Sorry to hear that.

But what was the lady supposed to do? Accept your notes, get fired and probably sued or put on trial (if they were really fake)? Fake yuan are plentiful, they sometimes even end up in ATMs. If the machine says it's a fake one, I guess your only chance is to take it up with a bank or try to get rid of it somewhere else where they don't check as thoroughly (or escalate to a very high manager that is not Chinese). Certainly, marking your note as fake was the error of the machine, but still, what is the lady supposed to do in your opinion? You can't expect a front desk agent not t abide by company rules and elide her manager's instructions - that's simply not how it works in China...

As foreigner, she might even trust you less - because tourists and (unexperienced) foreigners are the most common "vicitims" of fake notes scams. If you seem not to know what you are doing, street hawks and even some shops/ taxi drivers will try to palm their fake notes off on you (or "proactively" scam you) - so there is no reason for the front desk agents to trust you more because you are a foreigner and state your note is from HSBC...

Apart from that, getting your bills or coins rejected is not very uncommon in China; there are cities where taxis won't accept 1 Yuan coins (a vicious feisty lady once even threw them at me in Chongqing ) and others that loathe 1 Yuan notes. Stores also routinely reject old looking notes, because they fear them being fake or invalid. Your notes being rejected is nothing to be very ashamed of - and no nightmare . On the contrary, if you tell your taxi driver that you don't like the 10 yuan note because it looks old, he won't say a single word but simply hand you another one in most cases...

This hotel provides you with a fairly detailed map of Guangzhou on request, btw.

In regards to the "Monthly card", be aware that the 50 Yuan initial fare credit will not be refunded (if not used entirely) when giving back the card. (= like in Macau)