China on The Status Carousel

Nights in the Cowshed

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 14:05:29 +0000

Hyatt launched the UrCove brand in 2019 as a joint venture with China’s BTG Homeinns group.

The hotels are in China only.

At one point they were the cheapest in the whole chain.

In 2024 there was a scandal when it emerged that one of the brand’s hotels had been inflating accounts on an industrial scale.

Strike While the Iron's Hot? Not Quite

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 05:45:42 +0000

We’ll catch up as the shinkansens roll along.

July hotel prices in Japan sprang an unwelcome surprise.

We start in Kyoto.

In high season, Kyoto gives not only Tokyo but Geneva and London a run for their money.

I flew into Osaka from Seoul in the morning and headed straight for Kyoto.

The Status Monk 😊

Tue, 05 May 2026 10:04:13 +0000

Yinchuan is not Shanghai. Here, running into a fellow Westerner counts as a stroke of luck.

And I’m a lucky man. My phone has been stolen three times. My laptop once.

And so mischievous karma took pity and sent me a weekend drinking buddy of pure-blooded German stock.

Accor Platinum for 1 Night 🤔

Sat, 02 May 2026 04:18:44 +0000

Our old acquaintance Kai, the content machine, wrote something useful yesterday.

Accor has been launching quick fast-track promotions all year, and here’s another one:

After registering, you need to book and complete a stay by 30 September.

It requires one business stay, booked through Perk.

A Chinese Visa Run ❤️

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 07:38:58 +0000

The 30 days flew by like winter in Vietnam.

For the reset, I picked Macau.

My “place of power” — a neo-Vegas turned up to eleven.

From our humble little town of Yinchuan there’s a direct Xiamen Airlines flight to Hong Kong.

Forfait Free Max 😲

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 09:44:11 +0000

Remember when I recommended that French operator?

Hélène and the lads have got merry on Pérignon and launched unlimited data in 135 countries for €29.99. Rather more generous than anything on offer from the British networks, who still treat roaming as a luxury good.

Air China, the National Carrier 😑

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 07:20:48 +0000

With a European account, it shows prices through the roof.

So I registered on the Chinese version.

Of interest: there are flights and connections you won’t find on Trip or Google Flights.

It can pull in flights from “the Southerners”.

Prices are five grains of rice cheaper than Trip. Five dollars in every hundred.

Accor Stay Plus ➕

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 09:28:40 +0000

Those mischievous Parisians won’t let you pay with points if you’ve selected Stay Plus.

I priced up Macau, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.

According to the rules, the most expensive night in the booking becomes free.

In practice, there are lots of blackout dates.

Hyatt House Yinchuan 😑

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 12:42:21 +0000

As advertised earlier: the cheapest Hyatt House in the world.

Not new, but perfectly fresh.

The video shows a studio for $40 including taxes. No upgrade. But since I still have 3 more stays to go, I didn’t make a scene.

An Existential Visa Run 🎠

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 06:27:03 +0000

Find the lady: round and round it goes, and the idea is that the Chinese border officers lose track.

I put the visa run question to the big three.

Claude Sonnet — interesting on substance, poor on the money side.

Landed in China 🇨🇳

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:35:30 +0000

The crisis in the Middle East has hit the PRC harder than the news is letting on.

No fuel. Petrol stations are closing.

Petrol is now so scarce that it’s come to this: mopeds are being charged from ordinary sockets in the street.

Hyatt Long Stay Rates 🗓

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 12:27:44 +0000

If you’re a disciplined status chaser and aren’t hypnotised by Fora’s “2+1, and here’s $100 for odds and sods”, Hyatt has an option for the Stoics among us: long stay rates.

A live example: 7 nights for the price of 4.

Moneypenny-Bot 🤖

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 15:34:05 +0000

This year Marriott left its fan base out in the cold on double nights.

They want people not just boozing in W lounges but also finding out what life is like at a Fairfield.

The extra night is only for each new brand. A pub crawl of their own portfolio, essentially.

Taobao 🚚

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 05:49:11 +0000

China cross-pollinated Amazon and eBay, and out came Taobao.

Verification through Alipay, and after that life is painless. Well, nearly.

There were two targets.

Both have arrived and are already helping me absorb all that is wise, good and eternal.

And What About the Water? 😷

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 04:43:32 +0000

The grass is always greener, and the water always softer, wherever you happen not to be.

I’ve ordered a new TDS meter.

TDS isn’t “the environment”, it’s civilisation’s bare minimum of hygiene:

0–150 ppm — drink it without philosophising 150–300 ppm — fine, but with “character” 300–500 ppm — survival mode: boil it, filter it 500+ ppm — no longer water, more a chronicle of industrialisation

The Village of Nanchong 🎤

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 03:31:34 +0000

Last year the New Year spawning took place in the quiet little village of Nantong.

This year the current carried me to the quiet little village of Nanchong.

Same Nan (it means “south”), different endings.

Please keep the comments free of innuendo — I’m not here for a massage, you know. Ooh, Matron.

Same Again? 🍺

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 07:15:05 +0000

Stand down the panic.

A scientific paper has been published that is inextricably linked to this channel.

Let me clarify straight away: it’s about settling down, not about beer-soaked benders.

Scientists: humanity may have settled down because of beer.

Archaeologists have found the first direct evidence of beer being used in funeral rituals in southern China — around 9,000 years ago.

Bottle Opener, RIP 😢

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 10:32:07 +0000

Grounded until 8 January in the sleepy hamlet of Nanchong (population: a mere couple of million).

While I’m busy auditioning promising local vocalists, I’ll chuck a bit of the archive your way.

The latest important news: at PVG they confiscated my indestructible 10,000 mAh beer-bottle opener.

Spawning Season 🐠

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 03:29:38 +0000

Just as migrating birds fly south, December is when the status chaser starts to spawn.

Statuses spin, loyalties get stirred.

One of the great schemes of the season is to make it across the New Year Rubicon and bank your status nights towards next year.

Hyatt on the Bund 🎀

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 05:38:16 +0000

A famous hotel. Cult, even. On paper it sits in the Grand Hyatt portfolio, but it markets itself under its own name.

At check-in, a trainee under the watchful eye of a senior colleague uttered the magic word “upgrade”. He said it with a Shanghai accent, which drained some of the magic out of it. The room turned out to be perfectly ordinary. I didn’t have the fight in me to go back and argue the toss.

China: A Note to Self, 2026 📃

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 22:27:46 +0000

Writing this for myself.

Fill in the arrival card before departure https://s.nia.gov.cn/ArrivalCardFillingPC/
Install:

a) LetsVPN https://d1gx3j8kwj94us.cloudfront.net/ b) Alipay c) DiDi

If you’ve made it to this point and everything works, Chinese is now your second language. (Points 3 and 4 were lost somewhere behind the Great Firewall.)

Hyatt Regency Mexico City 🌮

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 19:03:36 +0000

In the evening the lounge served ceviche — a jolt of the sea and citrus enlightenment on a single plate.

The booze was carried round by two Mexican waiters with faces that said “we’re serving a sentence here, not following a calling”. They looked as if they were pouring the cocktails not for the guests but for themselves, on credit.