October 11, 2024
I2/2: 首都机场 → 东三环北 （双语）
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Realizing that there's no way I'm making it to O & A's early enough that they haven't left for school yet, I dawdle around the hotel room writing journal entries and handling work related stuff until sometime past 10am. Then, there's a guy on the Front Desk who I chat bike touring with and who—on account of his moderate degree of outrage/confusion and "you go grrl"—that I get in talking to him about how I ended up¹ at his hotel, I decide not to tell about his colleague from the night before trying to "No Foreigners" me.
That she knew how to register me, and that she didn't limit that registration to photos of the correct passport pages² without any form of prompting or education on my part shows that she was one of those "I'm insufficiently well paid and you are insufficiently simple" situations and if he doesn't already know he has a lazy coworker, there's nothing to be gained from letting him know.
我知道根本没办法早到O & A家，赶在他们还没去上学的时候去见他们，于是我就在酒店房间里磨蹭，写日记，处理一些工作，一直磨蹭到上午10点多。前台有个男员工，我和他聊了聊自行车旅行的事儿。而且，因为他表现出了一定程度的愤怒和困惑，还说了句“你真行啊姑娘”，所以在和他聊我最后¹是怎么住进他工作的这家酒店时，我没跟他说前一晚他的同事试图以“不允许接待外国人”为由拒绝我的事。
那个前台女孩在我没有任何提示或教导的情况下知道怎么给我登记入住，而且她在电脑系统做了也不是单独拍摄正确的护照页面²，这说明她是那种“我工资不够高，而你又不好应付”的情况。如果他还不知道自己有个懒惰的同事，那我告诉他也没什么好处。
O & A are having a school event which means that they won't be back until late enough that no form of transportation short of being in the kind of motor convoy where the traffic cops close the road ahead of you will be fast enough to get me from here to where Kol Nidre services are taking place. However, a photo of my bag³ is enough for the maid to find it while I'm gorging myself on Domino’s pizza⁴.
Then, I booked another of the same brand hostel as in Zhongguancun (on account of their spic and span levels of cleanliness, how easy they were to check in to two nights ago, the knowledge that they have washers and dryers, and the fact that—non-compliant as the existence of a "domestic guests only" label⁵ may be—their listing says nothing of the sort).
O & A学校有活动，这意味着他们很晚才会回来，所以除了那种有交警提前封路开道的车队护送，没有哪种交通方式能让我从这儿快速赶到举行科尔尼德雷（Kol Nidre）仪式的地方。不过，我发我行李拍了张照片³，这就足够让服务员在我大快朵颐吃达美乐披萨⁴的时候找到它了。
然后，我又预订了一家和中关村那家同品牌的青年旅社（因为那里非常干净整洁，两天前办理入住手续很方便，而且知道他们有洗衣机和烘干机，还有一个事实是，尽管存在“仅限大陆客人”这样的标识完整不合规⁵，但他们在预订平台上并没有提到这一点）。
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So, of course, less than 10 minutes after my booking is confirmed, I get a phone call from them that's as bizarre an interaction as the previous night's Front Desk lady not realizing that the foreigner on a bicycle saying "I've got a pre-existing booking" is the same foreigner on a bicycle as someone just called her about in reference to the question "can foreigners stay at your hotel?" "okay, she'll be arriving on a bicycle."
My phone is currently set to auto-record all calls. This is a translation, but no other liberties have been taken.
所以，当然啦，在我的预订确认还不到10分钟后，我就接到了他们的电话，这次交流和前一晚的情况一样离奇，当时前台的那位女士没意识到那个骑自行车说“我已经提前预订了”的外国人，和有人刚刚打电话问她“你们酒店能接待外国人吗”时提到的那个骑自行车的外国人是同一个人。“好的，她会骑自行车过来。”
我的手机目前设置为自动录制所有通话。这是事实记录。
"Hey, we're the XYZ Hostel at Sanyuanqiao. We just received your booking via Fliggy for a single room."
"Yes."
"Are you a foreigner?"
"Yes."
"Do you have a Chinese passport?"
"No."
"We're a newly opened hotel. We currently don't yet have the capability to take foreigners."
"Yes you do. If you can take Chinese guests, you can take foreign guests. This is national law."
"May I ask what nationality you are?"
"I'm American."
"You are American?"
"Yes."
"Will you have an American passport with you?"
"Yes."
"And it's a single room that you've booked?"
"Yes."
"Okay, could you let me know approximately what time you'll be arriving?"
"About 90 minutes."
"See you then!"
