I came to China not knowning what to expect when it comes to accommodations. Being a budget traveller, I do not really expect a lot of comfort and luxuries when it comes to hotels or inns. Our first real accomodation here in China, the first becainse the airport in Guangzhou, is the Chongqing Nanbin International Youth Hostel 重庆南滨国际青年旅舍.
The hostel set in a quiet area near the main highway. Just behind a cluster of restaurants. This hostel is a member of Hostelling International which has a lot of member hostels all over China. The guy at the counter offered me to become a member of Hostelling International which gives discount for any stay at any of their member hostels. Since we would be in China for quite a while I think it was worth joining.
I was immediately impressed in the neatness of the the hostel lobby, as a bamboo theme and a tastefully designed resting area for guests. Pasted on the walls of the lobby are numerous flyers for other hostels and also some helpful hints when visiting Chongqing. Unfortunately, all this was in Chinese so it wasn’t really that helpful to me. We would be better off asking the guy at the counter.
Alas, his English is much worse than my Chinese so our conversation didn’t really go anywhere. Using my excellent Chinese, I managed to find out how to get to our next destination. But before all this, we needed to check in our stuff. We were led to our room along a dark hallway, dark only because the lights weren’t turned on. It seemed like they don’t have a lot of guests at this time.
Our bedroom was a nice clean room with the bedsheets all nicely set. The bamboo theme of the whole place continues here with the headboards and floor in “bamboo”. The bathroom was also nice and clean, and it had hot water. Perfect for the cold weather in Chongqing. We freshened up a bit before we set out, but we discovered that there was a leak in the wall separating the bathroom from the bedroom itself. So there was some water leaking out. We informed the staff and they quickly gave us another room while apologizing profusely.
The bedrooms all have floor to ceiling glass windows and it would have been a great place to relax had there not been another building directly opposite the hostel. Incidentally, there is a nice balcony outside the bedroom where guests can relax and, er, look at the opposite building. For guests who stay longer there is a place for you to hang your clothes here. Though I’m not sure if the clothes will dry fast enough since the weather can be quite cold at times.
As we head out of the hostel, I realize how nice this place really is, too bad we will only be staying here for a night. We head back out to the main road where we hailed at cab to our next destination.
Here is their address:
Chongqing Nanbin International Youth Hostel
581 Nanbin Road, Chongqing, China
重庆南滨国际青年旅舍
重庆市南坪南滨路581号海棠晓月第一大道
+86 (23) 62790850
+86 (23) 62790012
To get taxi drivers to bring you there, just tell them it is near the Shunfeng 123 Restaurant 顺风123酒楼. The hostel is just along the small street behind the restaurants.
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