The Chinese Tea Ceremony Scam

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Well, we were more lured than scammed.

At People's Park, a Chinese couple asked us to take a picture of them. They struck up a conversation, mostly small talk, also visiting Shanghai, etc. After about 10 mins of talking, they invited us to a traditional Chinese tea ceremony. Ryan did this last time he was in Bejing and enjoyed it, so we figured what the heck. They took us to a tea room, and we had a great time tasting different teas and later on purchased some of that tea. It was a bit pricey, but we got nice conversation and a good presentation out of it. We said our goodbyes and were on our way. While walking to our hotel to drop off our tea, Ryan wondered that since something very similar happened in Bejing, if this was possibly a scam. It occured to me that the guy stepped out of our private room to pay the tea place and I found that odd.

We returned to the area and at the Shanghai Museum, another couple asked us to take a picture of them. They too started with the small talk and then offered to take us to a Chinese tea ceremony! That pretty much confirmed it for us. At the end of the day, we looked up on tripadvisor and yes, it is a scam. Why I say that we were more lured, is the fact that evidently this scam can be way more insidious, like doing the tea ceremony, and then suddenly finding out that you have to pay for them as well. We had a nice time, and although we did pay more for our tea, we weren't forced to do or pay for anyone. I am glad that we never told them exactly where we were staying though. Oh well, we both chalk it up as an interesting adventure rather than beating ourselves up about it.

Moving on. We decided that it was just way too hot to walk anymore and decided to cab it. Taxis are pretty cheap here, though you do have to watch out for gypsy cabs that will try to charge you a lot of money. We went to SWFC observatory in the tallest building in Shanghai, and one of the tallest buildings in the world. They boast that it's the tallest observatory in the world. This building reminds of a giant bottle opener, due to it's square-ish hole at the top.
At the top, you are 492 meters high (compare to Sears tower, where the very top of the 2 spires are 442m, observation area much lower than that.) You are on the top part of the bottle opener part where there are glass floors where you can look down. Talk about a bit of vertigo! It was interesting to see Puxi side, where it was very hazy from pollution, and then the Pudong side, which was relatively clear.

We then went to the Hyatt and got drinks at the Could 9 bar, on the 86th floor, and watched the activity down below.

In Arcadia, there's a place called Din Tai Fung, and it's a terrific place for dim sum. Well, that restaurant is actually from Shanghai (it's now a small chain in several countries,) so we tried the one here for dinner.

After that, we called it a night and relaxed in the hotel.

It's Tuesday morning here. The weather keeps showing Shanghai as having clouds with possible thunderstoms. So far, that weather report has been very wrong. Here's hoping it continues to stay wrong for the eclipse tomorrow!

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