dannyyu

How's the living situation looking in Beijing for the games at this point?

Still plenty of rooms available?

moondog

My gut tells me that prices have fallen by ~10% from their peak, but there's still much more room to fall.

IMO, the combination of the Olympics being non-PC (in certain circles) along with the visa situation warrants waiting things out.

iahphx

Hey Moondog (and others) --

I'll be in China (perhaps Shanghai) in August, and will need transport to Beijing for the Olympics. All things being equal, I'd probably rather take an overnight train. There will be four of us, and last time I found the private sleepers more than comfortable. Also the trains were on time, and it was "efficient" to travel at night.

But I'm slightly worried about the availability of sleepers during the Olympics. My guess is availability will be fine -- but how can I know this? I know I can't book the train very far in advance. With an airline ticket, though, I know I have a seat reserved.

What do you think? Should I wait for the train, or should I lock in advance airline tickets for the Olympics? Thanks.

moondog

I suggest that you book some plane tickets that are pretty easy to refund (6 折 or higher) because the trains tend to sell out whenever air fares are high. When you arrive in SH, you can try to get train tickets, but a fall back would be nice.

Ryu2

Has anyone successfully ordered tickets through the website? I always get a:

"We’re sorry, we’re unable to process your request. Please try again."

even for events which are reported to be available (even tried some really obscure seats/events in far-flung places just to make sure it wasn't an availability issue). It happens no matter what.

Stopped by the Bank of China just now to see if the situation was any better; they reported people were lining up at 8 PM last night!

jiejie

Ryu, yes I successfully ordered tickets 4 times yesterday on the official website. Once for me and 3 other times for expat friends who were occupied but who gave me their individual info to input. (I had the time at home yesterday so drew the short straw for ordering. )

I was on th system right at 9 a.m. The system was slow due to the queueing bottleneck for checkout that was added since the debacle last October. Especially during the first 2 hours, when I had three unsuccessful attempts at finding my top choices to be unavailable, and had to go back to the beginning of the order system. Grr-r-r-r. However, I didn't have any system crashes. After every order was placed, it took between 35 and 50 minutes for the order to get up to the front of the queue where availability lookup and processing was done. Once you got past the bottleneck, things went quickly. I only had one error message, when I apparently got timed out from the queue (at the one hour mark). But got right back in. It did take about 7 hours to get those 4 orders in successfully, but most of that time was just waiting for the queue to clear--I was parked near the computer, studying hanzi anyway so managed to get quite a few dozen Chinese characters learned during the interim waiting!

I picked up my own order yesterday at BOC just before they closed. Due to massive queues at pickup, they have extended the time limits for pickup and payment until May 14th, instead of the original "3 working days" to pay up or lose the tickets. I guess I was pretty lucky in my experience. By yesterday afternoon tons of stuff had already sold out.

jiejie

BTW, I tried to do a second order for myself before I had gone and picked up the tickets (I had done advance payment online via VISA). But the system wouldn't allow it until after I had picked up the tickets and the order was closed out. I did manage to successfully place an order for another 6 tickets yesterday early evening but am going to wait a couple of days to head over and pick them up, hoping the queues will clear. To avoid complete pandemonium, the 3 BOC's in my immediate area have instituted a pickup/payment queueing system where you give your name and phone at the bank branch morning opening, and they call you during the day when your number in the sequence is close to coming up so you can come over and not have long waits. I got the impression this makeshift system was being implemented at a lot of other BOC branches around Beijing, not sure about elsewhere in China. (The Olympic ticket pickup area is NOT the regular bank teller windows in the branches I've seen, but a separate location in the bank.)

ddutch

I managed to get tickets for three events - my experience was mostly the same as jiejie's. In the beginning I was using Firefox, which timed out before you could get through the queue, but I realized it was probably better to use IE around 11:00 and finally had some success.

iahphx

Thanks for the advice. BTW, what does "6 折 or higher" mean?

I assume the Chinese system is entirely different from the American one in that even discounted airline tickets are refundable? If so, is one of the online sellers materially better at dealing with refunds than another?

iahphx

It certainly sounds like the Chinese are eager to attend the games!

