they are.

Foreigners may stay here when they come to town, but most of the clientele are Chinese, the management are Chinese and the way the hotel works is Chinese. There just may be the odd surprise in store for the foreigners.

Note: I’m talking about ‘international’ hotels outside of the largest Chinese cities. You’ll find true international hotels in Beijing and Shanghai.

The Expat’s Refuge

Any foreigner who’s lived in a small to medium sized Chinese city will know of a hotel that fits this mould – a place where you can ease out of everyday life in China and settle down in comfortable surroundings with a nice cold beer or an almost decent coffee along with some pseudo Western food.

Time in such establishments is part of the survival kit, helping maintain sanity when the absolute foreignness of everything around you becomes too much. I needed that regularly when I first started living in China, but it was more an occasional treat by the end. For many expats, this need doesn’t diminish.

The Dynasty Hotel 2002

When I first started living in China in 2002, my refuge was the Dynasty Hotel. There were other ‘international’ hotels in Zhoaqing, but this was one of the best (and the school I taught English at also happened to own it).

As you can see from the following photo, the inside of an ‘international’ hotel can be impressive:

A statue of Buddha, polished granite walls, impressive lighting effects, curved roof, palm trees etc. Looks lovely!

However, scratch the surface and it’s still very much Chinese. Look at the ceiling – you can see a lot of things that look like fire sprinklers. I’m not sure exactly what they are, but they’re not fire sprinklers. Also note the controls on the wall, which are more obtrusive than they need to be.

This is typical in China. Wiring and pipes are normally on the outside, rather than being built in. Even when they build a lovely looking hotel, you’ll find things tacked on that seem out of place.

Still, complaints aside, the overall feeling of this hotel is one of luxury, especially when compared to the city outside it’s doors.

The second shot is of the pool area, taken from inside the downstairs lounge:

The pool area is great, including an outside bar, several pools of varying depth and the little bridge you can see.

The lounge itself can seem like heaven. On a hot day (and it get’s very hot and sticky in Zhaoqing) you can sit in air-conditioned comfort, drinking ice cold beer (or freshly squeezed fruit juice, or semi decent coffee) and snacking on peanuts or dried peas. You can even order a pizza if you want. As I said, heaven!

Of course this is relative – for someone stepping off a plane from a Western nation, such a hotel wouldn’t seem impressive in anyway. But after you’ve been living in China for a while, well your viewpoint will change!

Needless to say, although we loved exploring the real China and eating at local restaurants, etc, this hotel became a refuge for me and the other expats I worked with.

If you’re an expat living in China, have you experienced something similar? What’s your local refuge?

Stevo is known for his great pictures of China, which really capture life in the middle kingdom.

I’ve never published any of my own pictures. By the time I started blogging (2007), my camera was securely packed away and only brought out on special occasions.

While I couldn’t say that nothing was new to me (no foreigner in China can ever say that), I was in everyday living mode. Carrying a camera round all the time wasn’t part of that. When I did take photos, they were mostly of family, not of the vastly interesting setting in which we lived (China).

Most of my best photos of China are from my early days there, when everything was new to me. I carried my camera everywhere and was always on the lookout for a good shot.

When I looked back on my photos from my time living in Zhaoqing in 2002, I realized that I had some really good photos there. So, I’ve decided that I better publish some of them on this blog. I thought I better start with the following photo, a small version of which has sat in the header of this blog since it was launched.

This shot was taken on the 14th September 2002, just inside the old city wall in Zhaoqing. The photo hasn’t been edited in anyway – it was taken using the black and white mode on the Canon Ixus I owned at the time.

I was really happy with this shot because there’s so much in it. The old man sitting outside his corner store, watching a couple making an exchange, while a women pushes her bike up the ramp onto the city wall, with some young girls walking in the background.

The tree makes it better, as does the shiny car, which is in contrast to the generally rundown surroundings. The inside of the shop is great, as are the Chinese characters. Take any one of these elements away and it wouldn’t have been as good.

For me, it really captured life in China – busy (there’s always something going on), a mix of old and new, foreign to my eyes but strangely beautiful. That’s why it ended up in the header of the blog (it may not be there long, as I want to redesign the site, but that’s another story).

