Hotel restrictions for foreigners.

Here in Japan, on the other hand, nothing seems to have raised their prices in decades. You can pick up a guidebook from 15 years ago, and the prices are all still correct.

Indeed. I mentioned that in my review of an old Japan guide on Amazon.

I didn't know they had a hiking guide to Japan! The LP hiking guides seem to be very hit and miss. The old Trekking in the Karakoram and the Hindu Kush is still my favorite LP guide, but some of the others are so-so. I wonder if Cicerone cover Japan.

it was the brand new Renmin Guangchang with a flock of resident peacocks that I really liked!

This is the second time I've seen you mention peacocks in Renmin Guangchang, Yinchuan. I've been to Yinchuan on several occasions and never seen hide nor hair (Face nor feather?) of a peacock. Pigeons by the truck-load but not one single peacock.

What were you doing in Yinchuan on several occasions?? I've only been there once, and the peacocks were clear as you like. I've found their home on Google Maps. Take a look at the square in the satellite view. Right in the middle of it is a big 6-pointed star. One of the points on the star points to the south-west. Follow the line of that point. You'll see, hidden in the grass and the bushes next to the paved part of the square, the red roof of a small little building.

When I visited the square, that little building was home to a large family of peacocks.

OK, this is certainly something that your experience of finding accommodation in China does not encompass, but let’s have a look at such situation:

You have decided not to pay more than 100 Y for a room, and the only hotel in a town that accept foreigners has room for 300. There are other hotels, cheaper ones, with rooms for 100 y. You go to PSB and say that you cannot afford the 300 Y hotel, and need a cheaper one, otherwise you have no place to stay and will be forced to sleep on a bench in the town park. What reaction from the police side you might expect?

There's a general feeling, at least among Chinese people, that you do not approach the police unless you absolutely absolutely must. This isn't so much related to today's police or political regime but to an ages-old aversion to getting mixed-up with authority, especially the law.

That is, best you work it out yourself and don't involve the police.

But if you do go to the police and you do meet someone you can talk to who's willing to help, then they'll drive you over to the 300RMB hotel and strike a deal for you at 200RMB.

I had this experience once. I was new to China, didn't speak any Chinese, and was traveling on a very tight budget. I turned up in a town, only planning to stay one night. I started wandering around looking for hotels. Hotel after hotel after hotel refused me. It was getting late, and I started to get worried. Then, luck! I found a hotel that accepted me. Reception staff spoke no English, but they showed me a room, wrote down an acceptable price (80 Yuan), and everything seemed great. I threw my bags in the room, and went down to pay.

That's where the problems began. We couldn't communicate too well, and suddenly, they seemed to be telling me I couldn't stay there. Why? What's going on? I couldn't really get an answer. I was incredibly angry. I went off to the room and locked myself in, so that I could at least use the bathroom and freshen up a bit (I'd been traveling since first thing in the morning). They banged on the door repeatedly. When I came out, about 10-15 minutes later, the police were there.

The police didn't speak any English either. They took me to a hotel, and some poor Australian/Chinese girl who staying there was called down to translate. A room in the hotel was about 300 Yuan. I said that was too expensive, and asked to be taken back to an 80-Yuan hotel, such as the one I'd just been to, where I would have been perfectly happy to spend the night.

I was furious at this point.

The awkward conversation, with the Australian tourist mediating, continued like this for about 20 minutes. Eventually, I was told that the police knew of a cheaper hotel where I could stay. I got back in the car with them. They dropped me off on a completely random street corner a few blocks away, and drove off.

I went back to the fancier, 300 Yuan hotel, sat down on a couch in reception, and told them I was going to spend the night there. It was already well after dark, I was exhausted, and doing more wandering in search of a hotel seemed hopeless.

The hotel evidently didn't want me hanging out at reception. They promised me they really did know somewhere cheap I could sleep, and had a member of staff walk me there.

It turned out to be a 24-hour spa. It cost me 19 Yuan for the night. I gave my backpack to reception, turned down an offer or two of a massage, and headed to a large dormitory-like room to spend a sleepless night.

In my first year in China the powers that be used to lock up our residential building at 10pm and close the gate of the compound as well. This meant that if we went on of an evening (Maybe a Friday) to a bar (For instance) the night was only just starting when we had to leave or otherwise we'd be faced with jumping over a gate or wall and then trying to wake up the old twit who was the caretaker (Who would be a lot less than happy with us). This didn't appeal much; even less so in the winter when ice and snow made jumping the gate/wall that much more hazardous.

The answer, I found, was to go to the massage place that was across the road, pay 10 yuan for a beautiful foot massage that would put me to sleep anyway (Particularly after copious quantities of beer), spend a comfortable night there, pay 30RMB extra in the morning and back across the road for breakfast.

The thing is that i am going to tour China (HK – Hanoi) on a bicycle, and looking for accommodating will be a subject for improvisation: where an evening found me there I would stay: village, town or in the middle of nowhere (wild camping). I am not going jump from one “foreigner hotel” to another. And if there is no hotel or any other place to stay at I always have a tent to sleep in, and if this causes a headache for local authorities I would let them find a better solution (max 100 Y).