Leaving luggage in Beijing
December 7, 2017 5:05 AM Subscribe
I want to store my luggage for a few hours in central Beijing. What's the best option?
This Saturday, I will have a day to look around the center of Beijing. I am currently staying near Tsinghua University, and I will fly out Saturday around 6pm.
Ideally, I would check out of my hotel in the morning, transit into the city (c. 1hr on the subway), store my luggage at the Dongzhimen station (where the airport express leaves from), and then head out to see the city. Then I could return in the afternoon, pick up my luggage, and take the airport express easily.
The snag is that it seems Dongzhimen station doesn't have a left luggage counter. Online searching tells me that perhaps the Beijing railway station (c. 15 min by subway from Dongzhimen) has left luggage storage, but the station isn't in a very useful location (although it is better than my hotel). The most common suggestion is to leave luggage at my hotel, but that's not very useful when my hotel is an hour away. There are also suggestions that various supermarkets might run left-luggage counters, but I don't speak or read any Chinese so I am not sure of my ability to find such a place; and suggestions that local hotels might be happy to store my luggage for some sort of fee, but I'd need to know where ahead of time. Additionally I'll have some electronics in my luggage and I'll want to know it is safe (I'm happy to pay a larger fee to go with a more reputable option).
So, any Mefideas on how to solve this dilemma?
This Saturday, I will have a day to look around the center of Beijing. I am currently staying near Tsinghua University, and I will fly out Saturday around 6pm.
Ideally, I would check out of my hotel in the morning, transit into the city (c. 1hr on the subway), store my luggage at the Dongzhimen station (where the airport express leaves from), and then head out to see the city. Then I could return in the afternoon, pick up my luggage, and take the airport express easily.
The snag is that it seems Dongzhimen station doesn't have a left luggage counter. Online searching tells me that perhaps the Beijing railway station (c. 15 min by subway from Dongzhimen) has left luggage storage, but the station isn't in a very useful location (although it is better than my hotel). The most common suggestion is to leave luggage at my hotel, but that's not very useful when my hotel is an hour away. There are also suggestions that various supermarkets might run left-luggage counters, but I don't speak or read any Chinese so I am not sure of my ability to find such a place; and suggestions that local hotels might be happy to store my luggage for some sort of fee, but I'd need to know where ahead of time. Additionally I'll have some electronics in my luggage and I'll want to know it is safe (I'm happy to pay a larger fee to go with a more reputable option).
So, any Mefideas on how to solve this dilemma?
The major railway stations will almost certainly have luggage storage for a small fee. The main railway station is closer to downtown and accessible by subway.
Giraffeneckbattle's suggestion is genius and seems to me pretty likely to work.
posted by duoshao at 5:42 AM on December 7, 2017
Giraffeneckbattle's suggestion is genius and seems to me pretty likely to work.
posted by duoshao at 5:42 AM on December 7, 2017
For hotels, I'd start with international brands (Marriott, etc) and just search on Hotels.com, Expedia, TripAdvisor to find ones close to where you want to be.
posted by duoshao at 5:45 AM on December 7, 2017
posted by duoshao at 5:45 AM on December 7, 2017
Response by poster: Hmm, do I actually have to have lunch there? I had other plans..
posted by nat at 3:04 PM on December 7, 2017
posted by nat at 3:04 PM on December 7, 2017
I live about 10 minutes walking from the Airport Express on Dongzhimenneidajie. If you haven't found another solution, you could leave it at my house. Memail me.
posted by Trifling at 9:42 PM on December 7, 2017
posted by Trifling at 9:42 PM on December 7, 2017
This thread is closed to new comments.
I wonder if you might try calling or emailing one of the high end hotels near Dongzhimen and saying ni hao, going to be having lunch at your hotel, is it possible to also leave luggage with you for the afternoon before I catch my train? I find that the larger hotels in Beijing fall over themselves to help foreigners, whether or not you are staying there.
posted by giraffeneckbattle at 5:25 AM on December 7, 2017 [4 favorites]