“嘿，我们是三元桥的XYZ青年旅社。我们刚刚收到了你通过飞猪预订的一间单人房的订单。”
“是的。”
“你是外国人吗？”
“是的。”
“你有中国护照吗？”
“没有。”
“我们是一家新开的酒店。目前我们还没有接待外国人的能力。”
“你们有这个能力。如果你们能接待中国客人，就能接待外国客人。这是国家法律规定的。”
“我可以问问你是哪国人吗？”
“我是美国人。”
“你是美国人？”
“是的。”
“你会带着美国护照吗？”
“是的。”
“你预订的是一间单人房，对吗？”
“是的。”
“好的，你能告诉我你大概什么时候到吗？”
“大概90分钟后。”
“到时候见！”
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And when I arrive closer to two and a half hours later cause I absolutely had to ride something different than what I had ridden before, they have not only prepped a "how to register foreigners" cheat sheet, their lobby also has the well and truly out-of-date⁶ Beijing Public Security poster⁷ that explicitly lists foreign passports among the identity documents that can be used at check-in.
因为我一定要骑一条和之前不一样的路我差不多两个半小时后才到，他们不仅准备了一份“如何登记外国人入住”的小窍门清单，他们的大堂里还贴着一张已经严重过时的北京公安的宣传海报⁷，上面明确把外国护照列为可以在办理入住时使用的身份证件之一。
¹ This is prompted by the manager of the booked hotel calling to find out if I stayed there as I'm getting my bags on my bike. He didn't remember† telling me to cancel my original booking after I got in at the new hotel and was unhappy that the booking platform's Customer Service had sided with me for a full refund.
¹这是因为我正把行李装到自行车上的时候，预订酒店的经理打电话来问我是不是在那儿住过。他不记得†他曾让我在我入住新酒店后取消原来的预订，而且他对预订平台的客服站在我这边给我全额退款的决定很不满意。
† Or, since it was past the deadline for a one click solution, had hoped I wouldn't bother
† 或者，因为已经过了一键解决问题的截止时间，他原本希望我会不嫌麻烦
² Which, in and of itself, already indicates a minimum degree of knowledge about how to register foreigners
² 这本身就已经表明了对登记外国人入住有一定的了解
³ Kindly provided by Air China during the early stages of the Great "Fuck Lufthansa and Fuck Frankfurt Luggage Services" Saga
³ 这是在“去他的汉莎航空，去他的法兰克福行李服务”事件初期，由中国国际航空好心提供的
⁴ This was a remarkably terrible idea as it meant I wasn't hungry in the evening, had to force myself to eat anything at all, and was predictably starving by Break Fast.
⁴ 这真是个糟糕透顶的主意，因为这意味着我晚上不饿，还得强迫自己吃点东西，而且不出所料，到了开斋早餐的时候我就饿坏了。
⁵ Not only are these labels legally non complaint with regulations that existed decades prior to the this year's Announcement, they're also buried deep within the listings. Further to which, the search function to pick hotels that are "foreigner friendly" not only doesn't manage to list all of the ones that don't say "no foreigners," the "no foreigners" designation may have been set by the platform† instead of the hotel.
⁵ 这些标识不仅在法律上不符合此前存在几十年的规定，而且还隐藏在预订信息的深处。此外，用于筛选“对外国人友好”酒店的搜索功能不仅无法列出所有那些没有标明“不接待外国人”的酒店，而且“不接待外国人”的标识可能是由平台设置的†，而不是酒店设置的。
† I had an occasion last year where the hotel thought the reason they weren't supposed to take me was what it said on the platform listing. I've also stayed at a Canadian-owned B&B whose boss had no idea why she was listed "no foreigners" and couldn't figure out how to change it.
† 去年我就遇到过一次，酒店方面认为他们不应该接待我的原因是平台上的预订信息那么写的。我还住过一家加拿大老板开的民宿，老板根本不知道为什么她的民宿被标注为“不接待外国人”，也不知道怎么改过来。
⁶ Dating to no later than 2017 on account of certain vocabulary, I first saw this poster in 2018. This hostel opened in 2023.
⁶ 根据某些词汇判断，这张海报不晚于2017年，我第一次看到它是在2018年。这家青年旅社是2023年开业的。
⁷ Funnily enough neither of last night's hotels had the Poster. Also, the poster which the guy this morning at Hotel #2 gestured at when he said "the PSB even gave us posters stating foreigners are allowed to stay anywhere" was the one with the regulations on not allowing minors to check in without confirming their relationship to the adult they are with.
⁷ 有趣的是，昨晚的两家酒店都没有这张海报。而且，今天早上第二家酒店的那个男士说“公安局甚至还给我们发了海报，说外国人可以在任何地方入住”时所指的那张海报，是关于规定不允许未成年人在未确认与陪同成年人关系的情况下办理入住的。
Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 1,189 km (738 miles)
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