While traveling with Shanti, I had the pleasure of getting used to staying in hostels. For the most part, I was surprised by how cozy, cheap, well-furnished and well serviced they were. However, over the length of the trip, hostels had to slowly win my love over with their Chinese-English dictionaries, WiFi, and the complimentary golden retriever in every lobby (we saw three of them in three separate hostels).
Our first hostel on the trip, in Wuxi, was less than adequate and had turned me off initially to the hostel experience. Here are some pictures of the Wuxi hostel.
Bunk Beds
Looks like a hallway from a horror movie filmed in the children's ward of a hospital
I walked in on some guy using this soap to wash his feet. Afterwards, I realized that there was junk on the soap bar. Naturally, I wasn't entirely comfortable with using it anymore. I really needed to take a shower with soap since I hadn't cleaned myself in a couple days, so I went to go buy some more soap at the nearby convenience store and found one with the same packaging and bought it.
Since I couldn't read Chinese I didn't know until Shanti saw that it was laundry soap. Everybody, but me, got a good laugh out of this.
I usually don't make fun of translation errors since my Chinese is horrible, but this sign in our first hostel's lobby made me laugh. The Wuxi hostel seems like a place that would have a sign that's about selling lives to human traffickers.
I have more things to say about the service and the appearance, but this is already a long blog. Later, we learned that foreigners would actually not be allowed to stay in this hostel for the duration of the Shanghai World Expo because the Chinese government doesn’t allow hostels or hotels to accept foreigners unless their accommodations are up to a certain standard.
Here are some of the other hostels we stayed at: Suzhou Watertown Hostel in Suzhou and Nanjing Jasmine International Youth Hostel in Nanjing .
Suzhou's common space
Our co-ed dormitory at Suzhou Watertown Hostel in Suzhou
The lobby in Nanjing Jasmine International Youth Hostel (Nanjing, Jiangsu region)
Mixed dormitory room at Nanjing Jasmine International Youth Hostel in Nanjing
thanks for NOT showing a close-up of the cruddy soap sponge.
all the pics show very clean and orderly places. much nicer than similar places in the US. how much US$ per night?
Chinglish rocks!
try to get some people in your pics…..
TJ, I have a good laugh of that soap and I shared with my co-workers. some area don’t look too bad. make me think that one should bring your own pillow and sheets. many human lives being there…..sure look like boot camps…….otherwise, it is a good way to travel.
Hostel travel is the way to go. Not always charming, but always an adventure, an experience you walk away from with an opinion, and affordable. Tim, when you return to China, you must stay at Mix Hostel in Chengdu for a great hostel experience.