I realized my article Shanghai Hotel Guide and Shanghai Hotel Guide – Part II are not so helpful for the majority of travelers. When I am planning my trip to U.S., I found either Hilton, Ritz Carlton, nor Sheraton hotels are attractive to me. When budget is of higher priority, they are simply filtered out. I realized budget travelers are the much most than those business travelers. Business travelers may not try as hard as backpackers – they just ask their companies to book flights and hotels for them. No questions asked about price.
In Shanghai, there are many good hotels offers 200 RMB – 300 RMB (30 USD?) per night rooms (with two beds). There are some OK hotel at 40 – 100 RMB. I will talk about it when I am back and I believe the hostel information is better than the big names in the hotel industry.
Carroll recommend me to look at GlobalFreeloaders.com. I checked and found it a great website and (more importantly) a great idea to pool the free offering. I believe I share the belief that travel contributes to peace. I registered and hope to find some good match in New York or Chicago, Washington D.C. so we can stay at someone’s home. It may bring more value to my trip other than the cost save. I have the opportunity to get in touch the local people! Lack of local touch is the reason why business trip is boring.
Meanwhile, I also made the commitment to contribute something to other visitors to Shanghai. Remember, I am the GlobalFreeloaders.com member now. Here is my contribution:
1. If anyone needs a bicycle in Shanghai, feel free to find me in GlobalFreeloaders.com website. Here is my bike. It is in very good status. Riding is interesting in Pudong and Xuhui District – may not be as interesting in Huangpu District. It has been spare for quite some time after I bought my car.
2. If anyone needs a mobile phone in Shanghai, feel free to ask for it. I have spare mobile phone that you can use. Please ask for it via GlobalFreeloaders.com.
:-D
That’s a pretty cool site. Why didn’t I think of it =) On the other hand, I don’t know if it’d comfortable inviting a total stranger especially if I goto leave for school or work. Catch 22 I guess………
that’s a cool looking bike. Aren’t you afraid of thieves? My friend lost 4 bicycles in one year.
aline, I also lost some bikes before but I like always park the bike in my apartment and seldom use it. I use it as SPORTS instead of Transportation, so it always go with me.
I almost gave you a call in July,2003 during the last few day of my trip,to borrow a mobile charger since i know that you use Alcatel mobile. It feel like a crazy idea then.
Now i wonder what you would do if i have had called. :)
Cool! I’m so glad you found the site and agree with me that it’s a wonderful idea :-)
Rogi, I had the same feeling when I first heard about it…it’s something my own son should have thought of and would have been great at putting together!
Jian Shuo, I was going to write you a recommendation there, and I looked for you under the Shanghai section, but did not see your name. I know the site has been having some difficulties of late, or it may be that you are sill “new” and they’ve just not posted your information yet. In any case, if you tell me your user name there, I will be happy to write something nice about you!
One weakness of that site, in my opinion, is that you cannot find out anything about the members in a particular location until you go through the process of requesting accommodations for a particular date. The Hospitality Club (http://www.hospitalityclub.org/) is based on the same friendly “people-to-people” principles and seems a little easier to use. One can belong to both, and hopefully expand the possibilities for being contacted that way. If any of your readers are coming to California, they can find me and my husband at either site, and we would love to meet or host youin our area!
There is another site called Chinabackpacker that has some good info for the whole of China (I have some articles on their too ;-)
http://www.chinabackpacker.com/
I just came back from a 2 week trip to china, and altho I stayed in JinMao Grand Hyatt 5 star, the most memorable staying experieces were from the hostels.
All the ones I visted have been clean and comformtable (apart from the one in Shanghai). Especially liked the one in Huangshan.
try http://www.hostelworld.com
Great to see the Hospitality Club already mentioned here :-) If you like Globalfreeloaders, you will love the HC :-)
Greetings from Germany,
Veit
http://www.hospitalityclub.org
Was browsing Google and found your site, enjoyed the reading, thanks