China Travel Pulse
Guide category
Accommodation rules, registration, booking, and neighborhood selection.
Hotels normally register foreign guests at check-in. At a private home, apartment or other non-hotel address, the visitor or host must normally register with local public security within 24 hours; seven regions also offer the national online pilot.
Foreign travelers should not be told that they may stay only in hotels with a special blanket qualification to receive foreign guests. A 2024 central-government circular said local authorities and booking platforms should not restrict accommodation operators from receiving foreign guests on that basis, and operators should not advertise illegally that they refuse foreign guests.
Airbnb removed every mainland listing in 2022. What that leaves, why the registration rule makes private rentals harder than hotels, and when an apartment stay is still worth arranging.
Cheap, sociable, and the accommodation type most likely to turn you away at check-in. How to find hostels that can register a foreign passport, and what a Chinese hostel is actually like.
Beijing is 16,000 square kilometres and the wrong district costs you an hour each way. Seven areas compared by metro line, walking distance to the sights, and which station and airport you are using.
Trip.com, Booking.com, Agoda and the Chinese apps. Which has the inventory, which shows you prices you cannot actually book, and the one filter that matters more than price.
There is no single “best area” in a large Chinese city. Choose by the places you will actually visit, the exact transport connections, and the time you arrive—not by a generic city-center label.
Plan with your actual itinerary
Answer one question at a time and compare the published options that may fit your passport, dates and route.