Topic: news Things Travellers Don’t Know About China, but Should

Good stuff! After 2.5 years in China, I must agree with, well, pretty much everything.
It is possible to find hotels without certification and means that will accept you if you are a foreigner. But there is a significant portion that will not (because they don't register you with the local police). The main reason is because the Chinese government wants to track the location of all foreigners at all times. If you are here working and move to a new location, then you are required to register at the local bureau. Each province has certain restrictions and each local police bureau has its restrictions (flip a coin to determine if they follow guidelines). The safest thing to do if you are stuck in a situation where you are forced to find a less than 3-star Chinese hotel and you have no other option, is to go down to the nearest police station and tell them that you need a place to stay and where you want to stay. If it is too late to fill out the paperwork, they will call their boss (who will be sleeping) and then they will tell you to come back in the morning to fill out the paperwork of registering at their locale. It is good to get something in writing to take back to the hotel. Go back to the hotel that refused you and either tell them what the police said or present the document that they give you. I had this occur on many occasions, and as long as you know why they don't allow you to stay in such places, (they don't have the capacity to register you), then you will find creative ways to circumvent such disasterous situations such as being stuck in a small town at 2:00am in the morning. Of course, you should find a police station first, and knowing how to speak chinese is a real plus. Remedy: have a Chinese friend write an explanation of this case for you ahead of time if you think there might be a possibility you might be stuck somewhere and you don't know how to communicate. In worse case scenarios, they will find the daughter of someone, who has studied English in high school to help translate. Just speak slowly, as if talking to your own 3-year old child. And your frustration should be used wisely.

Traffic rules, haggling and censorship, I have to agree.
Tea Shops, mostly true, but if you are quoted thousands of yuan for any tea, then you should just walk away unless you know exactly what you are doing. The most I have paid for really nice Pu'er tea was 500 RMB. I was with a long-term Chinese friend who I trust with all my heart, and he knows about tea. The tea tasted like cow sh*t, but so do some of the highest priced cigars.

Note to first time travellers: I have found that the comments posted in response to an article, are actually more accurate than the article itself in many instances. Listen to the people that have been here for a while and calculate the median opinion. Somewhere in the middle is the truth. It might happen, or it might not happen to you. Take what you can and leave the rest.