Yes, its actually a pretty nice place to stay. And I did it twice.

I paid 120 Kuai for a normal standard room (Februar and May 2012). We always went there with a chinese friend. The last time, when we went there (June 2012), the chinese guy wasnt with us.

First, they didnt know, that our chinese is fluently and they said: "他们有钱！" ("They have money!") and wanted to charge 350 Kuai for the same room. The Halfway Lodge wasnt full booked, a lot of rooms were free.

We didnt agree, asked them for a cheaper price. They just said: "反正,你们没有办法!" ("Anyway, you dont have any choice!") It was quit about 6pm. But we went to Tinas Guesthouse (1,5 hour futher).

I can understand, that chinese people want to earn money - of course, why not? But if they want to have the triple price, just because they see we are western people, its really unfair.

Its also a little bit sad, since the manager is a young lady, who studied for few years in Kunming. She is a local Naxi and in my humble opinion, normally they dont have this behavior...

My advise is, if you really want to stay at the Halfway Lodge, you should call them first. But they are some other nice places on the Tiger Leaping Gorge Route, too..

However, have fun there!

Good info, thanks for posting it.

I stayed there twice as well, and still think it's one of the nicest places in the gorge.

The 2nd time I was there, we wound up virtually moneyless and in need of a place for the night because our driver back to Lijiang flunked out, so we hiked back to Halfway and they let us stay for a 5th of the usual price, gave us food for free, and even some food for the road the next day.

Only positive experiences there on my part, and I'd still recommend this place to anyone.
W

I've always preferred Tea Horse Guesthouse which is a bit before Halfway, IIRC.

To be fair, even if the rooms where not taken, they might have been reserved.

I stayed there last November and well after dark a large number of Koreans arrived (they have short holidays, so to make the most of it they walk at night). They had obviously booked in advance as they had all whole roast chicken waiting for them. I assumed then the roast chicken thing was the 'thing to do' in TLG in their equivalent of Lonely Planet.

The guesthouse is expensive for what you get (assuming the views do not cost them anything), but then you are competing with people on a very short trip for whom 350Y is not all that much. (I stayed in the dorm for 30Y, as it had the best views. Could have done without the backpacking girls doing their makeup early in the morning, though).

@ludwig

I really appreciate your posting. Yes, maybe you are right - maybe the rooms were already booked. However, 350Y is quit a lot. Its much more than normal Hostels in Korea will charge for a room (Therefore I cant agree your opinion, that 350Y is not all that much for travellers).

Did you read that I have been at the Halfway Lodge already two times, before the annoying situation happend? It seemed that the normal price is 120 Yuan (in 2012!). 4 weeks later they wanted to charge the triple price! wtf?

I dont like to support this kind of (Gollum like) greed... ("tamen you qian" and "fanzheng, nimen mei you banfa") It makes me sad too.

By the way, we also asked them for the price in the dorm, of course. The wanted to charge 100 Yuan each...

I always read posts by someome that even can't spell their own name correctly with great interest Willem .

lmao

So how would you write my name?

I think TICexpats is an American, and thinks you are misspelling "William." Sigh.

William the conqueror - French (Norman)
William of Orange - Dutch

Prince William - English
William Shakespeare - English
William Wallace - Scottish
William (the lion heart) - English

William Duval - USA
William Hurt - USA
William Clinton - USA

sigh