The unrewarding world of Trust
While our trip to China was fantastic, there were many chances for it to go horribly wrong. Well, maybe not horribly, because we did play it safe in staying in the big cities, but there were scams abound. Luckily, we had read up on a number of them.
Walking through People's park in Shanghai, a nice girl calling herself Lily, came up and started talking English to us. She was from inner Mongolia, going to University somewhere in China, but was in Shanghai on holiday, and was excited to practice her English with us.
Steph had just read a warning online about scams where a woman will come up and befriend you asking to practice English. The girl then asks (usually a single young virile man) if he wants to come to a small tea shop or bar with her. They order drinks (harmless?) and in some cases the girl's friends make an appearance. Before the foreigner knows it, their company has left, and the foreigner is charged for 6 "traditional" cups of tea costing $20 US each. Since they are at a "privately owned" establishment, they are stuck with the choice of paying the bill or being carted out in a stretcher. This couldn't happen to us though, could it?
After talking with "Lily" for a while, we decided to head to People Square... to which she was a little too eager to join us. Little alarm bells, or paranoia? As we settled onto a bench in People's park, we continued to have an easy conversation with Lily, learning about Mongolia and China's growth. We were tired from all the people, so we decided to say goodbye to Lily and head back to our hotel... And that was when she said "Oh, but I was hoping we could go to this nice little tea shop I know..."
Yeah.
Goodbye Lily.
And it's one experience like that that makes you paranoid (rightfully so) about everyone, even though we met some really nice people in both Shanghai and Beijing. But, from the street vendor selling cake who measured portions by weight using a bar, a sliding weight and his finger as the fulcrum (yes, I just used the word fulcrum), to the German lady who had to physically tear her suitcase out of a cab that had taken her "sightseeing" through Beijing, to the general joys of bartering at markets, you have to always be "aware" when you are travelling.
On a side note: The cake was worth double the price, our cabs were all awesome because we kept with Beijing taxi's orange cabs and the markets were great because we keep telling ourselves that we got great deals! (Like my $32 fake TAG!)
Walking through People's park in Shanghai, a nice girl calling herself Lily, came up and started talking English to us. She was from inner Mongolia, going to University somewhere in China, but was in Shanghai on holiday, and was excited to practice her English with us. Steph had just read a warning online about scams where a woman will come up and befriend you asking to practice English. The girl then asks (usually a single young virile man) if he wants to come to a small tea shop or bar with her. They order drinks (harmless?) and in some cases the girl's friends make an appearance. Before the foreigner knows it, their company has left, and the foreigner is charged for 6 "traditional" cups of tea costing $20 US each. Since they are at a "privately owned" establishment, they are stuck with the choice of paying the bill or being carted out in a stretcher. This couldn't happen to us though, could it?
After talking with "Lily" for a while, we decided to head to People Square... to which she was a little too eager to join us. Little alarm bells, or paranoia? As we settled onto a bench in People's park, we continued to have an easy conversation with Lily, learning about Mongolia and China's growth. We were tired from all the people, so we decided to say goodbye to Lily and head back to our hotel... And that was when she said "Oh, but I was hoping we could go to this nice little tea shop I know..."
Yeah.
Goodbye Lily.
And it's one experience like that that makes you paranoid (rightfully so) about everyone, even though we met some really nice people in both Shanghai and Beijing. But, from the street vendor selling cake who measured portions by weight using a bar, a sliding weight and his finger as the fulcrum (yes, I just used the word fulcrum), to the German lady who had to physically tear her suitcase out of a cab that had taken her "sightseeing" through Beijing, to the general joys of bartering at markets, you have to always be "aware" when you are travelling.
On a side note: The cake was worth double the price, our cabs were all awesome because we kept with Beijing taxi's orange cabs and the markets were great because we keep telling ourselves that we got great deals! (Like my $32 fake TAG!)
Labels: Bartering, Beijing, China, scams, Shanghai, Speaking English, Trust
posted by Brent at 7:25 a.m.
4 Comments:
"(yes, I just used the word fulcrum)"
You big nerd!
Takes one to know one, I guess.
Why would you have a stinging sensation between your legs after expensive tea?
Fulcrum... sounds dirty.
Zhao Lei loves all your China posts, by the way.
Sorry Jeff. I was trying to politely say you feel like you just got kicked in the nuts, but I guess it came off insinuating you were at a brothel. In the end, you get conned, and no one likes that.
Parker, the way the guy was using the Fulcrum was dirty. Sketchy! Tell Zhao Lei that we love his country!
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