So from a foreigner's perspective, what is that likely to mean for me? Will I be able to buy "gray market" tickets in Beijing, or will the demand be crushing (it's worked before for me at other Olympic games)? What about physically getting around Beijing? Most cities tend to "empty out" for the games, and I'm kind of expecting the same for Beijing. Will it happen?

Finally, what about the hotel situation? It seems to already be loosening up a bit. Am I correct that there are few Chinese who can/will afford the type of hotels that I as a Westerner am likely to want to book (like the Western chain hotels)? And will most of the Chinese attending be local -- will many people be flocking to Beijing from other cities to attend? I'm kind of operating under the assumption that whatever increased demand you might see on trains/planes for attendees will be offset by a dearth of "usual" tourist and business travel.

Thanks for the advice.

Jamoldo

I think most Chinese tickets are refundable/changeable, often at a fee. I THINK. Moondog and others would be a better reference, but this is my recollection. I know I've recently changed for free.

"6折" means 60% of the original/full price, or as we often say, 40% discount. A bit confusing at first.

mapu

There are a lot of wealthy Chinese, check out this link: China has 345,000 millionaires, 4,935 "super rich"

I travel to China frequently, always stay in Western chain hotels and have never seen more than 20% foreigners in a hotel.

jiejie

1) Yes, a lot of Chinese are eager to attend anything just so they can be a part of the Games--hence the sellout of relatively unknown sports here, such as handball, hockey, rowing.

2) There will likely be gray/black market tickets around, but as hawking same in front of the venues will not be allowed, the search for desired tickets and the transactions will need to be done elsewhere and more discreetly. I think the situation will be tougher than previous Olympics and especially for super "hot" events. Make as many contacts as you can before you arrive in Beijing, and consider obtaining tickets to your must-see events at whatever price, before you arrive.

3) Beijing is easy to get around even if you don't know Chinese. It's just big and spread out. Subway and taxi are cheap and easy, and there will supposedly be special Olympic buses shuttling between the venues. This is the least of your worries.

4) No, Beijing won't empty out. Remember this city is bigger (population-wise) than any other Summer Games host in recent memory, with about 15 million residents not including the migrant workers, expats, and roving visitors. On the other hand, with an estimated 300,000 extra people a day visiting during the Games, that's only a 2% increase--barely noticeable in the scheme of things!

5) My impression is that hotel situation may indeed be getting more favorable in general, in both availability and pricing/terms. A large number of the event tickets sold in China are to local Beijingers or others within a 2-3 hour driving or local train radius. So they won't likely need hotels, or will stay with friends/family. As for other domestic Chinese from the wealthier east coast cities (where most of the other event tickets were sold), many keep apartments in Beijing and will use those, but there are also a goodly number who will compete for the same type of hotel rooms you would want, while the more thrifty Chinese visitors will lodge lower on the food chain.

There is an unconfirmed rumor going around that the authorities will restrict Chinese travelling to Beijing during the Games, UNLESS they can show they have event tickets. I personally think there is a better than 75% chance this will happen, so mass "flocking" by non-Beijingers just to hang out in the city is unlikely. I also think you are correct in that "normal" non-Games tourist and business travel to Beijing will drop to minimal levels. The current Chinese visa situation for foreigners is not exactly encouraging visits for any purpose this summer. Unless you come across a not-to-be-passed-up hotel deal, I'd suggest continuing to diligently and regularly look for suitable accommodation, and don't start to panic until later in June, when you will probably have to make a booking somewhere in order to get a Chinese visa (assuming you don't already have a valid visa that will cover you for the Games period).

dannyyu

What's the status currently in Beijing in light of the earthquake?

jiejie

What exactly do you mean? Beijing is still around, no damage from earthquake. Dominates the domestic news, of course, and for the moment this has knocked the torch relay off the pages as the top story.

Olympics still going on, haven't been cancelled. Event tickets mostly sold out. Hotels looking emptier than expected, prices may be coming down. Anything else you want to know?