That’s all for this post. You’ll start to see some more photos in future posts, along with some commentary. I hope they’re enjoyable, despite their age.

Finding The Wuhan TianHe Airport Hotel

I had a booking at the Wuhan TianHe Airport Hotel. After arriving at the airport, I asked for directions in broken Chinese: Wuhan Tianhe feijicheng jiudian zai na ma? I was pointed in the direction of the hotel.

I walked in that direction (in the rain) looking for the hotel. There were several buildings that may have been hotels, but there was no identifying sign that told me I’d found the Wuhan TianHe Airport Hotel.

After walking for 5 minutes (further than it should have been from the description on the Internet), I gave up and hailed a taxi to take me there. The taxi driver was very friendly and wouldn’t take me – instead he pointed to a building a couple of hundred metres back down the road towards the airport. I’d walked right past it.

There was no English sign (ie Wuhan TianHe Airport Hotel). There was no Tian (one of the few Chinese characters I can read) in the Chinese sign. When I went inside there was nothing to identify it as the TianHe hotel either. To top it off their business cards had a different hotel name on them.

Now thoroughly confused, I phoned someone who could speak Chinese and got them to talk to the hotel staff (I really need to learn Chinese). Sure enough, it turned out to be the Wuhan TianHe Airport Hotel and they had my reservation in their computer.

I have no idea why they didn’t have the English name on a sign – I know it’s China and they don’t have to have an English sign, but most businesses do and I made the reservation on a website targeting English speakers. At the very least, I would have thought there’d be the Chinese character for Tian.

Anyway, this is just how things go in China sometimes. They don’t always make sense.

If you’re ever looking for the hotel, turn left along the service road (on the same side of the road as the airport) and it’s pretty much the first large building you come across.

Killing Time At Wuhan Airport

By the time I’d settled in to the hotel, it was about 2:30pm. My connecting flight wasn’t until the next morning, so I had an afternoon (and night) to kill. I thought I’d see what there was to do.

I found that there’s really nothing to do at Wuhan Airport.

Actually, I thought that would be the case – in fact, I specifically opted for a hotel at the airport, rather than take the hour long cab ride into town. I’d been working pretty hard and had plenty of catch up reading to do, so I thought an afternoon relaxing would be better than the cab ride.

Well, even I was taken aback. I thought that there would at least be a restaurant open, where I could I get something to eat and maybe sit and read for a while. It turns out that Wuhan Airport is one of the very few places in China where there are no restaurants! This in a country where you are never more than a couple of minutes walk from a restaurant!!

To be fair, it was 2:30pm, which is long after the time most Chinese have lunch. The hotel restaurant probably would have been open if I’d been earlier. Also, there are restaurants inside the airport, beyond security, but they’re only for checked in passengers. I had to settle for buying some pot noodles in the airport shop. At least they provided boiling water and there were some tables and chair where I could sit and read.

After lunch? I thought I might try to find an Internet café (once again something you can find throughout China). Not at Wuhan Airport. After that it was back to the hotel for a sleep. Waking up just in time for dinner, I was relieved to find that the hotel restaurant was open!

Mobile Phones

After checking in for my connecting flight the following morning, I noticed that they had several racks of phone chargers in the terminal.

There were phone chargers for many different makes and models of mobile phones – you just walk up, find the correct plug for your phone and plug it in. It’s a great idea and one I haven’t seen anywhere besides Wuhan Airport.

It just goes to show how much the Chinese value their mobile phones. I’ve never seen a country where so much importance is placed on the mobile phone. The downside is that people don’t turn their phones off on the plane, even when the air hostesses tell them they have to turn them off. In China, rules are often more like rough guidelines…

Leave Catherine at home

While in the queue to present my passport at Wuhan Airport, I noticed a sign saying “Please don’t bring any catherine or firecrackers on board the aircraft”. Too bad if your name is Catherine!

I guess they mean catherine wheels? They probably should just have used fireworks to cover everything. Another fine example of Chinglish which is slowly and sadly disappearing.

Watch The Departures Screen Like A Hawk!

