The Beijing Tea Scam

As I said in my earlier blog I had gone for a wander around the Forbidden City and was about to pop across the road to Tinamen Square when some Chinese girls approached me as I was taking a picture of Mao. There was a group of 5 of them, all of whom were dressed normally (i.e. they weren't prostitutes) and could all speak almost fluent English. They just looked like a group of students on a trip. They asked me if I was English and thought it was great because it meant they could practice theirs. They were all really pleasant girls, pretty much what you'd expect of a female Chinese student, and they asked me if I would like to join them as they were walking to the old town. "Why the devil not" I thought to myself. 3 of the girls said they were waiting for another two of their friends and would catch us up so me and two of them, Jane and Vicky, went for a stroll and saw a bit of the old town while they told me a bit of history of the Forbidden City and as we were getting on so well they suggested we go for some Chinese tea. "Why the devil not" I thought to myself again, even my overly suspicious couldn't see any harm in that. As we walked along one of the girls spotted a restaurant bar which we went into. The waitress took us into a corner and put some kind of straw screen around us and took our drinks order. She then brought over the teas with loads of Chinese snacks. "Very pleasant" I thought - I was seeing the traditional Chinese way of life. So we had a few cups of tea and they were talking about going to a Karaoke bar later on, which sounded like a laugh. They were still acting completely normal other than they kept suggesting that I go to the toilet at the same time as when one of them was going so that I knew where they were. I had nothing valuable in my fleece so I obliged and joined Jane. When I came back down the other girl, Vicky, was still there, as was the fleece. I presumed I was just being paranoid and they were just being nice. Then they asked for the bill. I'm sat there thinking "No problems, I'll pay it as I've had a good time and a few Yuan will mean nothing to me". Before the bill arrived the waitress asked if any of us wanted to buy some of the 'top quality' tea, which the girls did. When the bill arrived and the girls basically expected me to pay the lot, even for the box of tea they had bought. I thought it a little presumptious but wasn't overly bothered as it was probably an extra quid on the bill. Where could the scam possibly be here? Was it because they thought they would take advantage of a rich westerner and get him to pay 5 quid for some cups of tea? I looked at the bill and it was something like 2500 Yuan - I worked it out as about 150 quid for a few cups of bloody tea!@*! Naturally, I thought I had made a mistake by misreading where the decimal point was but the waitress went through it with the girls and they assured me it was correct. Jane 'generously' offered to pay for their tea and after I was kicking up a bit of a stink with the waitress Jane also put in all the cash she had. I continued to debate the matter with the waitress at which point the guy who had also been serving us came over. I didn't want to risk getting locked in, getting done over and getting everything taken so I ended up paying about 100 quid!
Later on at the hostel I saw a notice saying "Beware of strangers offering to take you for a cup of tea". Apparently 4 other people at the hostel have been caught out, there was a public broadcast about it, and I've looked for it on the internet and there are a load of stories, all of which are similar, and some of which are identical. It is very worrying because even as I think back there wasn't anything that I think was suspicious. And as I think back there was actually 9 people involved in that scam!
This contributed to my decision to leave Asia early, which you can read about in my next blog - I'll also include pictures of the perpetrators.

---

---