The Beijing Tea Scam (and a few others)

[heifeng]

Tip:

Whenever anyone asks for help or money offer to assist them by dialing 110, (the police) and tell them they can help them out. See how fast the little scammers take off. It also seems people are tending to drag kids around campus dorms in BJ with some sob story and scam exchange students to get them to cough up some money for a meal! (according to someone I was chatting with this has been occuring BNU's lobby at night very frequently) I even had 3 jr high looking girls (I think they were even in their school jumpsuits) ask me the same thing one night just walking down the street which made me wonder is this just the new way for anyone including students to earn money in China now or what? Once again I offered to call the police for them if their stomachs where that empty and help track down their parents since they were apparently neglected children...then they crossed the street and didn't bother me anymore.

[carlo]

75Y from Baiyun airport to third ring road doesn't sound like a scam. You mean you actually noticed the metre had been tinkered with? If you still have your receipt, you could file a complaint.

Recently I've also been approached by well-dressed young people (not that I'm old) asking for food, very strange, what can you say to a young lady who tells you in perfect English that she and her baby are hungry? Please email me your cv?

[gougou]

75Y from Baiyun airport to third ring road doesn't sound like a scam

If he was talking about Guangzhou's Baiyun airport, that would indeed be a good price to Beijing's third ring road. But chances are he is talking about Beijing's very own airport. From there, RMB 75 is more than I would expect.

[johnd]

I've got to the stage where I tend to think the worst of people. But there was one time my wife gave 2 yuan to a beggar and he rushed off quickly with his metal bowl. When we passed by a little later he was sitting at the side of the road noshing on a full bowl of rice and smiling and waving at us. He must have been very hungry and gone to buy the food straight away.

Try not to get too thick skinned, but be extra careful when you're in the big touristy locations.

[roddy]

He was scammed himself if he paid 2Y for a bowl of rice

75Y to the third ring road sounds ok, and a positive bargain if it was the far side of the third ring. Any attempted scam would have tried to get a lot more than that out of you.

if you get approached by attractive girls asking to practice english again, take them to a place you decide on, they will order loads of food, then on pretense of going to the bathroom, leave & leave them with the bill. that's what my friend did. it brought great satisfaction!!

I wouldn't bother. You're only going to make them more determined to really scam the next person they get hold of, and you may leave an innocent restaurant owner with an unpaid bill when they also do a runner. Also in some cases the serving staff are expected to cover unpaid bills, on the basis that they shouldn't have let people run out. Let them know you know what they're up to (Anyone who approaches me on Wangfujing now gets asked 'tea or art' before they even open their mouths) and move on.

[imron]

It's quite possible that the taxi meter wasn't tinkered with. The 2.00Y is just the initial fare per/km. Once you go over a certain number of kilometers, then the rate increases. I'm not sure what that distance is in BJ, or what the price goes up to, but the distance from the airport to the third ring road is far enough and it's not inconceivable that the price would go up to 3.00Y. Also, as others have mentioned 75 isn't all that bad to the 3rd ring road.

[malinuo]

if you get approached by attractive girls asking to practice english again, take them to a place you decide on, they will order loads of food, then on pretense of going to the bathroom, leave & leave them with the bill.

I don't get that. You suggest that one should scam all Chinese girls who want to improve their English?

[Lu]

The taxi fare of Y75 sounds reasonable, actually. And there is always a charge for the time the cab is waiting as well, that's not a scam. Although I can understand someone getting very sensitive to such things when they've been scammed once.

[gougou]

75Y to the third ring road sounds ok, and a positive bargain if it was the far side of the third ring.

True, I was assuming only to Sanyuanqiao. Also the remark about the fare increase after the 15th kilometer is correct, it should be a legitimate 3 kuai then. Waiting time used to be billed at one fifth of the price per kilometer for one minute (not sure whether that changed after the price hike), which would make it 60 fen - close enough to 1 yuan to put it down to an error in estimating.

[griz326]

I am new to this forum, so just a line to introduce myself. My name is Steve; I live in Eureka, Montana, USA; and I just returned from a trip to Beijing and Shenyang. I spent 30 days in Amoy and Shanghai in 1978. I am learning a little Chinese for another extended trip next year.

Now to my comment....

I was appalled by the deterioration of Chinese integrity 30 years of change made. This thread reflects the corruption Mao was determined to prevent. An Italian girl was a murdered in a Beijing park about a week ago.

When I was last in China there were no personal automobiles and very few bicycles. The ship in port next to mine had a cargo of black and white TVs, bicycles, and sewing machines.

The thought/hope I wrote in my diary at the time was: "I hope China's cultural wisdom can protect the people from the change."

I guess the American capitalist society is a virulent and terrible corrupting virus.

All of that said, China remains a magnificent place populated by many people who still hold the old values. My next trip avoids the biggest cities.

