| Please be careful with "friendly people" | |
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| Dec 12, 2007 11:47 |   |
| guest16108 | Hi Everybody!! I´m right now in Beijing and I have been in shanghai, shenzhen, and fuzhou, all beautifil cities and really nice people and everything was so great.. But last night something really bad happens that make me feel so sad, so I wan to tell you my experience so if you are traveling to Beijing, please be careful!! I´m traveling with two more collegues and we left the hotel and walk around looking for the Tiananmen Square and we were taking some pictures around and 4 young chinese guys, three women and one men, who speak really good english ask us where we come from and more things and they seems so friendly and we started talking to them because we did it before in other cities and nothing happens and they told us they were students, so we ask for directions for the Tianenmen square, and they walk with us for few minutes, then they ask if we would like to go to get some coffe or tea because it was too cold and we were so innocent!!!! we said yes!!... I know... big mistake!! We walk for a couple of blocks talking and having a "good time" and we arrive to a tea place and we get inside the lady take us to a room and everything looks really nice, they brought several kinds of tea, make the "tea ceremony" and we keep talking and drinking some tea... after an hour we said to them we have to go.. and they asked for the check..... And ... BIG SURPRISE!!! .. the account was 2250 YUANS for test some tea a small plate with fruits and some cookies!! we could not believe it!! it was insane!! So we said to them we should split the check so we notticed they look each other and making faces and speaking in chinese like planning something , so we just frick out... and mean while we talked the three of us and think if we dont pay what they are asking us, we don´t know what can they do!! because it was getting late, dark and we didn´t know exactly where we were... Finally we decided to pay and leave like everything was ok... and when we were trying to get back to the place we meet them and they were trying to show us "a better way to go back" and it was a really scary road!! so with a kindly attitud we said no thank you, maybe we want to go for the other way and we said bye to them,..... then we felt so STUPID!!!!! How we didn´t think they have another intentions??? but all the other chinese persons we meet were so nice, friendly and helpful.. where this people came from?? so bad!!!! SO PLEASE... BE CAREFUL... SPECIALLY IN BEIJING, because this morning we saw another "friendly" person who wants to "help us" to find an address and he was trying to get us in another place like the tea place... Please dont misunderstand me, I have a great impression of chinese people really kind and nice, but there is some persons like these 4 young persons who make them look bad. But besides this.. I´m having a great time in CHINA!! Greetings Patricia Corredor |
| Dec 12, 2007 19:25 | #1 |
 | Sorry for your experience, thank you for your information and thank God, you are ok! If you read on this forum, you can find out you are not the first victim, I do not know if that make it any better. I, like many of you, have travel extensible around the world, and I have an extreme pleasure on going and do things by my self, do not really enjoy a guide company, really. I will share with you, something that have work great for me over the time, and that is, on a very nice but very firm way; reject an unsolicited help, and I do that by me selecting the person I ask help from, and by no means let them select me. I firmly believe that they select you as a victim, long before they approach you, in other words, they followed you and you fail to notice it. China is one of the safest countries I have visited. |
| Dec 22, 2007 09:21 | #2 |
| GUEST45210 | The same happened to me in beijing last week- for one small cup of tea with a nice girl it was 420 yuan! Ive also bought some 'original' paintings from a closing down art exhibition! Im actually really happy with the paintings-theyre nice- but i was quite angry about the tea girl and with myself for being so trusting. Beware people! |
| Dec 22, 2007 19:54 | #3 |
| I'm sorry to hear such experinces of yours. These bad people are so foxy and hypocritical. Be careful then, especially in the night and on the isolated roads. |
| Dec 25, 2007 00:04 | #4 |
| If I have to be careful with friendly looking people, how should I behave towards unfriendly looking people?? An old 'skiffle' song comes to mind "It takes a worried man to sing a worried song, I'm worried now........." haha |
| Dec 25, 2007 08:12 | #5 |
| The previous reply [4], bring to mind a case in Saudi some weeks ago, where the judge found guilty the victim of rape. The young woman was rape by a gang of seven. The judge asks why she was there by her self. |
| Dec 30, 2007 13:25 | #6 |
| I read on this forum about the "paintings" solicitors and about the "tea" scam thing before visiting Beijing this month. I interacted briefly with numerous locals for picture taking ( mine with my gf, a native ). And one time had to steer my gf away from a "Student" who yes, had selected us to tell about some great things to show us. Because I read on this forum, I knew this "student" standing on the corner was not someone we wanted to listen to. I don't see the advise on this forum as blaming any victims as the prior response appears to say. The advice here is very good and can help lead to a trouble free visit to China. I was lucky to have a native with me, and even then got ripped off by one cabby ( of many we took ), and had a few somewhat unsavory individuals interested in us at different times. I never felt threatened as police seemed to always be around and I used to live in NYC, so... One thing my GF selectively did that seemed to quickly turn away those with unhealthy interest in us, was to reply when asked that my nationality was Russian. The point being that, especially in travel, it can be a tough world out there, and any advantage you have you should be ready to use, such as advice on this forum. I think the following advice should apply to all travelers: Do not go anywhere with a stranger. Not in any city anywhere. Now, the definition of a stranger is up to you, as you most probably must rely on taxi drivers and so forth, but, the person standing on the street is %100 your stranger, and you can scale your stranger rating from there. |
| Dec 31, 2007 02:43 | #7 |
| GUEST21357 | Dont be so naive. O'course many want to rip off sweet foreigner. |
| Dec 31, 2007 11:03 | #8 |
| I had a friend who had a similiar experince with the "gallery closing down" painting. Again, we were in Beijing, staying a nice hotel in Tiananmen Square. The rest of this story is based on what I heard from my friend, who opted to stay out a bit more that evening because she was jones'ing for a McDonald's coffee. This gallery was across the street from the McDonald's, next to the hotel we stayed at. My friend was solicited by several attractive young women and a young man with the story that they were starving artists. Well, that's all a teacher needs to hear, right? So, , my friend, she goes into this gallery and is presented with many paintings, caligraphy etc. Ends up buying a slew of stuff, spends a fortune (they wouldn't let her out without buying something kind of deal) - but in hindsight, my friend got some nice art to take back to the classroom, a story, and a cup of coffee from McDonald's to celebrate her new found position of patron of the arts. We're both from Boston, been around the world a time or two, and expect this sort of thing - "nice" people taking advantage of the American. There are millions of nice people that truly want to help and meet Americans...but it's the other "nice" people that ruin it for us. Just watch out - tea with strangers is just that: tea with strangers! 2250 yuan is insane! I'm hopeful that besides the yuan and the frustration, you came out otherwise okay! |
| Dec 31, 2007 16:56 | #9 |
| Chrisgaw, May you reconsider your comment: " "nice" people taking advantage of the American " It has nothing to do with you being an American. It has everything to do with you being a financially viable victim. It is a cunning form of begging, but don't presume they are out to ruin the holidays of all 'the Americans'. In a financial scam the target has nothing to do with country of origin or a racial profile, just who is vulnerable and viable. |
| Jan 1, 2008 14:20 | #10 |
| Ok....then I stand corrected. I didn't presume anything. I was just re-telling a story that had some commonality with the rest of the posts here. Certainly my friend's art aquisitions didn't ruin her holiday, but I'm sure the original poster's China tea experience.was a bit tainted - which is a shame. I had some wonderful times off off the Square having tea - or beer! I actually had a similiar "tea" expereince in Madrid...and NYC...and Cancun....knowing whom to hang with is an art these days! No racial.profiling, as you so politically correctly stated, it's just the mere fact of travelling allows tourists to be a but more vunerable. Cheers! |
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