maybe it's a rumor

[robhon]

Solution? Pay off the cop and/or hotel worker(s), so I have heard.

 

You can't be serious.

Your not properly prepared for China, or for that matter most of the developing world, if this shocks you.

 

I just re-read the original post to find there were two different subjects. I was thinking the suggestion was to pay off the cops so you don't get caught buying your $1000 bogus visa.

 

I'm annoyed but not shocked by the payola stuff that goes on in China. My wife's father had to do a little palm greasing to help get our marriage papers filed. It's just such an unhealthy thing for their burgeoning economy.

 

And I've been there with the hotel thing too. Before we were married, when we came back to the room late, the hotel people would just politely say that no guests would be allowed after 10pm. And in Yancheng (pretty small place), even during daytime hours, if my girlfriend was in the room with me and we closed the door, a maid would come knock and ask if we needed anything. I was told, "In China there is no such thing as privacy." Later I noticed that everyone's hotel room door was always kept open.

[owenkrout]

I am also annoyed by all the payola. It has cost us several thousand dollars to get all my wife's papers. Much of the record that she even existed during the cultural revolution period has disappeared. That could be taken care of, but only for a "special fee". Compounded by the fact that the city she is registed to is notoriously corrupt even for China.

 

Yeah, we had to go the two hotel rooms route when we were first in Beijing way back before we got married.

[Guest R2D2]

A visa officer in Mexico was just charged and convicted a few months ago of this very thing. The visas that he and his cohort sold are now no good.

[whoever]

Robbon:

 

What kind of hotel you went to when you were in China? You sure it was a hotel, not some bunglow rooms?

 

As far as I know, the maids won't even ask me unless I ask for help. And, all those are money related!

 

However, I was staying in a 5 start hotel. I don't know why it was such a big deal if you bring anyone to your room in hotel.

 

Maybe, you were just in a wrong province

[robhon]

The larger hotels in major cities (Nanjing, Shanghai, Shenzhen) those have been no problem. It was in Yancheng. What the maid was actually doing, by coming to knock on the door and asking if we needed anything, was coming by to make sure our door was kept open. In Chongqing I've only stayed at my wife's parent's house.

 

It was in Shenzhen where they would say no guests were allowed after 10pm. My favorite hotel in Shenzhen is not one of the pricy ones, but it still has nice rooms. No one speaks any English, though.

[Mick]

The rule about staying in a hotel room together if you are unmarried is unevenly enforced. Li and I never had a problem in Guangzhou but could not stay together in Hefei (Anhui Province). One hotel in Shanghai also refused to allow us to stay together as well. I have read reports of foreigners actually being detained and deported in Chengdu for having their girlfriend in the same room. Of course, now we are married so this should no be a problem in the future.

[rocksplit]

Despite our beautiful red marriage license we (once I showed up after initial price negotiations of Xiyu ) some times clerks suddenly could not garantee the "necessary" security and comfort of the big hotels approved for "international" travelers.

 

Luckily we dealt usualy with reasonable humans of sufficent courage to allow us in after a conversation

[whoever]

Robhon:

I am sure they knock on the door, because they just wanna get some money from you:)

 

Next time, order some service from them, and give them some tips. They will never bother you again/

 

[wolf]

Has anyone ever had this kind of problem at the Vicotory Hotel near the GZ Consulate? I stayed there with my Fiancee in May last year and nothing like this happened, but now I have to go back so everyone has made me think. What is your advice at this hotel?

[Mick]

Never had this problem at the Victory Hotel or the Shamian Hotel on Shamian Island.