As China gradually recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, travel restrictions have been relaxed; but this has not made getting around as a foreigner any easier. During a reporting trip to Xiongan New Area in China’s northern Hebei province, I was rejected, for the first time, by a hotel I had already paid for because of my travel document. Even after explaining I had recently completed a 14-day mandatory quarantine at a designated facility in Beijing, they were unmoved. “We are just not taking foreign guests right now because of the outbreak,” said a hotel staffer at the lobby. “I am sorry. We’ll give you a refund.” I carry a Mainland Travel Permit for Hong Kong and Macau Residents, also known as a home return permit, issued by the Guangdong branch of the Public Security Bureau, the main civilian police force in China. China has never accepted Hong Kong passports as legitimate travel documents, no matter whether it was the British National (Overseas) passport issued by the colonial government before the 1997 handover, or the current passport issued by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It always considered Hong Kong part of its territory. Because I was travelling on a home return permit, I had never thought of myself as a foreigner until I was told by three hotels in Xiongan that I was a “foreign guest”. Technically, Chinese hotels are supposed to have a special permit from local authorities before they can admit foreign guests, which typically means overseas passport holders. As a result, it is not uncommon for small hotels and hostels in less developed parts of the country to reject foreigners. But it is clear that the global pandemic has made it even more difficult for overseas travellers to find somewhere to stay. While foreigners were never banned from staying in Chinese hotels during the outbreak, many – including high-end accommodation in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing – turned away overseas travellers, raising questions over discrimination among the expatriate community. Given there are not many hotels in Rongcheng county, I was soon out of options and left with two choices: try my luck in Baoding, the nearest city about 2.5 hours drive away, or return to Beijing. Just as I was about to give up my search altogether and head back to the capital, another employee at the hotel suggested I call a new hotel about an hour away that was only accessible by shuttle bus. I called the hotel and after a long conversation that included a request for a copy of my quarantine certificate, screenshots of my health code and a proof of my whereabouts over the past 14 days, I was told I would be able to stay. However, the cost for a night’s stay was 300 yuan (US$44) above my budget. After a short drive, we parked our car and jumped on the shuttle bus. On the way, we were told the hotel was the only one in Xiongan that would accept foreigners. The hotel was in the Xiongan Administrative Service Centre, an 800 million yuan (US$116.9 million) investment by the Xiongan government. The campus, which opened in 2018, is green, open and innovative – offering a glimpse of Xiongan’s future, a new district that is being built from scratch. Electric vehicles were heavily promoted on the campus, which was dotted with charging stations. There was also an unstaffed store operated by e-commerce company JD.com, along with a McDonald‘s and Starbucks. Already exhausted after a three-hour struggle to find a hotel, at 10pm, I was hoping to settle for the night. But not before answering a series of questions from the manager. What was my job? Why was I in Xiongan? And for the first time while travelling in China, did I have a business invitation? To say I was relieved to finally find somewhere to stay with a good room and service would be an understatement. The experience did, however, dampen my appetite to travel domestically again any time soon. Before the pandemic comes to an end, travelling is never going to be the same.