I went out for a quick loop last month because I was bored. I’m not even a photography enthusiast, and I’m also too lazy to do much walking, so I spent a few days very easily.

After posting, lots of people asked whether I was on a trip or just hotel-hopping. I couldn’t really answer that.

Itinerary

This is how it was planned:

  • D1 Fuzhou to Hangzhou, stay at Hyatt on the 12th
  • D2 Hangzhou, stay at Hyatt on the 13th
  • D3 Hangzhou to Shanghai, stay at Fairmont on the 14th
  • D4 Shanghai, stay at grand Hyatt on the 15th
  • D5 Shanghai to Chongqing, stay at Hilton on the 16th
  • D6 Chongqing, stay at Hilton on the 17th
  • D7 Chongqing, stay at Hilton on the 18th
  • D8 Chongqing, stay at Hilton on the 19th
  • D9 Chongqing, stay at Hilton on the 20th
  • D10 Chongqing to Fuzhou on the 21st

The reason for this itinerary was that one FN on my Fairmont card was about to expire, so I booked Peace Hotel on that expiration date, namely on the 14th. I planned the whole trip around one night at that hotel. Pretty much a Michelin three-star experience in the hotel world, right?

Later I figured, since I was already going to Shanghai, I might as well take my girl to Hangzhou for a wander. Plus, I had planned to go to Chongqing in April, so I bit my teeth down, took the jump, and combined them together, saving a trip back and forth.

Because of my health and the weather, half of this trip was spent in hotels, so about that opening question from the first part—I also had trouble answering it in one or two sentences.

I’ll keep it simple and just share my itinerary and stays, plus some issues I encountered, for everyone to reference.

Let’s start with where I stayed

D1 D2 Hyatt by the West Lake

I’ve been paying attention to this hotel for a long time. When I visited Hangzhou in 2011, I really wanted to stay, but it was too expensive. As far as I know, when I first started playing points this hotel was a cat 3 Hyatt; since the year before last it became a cat 4 Hyatt Regency. Prices keep climbing like this from nowhere, haha. But as one of the top ten busiest Hyatt properties in Asia, there’s no real complaint if it’s pricier than the Park Hyatt next door.

It’s basically a lake-view room, though the angle is not great and I couldn’t see the fountain.

Two nights burned 30,000 points, and that still hurt a bit. But with room rates and category near a scenic area, there’s no avoiding it. Do you remember that cat 9 Resident Inn by Virginia Beach from back then? ~

Overall it felt pretty good—the location and hotel hardware are worth the price. Recommended. Cat 4 Hyatt FN is usable.

D3 Peace Hotel

I’ll make a separate post on this later, so I’ll skip details here.

D4 grand Hyatt Shanghai

This hotel is inside the Jinmao Tower. The building itself is an old landmark and has faded a bit, but people are still coming in nonstop—constant crowds and flowing traffic.

The hotel lobby is on the 54th floor; on the ground floor, there’s only the concierge desk. In the end, my room was on the 76th floor.

Well, that floor-to-ceiling window still deserves praise.

Then? Nothing else after that... I spent a day just lying in the hotel. Shanghai was boring as hell.

D5-D10 DoubleTree in Chongqing

Full points redemption, four-for-one, and my Diamond card got me a decent suite. The rate seemed to be about 1,200 per night; five nights burned 80,000 HH. It might have been better to redeem the adjacent cat 1 Hyatt Regency instead. I’ll try that next time.

Speaking of this, I personally like booking mid-tier brands like DoubleTree /Marriott/Sheraton when I travel. Exactly because this “middle” positioning greatly improves the consistency of perks. Compared with luxury hotels, I spend less money; compared with budget properties, I still get room and lounge breakfast treatment. Most importantly, these perks do not require you to be a top-tier member. The only downside is that most lower-cat midscale brands are old... The buildings are older, but the physical standards are certainly in line with the same brand, so that part is reassuring.

This positioning fits someone like me, a points-obsessed type who believes in “60 points, all the glory; waste one is annoying, have one less is painful.”

Domestic transportation in China

Traveling here was mainly by shared bike and taxi. I don’t like taking buses unless it’s direct and there are open seats. There are too many elderly passengers, and I’m not that morally upright person, so whether to board or not is a real dilemma. In this respect, the U.S. is still better: in the U.S., grandparents who dare to ride public transport are tougher than hustle crews and can handle bullies.

  • Fuzhou to Hangzhou: high-speed rail
  • Hangzhou to Shanghai: also high-speed rail
  • Shanghai to Chongqing: China Eastern
  • Chongqing back to Fuzhou: XiamenAir

Both flight segments were redeemed with DL mileage, with each segment at 12,500 + 50.

Redemption was smooth, no ghost tickets encountered, and booking three days in advance meant no close in fee. That was great. The redemption rate is just average; each segment worked out to about 1,000 RMB. I booked it because if I could avoid paying cash, I’d rather do that—especially since the DL code team has recently been working overtime.

The snag with DL mileage tickets appeared at the check-in counter. Because I only used name and birthday when booking, when I showed my ID at the counter, they treated it as lacking ID information in the ticket details and bounced me around between the ticketing department and check-in like a hot potato.

Everyone should know: final resolution for this case ultimately rests at the check-in counter. If the counter staff is firm, you can ask for their supervisor, or pretend to go to ticketing and do a little back-and-forth. Ultimately, the person who adds your info is still the staff at the check-in counter, male or female. Don’t panic if this happens—you can’t run out of it.

After all that, there is actually an even simpler method: just go to the counter with your passport for check-in. But personally, I suggest not carrying your passport when traveling in China because there are too many bad actors. Unless you have a foreign passport.