Hostels in China?

hi, I read on several threads that there is a hostel system in China. I was wondering if there is a directory available online or where I could get a listing of hostels in various cities. Also, it would be great to be able to spend some nights in villages. I've heard that it's possible to negotiate with the locals for that. Does anyone have any experience or advice for this? Finally, would you recommend advance booking or just finding accomodation on the fly? I'll be travelling June and July but would like to keep the itinerary as flexible as possible.

sorry, i can't directly answer your questions. I have been in China for several times but I have a friend there and she make our trip arranged via a local travel agencies.  

read a piece of massage from a guy who had his personal experience of village accomodation. post here and hope it help.   [size=2][font=arial][quote] [size=2][font=arial]we stayed at a farmer's house in Zhejiang Provence and the experience was incredible. We were the first westerners to stay there, and possibly the first westerners to be in that villiage. We certainly got a lot of attention. The best part of the stay was in the evening, after dinner. We walked through the village and about half-way down the street was a small warehouse with a pile of white material in front of it. It turned out to be silk cocoons that had just been gathered. We stopped so that I could take some pictures and all of a sudden we realized that we were surrounded by about half the population of the village. They were all smiles and it turned out that they wanted to invite us into the building so that they could show us how they process the silk. It was an amazing time, with smiles all around. You just don't get that type of an experience around the tourist type areas.[/font][/size] [font=arial][size=2] [/size][/font] I don't believe we could have ever found this type of a place by ourselves. It takes a Chinese agent that is licensed for travel by the Chinese, rather than by westerners. To deal with such a person, you need both the language and a local person to deal for you. If you can meet someone in China that can help you out, you will have a great time. [/quote][;)][/font][/size]

hostels or roadside inns are plentiful in China's major tourism cities. It's usually not difficult to find one. but if you are in a remote area, particularly in the west, you may have some problem to find a suitable one. But be advised not all the local hostels can accommodate foreigners. It's better to have your lodgings arranged through a Chinese Travel agency which will save you a lot of hussle.

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most of the cheap hostels in major tourist cities are located around city's outskirts and you may hard to find a budget one in the city center especially in those larger cities, like beijing, shanghai and Xian.

I don't know Xi'an, but in Beijing and Shanghai, I know there're a lot of economic and clean motels and hotels or family hotels. A lot of chinese know and stay when they have business trips in beijing and shanghai. They don't advertise themself in english or in website, so it's hard for foreigners to find them. The price is around 10-20 USD per day, such as like our hotel, we even supply free breaketfast, lunch and dinner.   If you want to find some economic hotel in beijing, I'd like to help you and you're welcome.

hi' here i have a website it's very convenient to book hotels on line .[link=http://www.lonelychina.com/]http://www.lonelychina.com/[/link] you can get all the informatio of hotel in all the cities ,when you use it you only need to add the city's name behind the websitethen you can get it . in addition you can call the number of 0991-8257777,they can book  hotel in any city.

yes,there are many hotels in china.

www.hostel.com or www.hostelworld.com, if you can read chinese, www.becod.com , I own a hostel in beijing located in beijing east center. 12-15 USD per day, including free food, free internet with computer, free clothes washing, pls feel free to contact with me: beijingcarol@yahoo.com, and you're warmest welcomed.