I just received an absolutely crazy email from the Grand Hyatt Beijing, China that all guests will be placed under curfew and locked inside the hotel during the upcoming two weekends evenings due to local functions of China’s 70th anniversary.
The Grand Hyatt at Oriental Plaza is located close to Tianamen Square and right on Chang An Avenue, where military parades are usually held and which, at this time, has severe impact on the hotel and all guests.
Yes – all guests will be confined to the hotel and not let out during the times, as guests learned today from the property.
We had a reservation there for this weekend, but after consulting with local friends, we decided to cancel the trip to Beijing and they will fly out instead.
Here is the email from the hotel:
Dear Valued Guest,
Thank you for choosing Grand Hyatt Beijing at Oriental Plaza for your upcoming visit to the capital. October 1, 2019 will mark the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China and to celebrate this important milestone, a number of very exciting government directed large scale events will take place in the direct vicinity of Chang An Avenue.
Whilst we are awaiting to learn more about the details of the rehearsals, we wanted to let you know ahead of time of these significant impacts so you can make the necessary arrangements for your upcoming visit. We understand that access to the hotel is likely to be partially or entirely restricted and foresee that traffic may also be affected.
The dates and times of the rehearsal periods are as follows:
From Saturday 14 September (5:30PM) to Sunday 15 September (5:30AM) and From Sunday 15 September (5:30PM) to Monday 16 September (5:30AM) – it is likely that guests will not be allowed to come in and out of the hotel during this time.
From Saturday 21 September (5:30PM) to Sunday 22 September (5:30AM) and from Sunday 22 September (5:30PM) to Monday 23 September (5:30AM) – it is likely that guests will not be allowed to come in and out of the hotel during this time.
We appreciate that this notification may significantly impact your plans and we would like to extend our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.
Please let us know if there is anything we can do to facilitate your upcoming visit. We encourage you to make contact with the hotel closer to the date to receive the latest up to date information.
We thank you for your understanding and remain at your disposal for any queries you may have.
Grand Hyatt Beijing
This is insane but considering the security apparatus in place and tensions during times of political meetings and parades in Beijing who is really surprised?
Limiting traffic due to preparing the roads for an upcoming event all nice and well, but locking people inside their hotel? That’s something you typically hear from trips to North Korea.
Should you have reservations at hotels in the area, especially at the Grand Hyatt, I’d reconsider staying and make changes to the travel plans. We certainly did.
Mind you it’s not just that you can’t go out. Others can’t come in either. One option would be to try and get away from that entire area and try either the Park Hyatt Beijing at Guo Mao or the new Hyatt Regency Wangjing. I’m not big of either of these two properties anymore, even though I stayed at the PH maybe 30-40 times in the past. Before making arrangements I would contact the hotel and request information about the situation and mention the problems at Grand Hyatt.
Conclusion
I’d imagine that this also affects other hotels in the Chang An / Wangfujing area and is a directive from the Communist Government. Definitely not an initiative from the hotel because they like to annoy their guests.
Nevertheless, shouldn’t have this been made known to the guests a bit more in advance then two days before such major restrictions are taking place? Awful planning. In any case, it’s a good time NOT to travel to Beijing or China in general right now. They are always on edge during these public events and around the dates when they take place.
