The City of Chengde 承德
Again, I wanted to get out early the next day only to dilly dally until was a already quite late. The plan for the day was to go to the city of Chengde in the neighboring province of Hebei. It was easy enough to get the bus, and according to my research, there is a brand new highway connecting Beijing and Chengde, which still cut travel time down to two hours.
When the bus left, it was stopping a bit too frequently, as if it was a regular commuter bus. I was under the impression that this will be an express bus that will take us directly to Chengde. One of the passengers asked what time we would get to Chengde, the driver answered that it would take us six hours to get there. Six hours?! Apparently, we were not taking the highway as I expected. Estimating the time to get there it would mean that I would get to Chengde by three in the afternoon. This was way later than the ten o’clock I planned.
Clock Tower at Chengde Bridge 承德大桥
The bus stopped a couple of times to rest the drivers and the passengers but there was hardly anything interesting along the way. I could see the highway we should have taken and I was wondering if we were all taken for a ride, excuse the pun. When we finally got to Chengde, I decided that I would be spending the night there. As it was already three in the afternoon, I needed to make arrangements quickly.
Along the way, I saw a lot of tourist rooms for rents and when I inquired, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they are very affordable with the price of CNY 30, not bad at all. However, which the lady at the hostel asked for my identification card, I told her I didn’t have one. She told me that they don’t accept foreigners there and pointed me to a hotel nearby. I tried another hostel nearby and got the same response. I was puzzled and furious at the difficulty of getting an affordable place to stay here.
View of Chengde Bridge 承德大桥
I even went to that hotel they were pointing to and I was relieved to find out that they do have a relatively affordable place to stay in. However when they were processing my passport, and found out where I come from, they suddenly were unsure and changed their mind and apologized profusely. I don’t get it what is up with this xenophobia. I guess when in doubt, just turn down the visitors/business. I can’t understand why it was so difficult for foreigners to find an affordable place to stay here. The only place which I found accepting my passport costs CNY 500 a night, way beyond my budget. Frustrated at this turn of events, I decided to instead try another day. It will be cheaper for me to travel back to Beijing and come back another day than to spend one night at a CNY 500 room.
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