Here’s some advice for people waiting to board at Wuhan Airport: watch the Departures screen like a hawk! For my flight, the boarding gate changed several times, without any verbal announcement.

I’d been sitting reading and having a drink. 15 minutes had passed since I’d last checked the screen. When I checked again, I found that not only had a) the gate changed again; and b) they’d started boarding; they were onto the final call. I had to move quickly not to miss the flight.

If I hadn’t been checking the screen, I’d probably still be sitting in Wuhan Airport! Don’t rely on verbal announcements and keep a close eye on the Departures screen.

Small Regional Airports

On my return journey, I left from a small regional airport. Check-in didn’t open until one hour before departure and it closed only 15 minutes before take off. Security was minimal, in stark contrast to most airports around the world.

In fact, the airport put me in mind of the airport at Gladstone (QLD, Australia), where I worked for a time. I guess small regional airports are similar the world over. Well almost. This airport didn’t have any water in the toilet hand-basins.

Collect Your Bags

One very sensible thing they do at airports in China, is to check that your baggage claim ticket stub matches the one on your baggage. I’ve never seen this anywhere else in the world. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen anywhere else, but certainly in Brisbane or London, you can just pick up anyone’s luggage and leave with it.

In most places, the baggage ticket is just to track down lost luggage. In China it’s used to prevent theft or people accidentally taking the wrong bag (which happened to me at Heathrow). All in all, it seems a very sensible system.

Don’t Let The Passengers Open The Doors

On one of the flights on the journey, I sat in the row with the emergency exit onto the wing. The air hostess came to me and started to explain something (in English – all air hostesses have been taught English).

Having sat in similar positions on planes in other parts of the world, I was expecting to be told that I would have to open the exit if instructed to do so in the case of an emergency, and that if I didn’t want this responsibility, I should move.

I was a little taken aback when I was actually told to make sure that the passengers didn’t open the door! That must be more common than emergency landings in China!

Final Thoughts

Travelling in China is always interesting. My time at Wuhan Airport was just one of many trips, but in most cases, I forget the interesting things I experience. I’m glad I recorded this trip and that I can share them now.

Have you experienced something interesting while travelling in China? If so, share it!

This post started off a a Flickr Pick, but was promoted to the main area of the blog, as the Silk Street Market just proved to be too important.

The Silk Street Market is a landmark in modern Beijing and a popular shopping destination for tourists. It’s also called the Silk Market or Xiushuijie (in Chinese).

The Silk Market was once a series of stalls in back alleys, but it was razed to the ground several years ago and replaced with the current 5 floor building.

Internationally, it’s infamous as a hotbed of counterfeit items. Several multinational fashion brands have focused their attention, and lawsuits, on the Silk Market. How successful they’ve been is open to debate.

There’s no doubt the Silk Market has been cleaned up to an extent, but it would be a very optimistic person who said that there were no counterfeit items there. Anyway, even if there were none in the Silk Market, you wouldn’t have to travel far to find them.

It is worth noting that the Silk Street Market has launched it’s own brand and ironically announced that anyone counterfeiting the brand will be held liable!

Anyway, the Silk Market is very popular with tourists after a bargain. And there’s no doubt that you have to bargain hard. I’d probably recommend you start by offering about 10% of the asking price and if you’ve paid more than 30% you’ve probably been ripped off!

I’ve managed to get what I’ve thought to be excellent bargains (more than 50% off), only to find out later that I’d overpaid. The locals make a lot of money off Westerners.

I hate the Silk Market with a passion! You’ll get hassled non stop. “Hello, Hello, you want a shirt!”. I know you have to expect a little of that, but they grab on to you as well.

On one occasion a shop assistant physically restrained my wife from walking away from their stall. The only way to get away was for me to wrench the shop assistant’s arm away. I had to use some force (because the arm wasn’t moving otherwise) and there’s little doubt I hurt her.

I don’t know about you, but that is something I don’t want to deal with when I go shopping.

If you really want to do this sort of shopping, try Yaxiu in Sanlitun instead. The shopping is similar to the Silk Market, but there’s slightly less hassle. There are also other similar centres throughout Beijing.