Originally Posted by sing169
Just sharing my trip in the last 4 days: I just returned from Ground Zero last night. As I had planned my solo trip a month back, and for various personal reasons I cannot change my dates, I decided to proceed but with the following precautions...
I booked Hyatt Regency Hotel in Songshan Hu, about 30 mins car-ride (RMB80 each way) from CP. I decided to stay away from CP due to the horror stories about room checks etc. First time staying in Hyatt Regency, but I highly recommend this hotel! The rooms and facilities are much nicer than Ouya, with just slightly higher cost (RMB700+ per night when I booked a week earlier). Better still, it's a resort with a nice swimming pool and bicycle rental around the lake. Good for day-time activities with MMs when there is nothing else to do in town. There is also a shopping mall with food joints, Starbucks, etc, across the road from the hotel, although I did not visit this because I spent my day-time in CP.
I pre-booked 4 of my old contacts; 1 per day. The sessions, due to our familiarity, are great GFEs. I won't go into details except that it is worth my visit despite my initial fears.
The hotel had a "side door" about 20m walk to the left of the main lobby entrance. Good for fetching the MMs in. When I checked in first day, I saw a few men dressed in black suits loitering in the lobby. I was initially scared that these were the plainclothes policemen people talked about, but luckily I was allocated a room near the fitness centre which is the block to the left of the main lobby, thus I got to know of the side door and I was able to fetch the MMs via this side door to get into my room without bumping into these guys. I am not sure whether they are the plainclothes policemen people talked about, or just the normal hotel security. Anyhow, if any of you want to try the hotel, ask for rooms near the fitness centre by telling them some BS that you are exercise maniacs!
I had relaxing time with the MMs during the day-time: cycling, swimming, going for movies in CP, and long meals at XiaoYuTian, XiangChunRenJia, etc. Good opportunity to renew ties and getting to know each other more in-depth (especially if we need to establish our familiarity, in preparation for the worst-case of a night-time raid; which fortunately never happened during my stay!). Wanted to go for normal massage but none open until yesterday when QZG opened. I contacted several of the mgrs in other joints, eg Silver Holiday who said they may open this friday; crossing fingers.
Actually, CP is not a "dead-town" / "ghost-town" as some guys had reported earlier. While there are no jams during the normal KTV-induced rush-hours (between 5-7pm), there are still many cars on the roads, and there are still a lot of pedestrians in the main commercial streets. I still bumped into quite a number of Singaporeans, Malaysians, and Hong Kongers in the DVD shops, restaurants, etc. The only difference is that I see many of them with MMs in tow (vs in the past when they would probably only pick up the MMs from the Ks in the evening). Probably many of these die-hards (just like me) do RTFs with their familiar MMs...
On the 1st day when I was getting to the hotel from Guangzhou, my long-time driver cautioned me that there are spies employed by the police during this period of crack-down, and they get commission for reporting illegal activities (I don't know if it's real or he is just embellishing). Nonetheless, as I didn't know to what extent this "spy-ring" works, I decided to take precautions: preparing plastic bags to throw my spent CDs, wrappers & tissues into (instead of throwing them directly into the waste basket), and leaving RMB20 tip on the bed every morning... Just in case. Kind gestures beget kindness in return: every morning, the chambermaid without fail left me 4 extra bottles of mineral water and an extra set of bathroom toiletries despite my room being registered under my solo name (I think they know of my activities because every morning they can see the used extra towels, shower cap, toothbrush, etc)...
The worrying part: all my 4 MMs told me that they (and their friends) are thinking of leaving CP if the situation does not improve within the next 1-2 weeks. They are taking that much longer to decide about their move simply because they still have rented apartments and lots of personal stuff to dispose of/ transport home. In fact, 1 of my 4 MMs took the opportunity of our scheduled tryst to return to CP, just so that she can settle her personal stuff and she is flying back to Chengdu this weekend. Hence, I think the speculation in some of the earlier posts about dwindling supply and increased costs (if the situation returns to normal) will likely materialize...
Hope my report will help any other die-hards in your plans to visit CP.
Have a safe but fun trip!
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