In China, on October 1st, National Day (National Day), we entered a week-long holiday.
The same goes for the residents of Beijing, the capital, when planning a trip for the long-awaited golden holiday.
However, with the National Day holiday this year, there are voices calling for lodging in the suburbs of Beijing to be outrageously expensive.
There is even a saying that 'the cost of traveling outside Beijing is more expensive than the cost of traveling to Europe'.
In particular, there is a lot of talk about the cost of lodging in the form of minshu (minshu, 民宿), which has been gaining popularity recently.
If you say Minsuk in Korean, it can be said that it is similar to a guest house or a pension.
It mainly refers to single-family housing type accommodation located in the outskirts of the city rather than in the city center.
Some are run by companies that specialize in lodging, while others are run by local residents.
Prices and shapes vary. The reason for the recent popularity is that there are not many hotels in the suburbs, but it is also attractive that it provides a new experience to city residents who are used to living in apartment complexes.
Families, especially, prefer suburban lodgings with yards and folklore over hotels.
It is difficult to travel outside of China even during the Golden Holidays as the quarantine policy continues, requiring 10 days of quarantine when returning from overseas.
After all, you can only travel domestically, and among them, the rising cost of accommodation in the suburbs of Beijing is attracting attention.
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It is difficult to make a reservation even at a price 10 times higher than a Beijing bed and breakfast
The problem is that prices have risen significantly during the National Day holiday this year.
According to travel data research firm, the average price of accommodation in Beijing's suburbs has risen more than 30% in just one year.
But the price that travelers feel is more than that.
Just 2-3 years ago, it was possible to book a decent room for 100 yuan a day (about 20,000 Korean won), but now most of them are over 1,000 yuan (about 200,000 won) a day.
In particular, the price of five-star hotels in famous tourist destinations in other regions, including Hainan, China, did not rise much, but only the cost of accommodation in the outskirts of Beijing increased significantly.
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This accommodation in Gubei Floating Village (Gubei Water Town), a popular tourist destination in the suburbs of Beijing, usually costs 300-400 yuan (about 60,000-80,000 won) per night, but 3,166 yuan per night during the National Day holidays. (about 620,000 won), which has increased tenfold.
In the case of a popular accommodation as the first specialized lodging facility, the price of a two-bedroom, one-living room is 4,300 yuan (approx. He sighs, saying it's similar to .
Considering that Beijing has the highest income level and high prices in all of China, the price is too high.
Beijing, which ranks second in the country after Shanghai, has an average per capita disposable income of 75,002 yuan, just over 14 million won (as of 2021).
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'Don't leave Beijing for the Golden Week'... soaring demand
There are mainly two reasons for the high cost of lodging outside Beijing.
The first is the quarantine policy of 'don't leave Beijing'.
Officially, if you leave Beijing during the National Day holiday and travel back to Beijing, you must take a PCR test and prove negative within 48 hours.
After returning to Beijing, two PCR tests are compulsory for three days, and visitors must refrain from gatherings and crowded places for seven days.
If there is a confirmed case of Corona within 7 days outside of Beijing, where I have visited, the return to Beijing will be strictly restricted.
For example, a Beijing resident plans to return to Beijing for a 2-3 day trip during the holiday season, staying at a hotel in Tianjin, close to Beijing.
But what if there was one confirmed case in the administrative district where the hotel in Tianjin where we stayed?
The transportation to return to Beijing is not available according to your travel plans.
You will need to inform the person in charge of the residential area in Beijing of the situation, stay a few more days outside Beijing and undergo several more PCR tests.
Recently, among office workers who were planning to go on a business trip outside of Beijing, there are many cases where they cannot return to Beijing and have to stay outside of Beijing due to the occurrence of a confirmed case in the business trip area.
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Some people may want to go on a trip even with this inconvenience, but even that is not easy.
In particular, in the case of families with children still attending school, most of the cases at school are not recommending to children, 'Do not leave Beijing on holidays'.
It is an explanation that 'if there is a confirmed case in the area visited from leaving Beijing, you may not be able to go to school for a long period of time', but there are not many parents who will force the trip even after hearing this.
Even some workplaces often give de facto instructions to their employees to 'don't leave Beijing'.
If you travel to a foreign country and there is a confirmed case in that area, the area is sometimes blocked altogether, so it is even called a 'gamble with no guarantee of return'.
As a result, the demand for lodging facilities outside the city center in Beijing is inevitably going to skyrocket from an administrative point of view.
With a population of 21 million, many of Beijing's residents, more than double that of Seoul, can't even venture out of Beijing for the Golden Week holiday, so reservations for accommodations in Beijing have already been fully booked two months in advance.
The closure of private accommodation facilities one after another… Paradox of Zero Corona Prevention Policy
The second reason is that the supply of lodging facilities has decreased in the meantime.
According to the local travel industry analysis, the demand for travel such as workplace workshops and family gatherings has decreased significantly as the strict quarantine policy has continued since the spread of COVID-19 in 2019, and the number of lodging facilities that have been closed in the meantime has also increased.
In particular, it is said that operators of small lodging facilities, who tried to survive even if the vacancy rate reached 50% by 2021, gave up their business as the stricter containment-type quarantine policy continued this year.
With the supply itself reduced in this way, it is analyzed that the price will inevitably jump tenfold as travelers who cannot leave Beijing during the Golden Holidays are intensively looking for accommodations in Beijing.
Some travelers say that the price is unacceptable and that they want to report it to the Inflation Bureau.
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I haven't been open for 3 years, so I have to earn 3 years at a time
However, there are situations in which it is difficult to criticize only 'accommodation operators are taking advantage of the golden holidays'.
This is because travel demand has greatly decreased due to the decrease in real income as well as quarantine policies after the spread of COVID-19, and the recent economic downturn is causing Chinese consumers to close their wallets even more.
This is why there is a saying in the lodging industry that 'I haven't been open for three years, I have to earn three years' worth at a time (三年不开张，开张吃三年)'
During the Golden Week holiday, reservations for guesthouse accommodations seem to be booming with full reservations from two months in advance, but the overall reservation rate is declining.
In particular, it is expected that the income of accommodation facilities will decrease in the future as the spending power of the younger generation, who is active in travel, decreases.
This is because the Corona Zero quarantine policy does not seem to end within this year, and it seems difficult to get out of the goal of the economic downturn.