Thorn Tree travel forum

1

By inexpensive, what do you mean? If it is backpacker shoestring budget, forget it. Expect the price of hotels to double at least. You can try to prebook some beds in International Hostels, it maybe cheaper (but probably still double the normal price).

By the way, most of the Olympic venues are in the northern part of the city near the 4th & 5th ring roads. So do not book hotel in the south of the city or you will have to take 3 hours transit to get to the venues.

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2

Hotels...double in price? The article I posted/linked to in China Daily last weekend said quadruple or quintuple is the likely opening offer. The article also quoted the "secretary-general of the Beijing Youth Hostel Association" as saying he believed 300 RMB per bed in hostels would be a fair price....that was in response to one hostel owner's announced plan to charge 600 per bed. The guy from the hostel association said he was thinking of organizing more beds in Beijing's budget hotels under the "youth hostel" banner...smart move as they'll be able to fill every one.

3

Let the shameless greed begin....

4

Stay outside Beijing and trek in for whatever events you want to see. This will cut costs by half at least.

5

The premier Olympic venues are in the north part of the city between 4th and 5th ring roads. Other venues are in the near east, near west, and far west sides. The subway line situation will improve considerably between now and the Olympics: One new north-south line (#5) opening later this year and 2 more (#4 north-south and #10--3rd ring road + Olympic Spur) in about a year. I can't find my handy map link right now, but a Google search could bring something up. The opening of these lines will put a LOT more lodging options within reasonable travel time of Olympic events. No need to stay near the Olympic Park itself, and everything in that area at any price range will be booked out, if not already.

I believe the traffic situation will actually be surprisingly good during the Olympic time frame. Count on the Beijing authorities to restrict all traffic inside the 4th Ring Road, and to release non-essential gov't workers during this period. I'm sure they'll put on lots of extra buses to and from major collection points around the city, to/from venues. Taxis will be around and will probably have easy cruising around relatively unclogged streets.

Your biggest issue will be getting Olympic tickets, at least to major events. Assuming you are not a Chinese national or resident foreigner, you'll have to go through your country's designated ticket procurer who has an allotment. Many of these agents only sell tickets as part of a very expensive package deal.

6

On Accommodation: I think the worst gouging--at least those who are going to get away with it--is going to be at the ends of the accommodation spectrum. The 4- and 5- stars will upcharge because there are piles of VIPS, corporates, and package foreign tourists who can and will pay. (These facilities are supposedly already booked out around the city). The hostels will upcharge because they will have added Olympics-on-a-shoestring traffic to their already fairly brisk business, and they think they have no competition at the lower end of the lodging market. Where you are likely to find a better deal is the 2-star and lower 3-star part of the market, especially independent hotels that cater to Chinese, with no international brand affiliation. Quality of these varies all over the place, though, you'll have to do homework. You can also try the very few new budget lodging chains that are starting up--the Home Inns and Super 8's. I think by July 2008, it will be apparent how many extra rooms there are, and there may be some prices coming down..way down. The wild card is how many non-Beijing Chinese will actually show up in the City for the Games--quite a few in-the-know officials believe that there will NOT be hordes of these people coming, and many of those that do will cram in with friends and relatives rather than stay in hotels. Normal Chinese business traffic who normally stay in Chinese hotels is expected to be way down, as gov't and corporate business officials will be distracted or leave town (if not going to the Games). We shall see...

7

One other tip: for those who want to see the Games and are primarily interested certain non-marquee events, make sure you go to the website (www.tickets.beijing2008.cn) and check out the English-language map of venues for those events before you try to figure out lodging location. For instance, if you are interested in events such as archery, shooting, cycling, baseball, softball, basketball prelims--most of which are being held in venues in the far west Wukesong and W. 5th Ring Road area--you may want to select accommodation that is not in the mainstream tourist center of town but more "out there" or at least on a west-side subway line. I suspect that for many of the non-marquee events, there will be tickets left when they go on sale to the general worldwide public in October of this year. And the good news is, lots of these tickets are really cheap.

8

I think it's interesting that the prices of the tickets to individual events seem to be very much in line with what's important in that part of the world. My daugher (ok, stepdaugher actually) was just named to the USA Synchronized Swimming 2008 Olympic Team! Yes, I'm bragging...official announcement won't be until 4/28 - you heard it here first! WooHoo!!!
Anyway - in the US, synchronized swimming is a joke. However, in Asian countries and Russia it is huge. When the US national team was competing in Japan earlier this year they were treated like rock stars - autographs, pictures, the works. It was on prime time tv in Japan, China, Korea and I think Australia....It seems appropriate, then, that the tickets for the synchro events are more expensive than almost all the other events - beat out only by track/field (with one ticket including 7 or 8 different events) and speed swimming (again, 7 events). (Synchro tickets were for ONE event each) Other than those, as far as I can tell, Synchronized Swimming is the hot ticket at these games!
so
I'll be looking for advice on travelling to Beijing during the Olympics (not my idea of fun) and yes, we've already purchased our event tickets (courtesy of USOC for families)!!!!!!!

not a city girl by any stretch.....

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts ~ Mark Twain

9

#8, congrats to you and your stepdaughter! :)
Cheers!

10

you can also try www.beijing-olympics-accommodation.com they list places owned by locals and expats who rent their places out. you can see where they are located as well as the events venues.

rates are higher than what they would normally be, but still cheaper than hotels, and of course they're real homes. i think they have courtyard homes listed too. yea, teaffic should be much better as the government will restrict the number of cars circulating in the city. also new lines are to be opened.