Hotel restrictions for foreigners.

There are always people hanging around outside train station/bus station/etc in bigger centres who will be holding cards with pictures of rooms on them and they'll take anyone. Be aware though that they WILL be unlicensed "hotels" and there is always the outside chance that the police will raid the place, the photo on the card will bear very little resemblance to the actual room and they WILL try and charge you standard hotel prices (150 - 180). You have to bargain and don't, whatever you do, pay up front (And never, never, never pay a key deposit).

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).

That is a great attitude. Heading to China intent on breaking the law every day you are there. Generally the PSB is inclined to look the other way, avoid conflict but not always. The solution the PSB will find is probably holding you without charge or fining you until you change your mind.

I usually don't expect to get a room for 50 Yuan, but on my last trip I got one (average price travelling in Guizhoui for hotels was 135 Yuan). I wanted to visit the big Tianshengqiao in Liping which actually is situated closer to Gaotunzhen (where the airport is). The girl at the bus who sells the tickets stopped the bus for me in front of the only Binguan in small Gaotunzhen. The room was basic but clean and costed 50 Yuan. But there are not many tourists and Guizhou is one of the poorest provinces. But still I was surprised because usually hotel-rooms in regions with no western tourists are more expensive. I guess it's because there is less competition.

It turned out to be a 24-hour spa. It cost me 19 Yuan for the night ....

Was the massage part of the 19 yuan package?

... spend a comfortable night there, pay 30RMB extra in the morning ...

What was the extra for, services?

" . . . and if this causes a headache for local authorities I would let them find a better solution."

Agree this is a really bad attitude to have on a trip to China. As said, you should go out of your way to avoid encounters with officials, and if you have to encounter them then you do so on bended knee.

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).

My bolding. The problem with your camping plan on the HK-Hanoi route is that there is very little "middle of nowhere" to pitch a tent--you will always be on somebody's land and you will probably not go unnoticed or unchallenged--and not necessarily from the local constabulary. I think you are over-imagining accommodation being a problem in this region of China--you should be able to find inexpensive accommodation, legal to take foreigners at RMB 100 or less especially in towns or smaller cities. Friendly villagers in out-of-the-way spots who are unaware or untroubled by official regulations, might let you pitch your tent somewhere if you politely ask "permission", maybe buy a little food or meal from one of them, and let them know you'll be moving on in the morning (if that's the truth).

If the police show up, you can always tell them that you were supposed to make it to X [insert name of next major town on forward route] but were so tired you had to stop for the night. Always be polite. Unless you happen to rock up unawares to a place near some sort of sensitive installation, I doubt the police will do anything scary to you and might be OK with letting you stay/camp one "emergency" night.

I stayed at the only hotel in a small Guizhou town once. I think the room was about 30 Yuan. In places like that, you don't tend to have problems with foreigners not being allowed! They don't know what a foreigner is, and you speak much better Mandarin than they do anyway. They probably think you're from Beijing.

As to the person asking about cycling - I know many people who have cycled in China on small budgets. You'll get by. In small places with only one or two hotels, there usually isn't a problem staying as a foreigner. The main issue is in towns and cities, where people feel they can always just tell you to go "somewhere else", or when there are indeed fancier hotels in town where the police want foreigners to stay.

Do note though that in some regions (Xinjiang, ethnically Tibetan regions) local authorities tend to be much stricter with foreigners, and there you are likely to have more problems.

If you turn up somewhere and the police find out, and decide they don't want you there, they're not going to arrest you. They'll either tell you to cycle out of town, or put you on a bus.

Do you remember my story about being taken by the police and being dumped on a random street corner? That's their attitude more generally as well. If you turn up in a County, and the local police don't want you there..... all they'll do is make sure that you cross the border into the next County, and then you are suddenly someone else's problem, and they don't have to think about you anymore.

Thank you for your comments. I think i will be able to handle such situations in a right way.

I found it excellent.
I think it even saw a 2nd edition.
I used the first:
https://www.amazon.com/Hiking-Lonely-Planet-Walking-Guides/dp/1864500395/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=2Y4CM28W6RX54X9J8JGB