Beijing Journey and Cell Phone Rental, Support Services

Our most under-utilized service is our cell phone rental. This surprises us as so many more independent travelers are coming to Beijing. Our American friend really was the idea for the service being offered. She was working here temporarily, but wanted to be able to get around the city, see the sights, and meet friends on her own. Since her Chinese is limited to the bare-essentials, this desire became a problem. She, many times, had to stop people on the street to ask them if they would let her use their phone. Obviously that led to the telling of some very good stories. She found all the people she asked to be quite polite, and also, a bit amused by this. Since we were the people she was calling for help, we know this to be true.

We finally suggested she buy a cell phone. We still receive her phone calls, but now we recognize the number calling us! Which then gave us the idea of offering this service to other travelers who like independence. We know that travelers want to be able to use a taxi, find a good restaurant, call home, set-up the order of their day, meet a friend, and ask any number of other questions. We know they feel more comfortable being adventurous if they have a friend to call for help. It allows a traveler to be spontaneous, walk a different way if they suddenly decide to. We believe in serendipity, and we hope that our travelers do also.

We hope that more people in the future will see the value of renting a cell phone. We have found that most people visiting here think that they have to pay the extremely high prices that international companies charge their customers when they want to use their phone outside their home countries. We feel our support service and our rental cost is quite a good value. We haven't as yet offered this service to our corporate, MICE clients, but see that it could also be of value to them.