[yadamaca]

I haven’t fallen for this particular scam, but I was unfortunate enough to be lured by one of those shady “taxi pimps” that lurk around the Capital Airport exit (I just made it to Beijing from NYC); they look perfectly legit, and help you with your bags and stuff, but then you get on a ride with a ridiculous accelerated meter that somehow ends up at ~700 RMB for a trip to city center. You grudgingly fork over the cash because:

1. You’re tired as hell and just want to get to your hotel ASAP

2. Your wad of RMB is probably at it’s thickest at this moment,

3. You rationalize the situation as a “learning experience” to forgive and forget.

In any case, a totally reprehensible scam that made me feel like a complete idiot…

So my initial experience in Beijing has indeed given me a pretty dismal view of capitalist China; but hopefully the (free) city sights will outweigh the incessant and downright nauseating hustling that seems to be everywhere.

[self-taught-mba]

~700 RMB for a trip to city center.

Ouch! That's obscene! Sorry to hear about that.

[billiardsmike]

Thanks for this thread. My first trip downtown I was approached with the art scam and caught on immediately. They were persistent, but I was very sick. After a few minutes, I just coughed violently and deposited a large amount of phlegm at their feet. I guess it's pretty sickening when a westerner does it and they took off so fast I couldn't have followed if I wanted to.

[roddy]

Has anyone seen information from the Chinese authorities warning people about these scams? The airport used to have signs up warning about the people who would 'help' you pay the already-abolished airport construction tax, but I've never seen anything about the dodgy taxi drivers, etc.

[self-taught-mba]

but I was very sick. . .coughed violently and deposited a large amount of phlegm at their feet.

Good thing it was a respiratory problem and not la1 du4zi I guess

[roddy]

Here's another one to look out for - smartly dressed but somewhat disheveled folk coming up to you, asking if you speak English, and then explaining that they are from the south of China, came to Beijing to look for work and have been unsuccessful, but are 50Y short of the 150Y train fare home.

The gentleman in question approached me when I was in the queue at the Wangfujing Bookstore. I offered to speak to the sales clerk on his behalf, telling him that with such good English (it was genuinely good) he'd have no trouble getting a job there. Unfortunately he had apparently tried to get a job at that very same bookstore not once, but many times, and so elected to hide behind those TVs that constantly play god-awful English learning programs while I made my purchases. He found me again on the way to the escalators, explaining that he also hadn't eaten for two days (apparently preferring to hold onto his 100Y and starve, rather than buying a jiānbing (thanks Imron!) and asking gullible looking foreigners for 52.5Y instead of a round 50Y.

I agreed that this was indeed a terrible predicament and offered to help him find a policeman in order to gain whatever kind of assistance Beijing's finest offer to the accidentally destitute. He strangely enough opted to wander off, presumably to catch a train.

I hate to say this (particularly as I've got a sneaking suspicion I already said it in this discussion) but if you are in a tourist area of Beijing and someone approaches you speaking English, ignore them. 99 times out of 100 they just want your money. Unless they're carrying a camera, in which case they probably just want to take a photo with you, which is fair enough.

[HashiriKata]

I hate to say this (particularly as I've got a sneaking suspicion I already said it in this discussion) but if you are in a tourist area of Beijing and someone approaches you speaking English, ignore them. 99 times out of 100 they just want your money.

Last summer I arrived in Guangzhou knowing nothing of the area: where to go for food, entertainments, etc. I then saw a black guy looking quite comfortable, strolling along the river bank. I thought he must have similar needs but know the area better, so I should approach him and find out some local information. However, to my embarrassment, whatever I asked he just simply ignored me and gave me a kind of look as if I was trying to cheat something out of him. I think he must have read Roddy's advice before I met him

( Yes, I do look like a regular Chinese guy).

[roddy]

Ok. listen long enough to decide if they are a forums member, then ignore them if not.

[mrtoga]

Yes I have come across that fellow hanging around the area in front of Beijing station with a relatively neat shirt and small plastic bag holding all his "possessions". That was a few months ago so I guess he is doing pretty well.

I replied to him with a pithy

"Have you any idea how many people approach me to ask for money whenever I walk around Beijing? It is unfortunate for you that most of these people are not legitimately poor, hard-working, honest, BILINGUAL down-on-their-luck tys pes like you, instead they are frauds, cheats, scammers that shame this great nation of China. These scum of the earth make life harder for genuine people like you because I am not going to encourage them by giving you money. Now why don't you approach some of the kind-looking Chinese people around us here and see what kind of a response you receive?"

He then had the cheek to ask me for 20 kuai for a bowl of rice instead! Maybe his excellent English skills were not quite up to the level of understanding sarcasm. Or maybe he is simply an eternal optimist.

I hear that many of the beggars in Shanghai speak English but this was the first one I had come across in China.

Now in Dalian we have a problem with overly-aggressive prostitutes outside the KFC, but that is probably for another thread........

[Shadowdh]

Now in Dalian we have a problem with overly-aggressive prostitutes outside the KFC, but that is probably for another thread........

Yeah but are they finger licking good...!!!?? And do they come in a bucket all can share... :mrgreen: