Beijing Tea Scam: Avoid the Si Zhu Xiang Tea House near Forbidden City / Tiananmen Square
Beijing Tea Scam: Avoid the Si Zhu Xiang Tea House near Forbidden City / Tiananmen Square
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
Update: Generally, if you are approached by a good English speaker there is a *very good chance* he or she is trying to scam you or sell you something rather than “practice English”. In Tea houses confirm pricing *before you sit down* or you’ll probably be in for a surprising bill.
Beware the SI ZHU XIANG Tea House in Beijing!
I fell for the Beijing Tea Scam (also common in Shanghai) where you are approached by a person claiming to want to practice english, then subtly lured to a Tea House for a “Tea Ceremony” that is hugely overpriced.
The scam is so good I have learned that many other travelers have also been duped by this because it preys on the fact that you don’t want to insult anybody and generally are unfamiliar enough with the landscape, money, etc. that you just pay the bill. My bill was $85 for a few tea samples. I’m guessing some who fall for this never even realize that they have been scammed – rather just think they paid “a lot” for Tea as I did untili I realized this was a very clever con game common in Beijing and Shanghai. I have challenged the charge and cancelled my card and will post follow ups on this later.
The China Tourism groups and guidebooks are guilty of NOT warning people enough about the fact that generally if you are approached in popular tourism areas by people who can speak english they are usually working some sort of sale or scam. Several sources suggested to me that it is common in China for people to come up and ask to take pictures and “practice” their English. Although I’m sure there are exceptions to the rule, the notion that people are looking to practice their english is only true in that that they are improving on these very clever short cons. I think I was approached at least ten times – mostly in Beijing - sometimes it was obvious they were working to sell me something but sometimes not at all apparent.
I can only hope that law enforcement does something to prevent this during the Olympics because a lot of this may overshadow the experience of meeting some of the wonderful people of China, only a tiny number of whom are perpetrating the scams.
Beware the SI ZHU XIANG Tea House in Beijing!
Looking for legitimate tea? Try Beijing Tea Street but still make sure you understand pricing. China really takes tea seriously and some are very expensive.
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You know what they say…some places get you by the rooms!
Glenn they actually did itemize the bill well into the service (so you had no way to back out). $15 for the room and $7.50 per small tea sample. Part of the cleverness is that by Las Vegas or New York Standards this fee would not be out of the question. However in China, where a fine, many course meal at an excellent restaurant will cost under $15 per person this pricing is unacceptable.
never thought that globetrotter Joe would fall in a tourist trap like this. i guess we never stop learning our lessons traveling the world. some expensive tea you got there! pua
Well, if someone wanders up and says he wants English lessons at a teahouse, I’d say ‘okay: you pay’ or ‘okay, but we go to different tea house and you pay’. Watch them disappear or suddenly lose what little English language ability they already have.
FG in my case she didn’t even seem to be picking which Tea place though I think she was careful to walk in that direction and then suggest we have some tea. It was subtle enough that even when I realized that the Tea House might be dishonest I did not realize until later that my “friend” was totally in on this scam. She actually pulled out money, bought a small canister of tea, and then gave it to me as a gift. I wouldn’t be surprised if several of these folks have agreements with more than one place so they could to some extent let the “mark” pick which one.
Pua at least I can use blog power to help others avoid this. It would be easy to really decrease the practice by taking pix of the perps and posting them online, then linking in from all the Beijing travel websites. But I’m not clear that the tourism folks are all that interested in stopping this.
The same thing happened to me in Beijing a few weeks ago. The two girls were so subtle about it and so sweet, I really fell for it. And I fell for it after fighting off hucksters and apparent con artists all day long at the Forbidden City.
Thanks for the note David. Unfortunately I think the key concept here is that there are few if any folks roaming around who really want to practice their English on foreigners. If the guidebooks had noted that, rather than the opposite, I think both of us whould have been on more of a mental alert when friendly folks walk up to “practice english”. Ironically these folks could probably make more money as legitimate personal travel guides since English is very rare in China.
[...] alert? Just after posting I was trying to get Bank of America to credit my card for the Beijing Scam I was conned with in China. After charge dispute sent me away claiming that becaue I signed [...]
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hi.
i m very intrested in ur tea house which near the forbidden city .i want to go there for have a look ,i live in beijing. i m glad to have ur reply.
to tell me the exat location of the si zhu xiang tea house.thanks
Lily I don’t have the address but it was very near what I think is called “Olympic Park” which is very near Forbidden City, down in the area with the high priced hotels. I’d guess it may not even be there anymore (NOT the Olympic Stadium area which is many miles away)
A friend just got scammed last weekend. I’m not sure of the the tea place he went to. It sure makes Beijing less appealing for travelers. In so many places people are treated to incredible generosity (Japan and Poland come to mind). Seems one should take in the sights and avoid the people to be safe.
I, too, was scammed while viting Beijing recently for a business trip. A young woman approached me just outside of the Forbidden City, saying she wanted to practice her English. She was accompanied by her “cousin”, visiting from an inner-province. As we walked they said they wanted to get a drink, and would I like to come with them. I thought they meant a beer or something, but instead she led me through several back streets until we got to a tea house.
We went into a small room, sat and and had several pots of tea while we talked. They also ordered some “snacks”, which turned out to be a small plate of individually wrapped crackers. After about an hour the two girls ordered some tea to take with them. They went on and on as to how expensive good tea is, and that it is treated like fine wine in China.
I, being the magnaminous guy that I am, offered to pay for the tea we drank. Imagine my surprise when I receiveed a bill of 1300 CNY, the equivalent of $195!!! I told them that I could not pay for their boxes of tea, and they told me that, no, this was the charge for the room, snacks, and pots of tea.
I’m embarrassed to say that I ended up paying, because I did not want to make a scene, and the girls and waitress were all so friendly. Now I realize what a sucker I was, and I strongly urge anyone visiting China to beware of Chinese nationals walking up to you and saying they want to practice english. And ALWAYS ask about prices before you sit down anywhere.
The charge on my credit card says “Huahuaxingchayishe Beijing”. DO NOT GO IN THERE!
Ha – we should start a club!
Cut the girls a break. They are simply making an income in a country that does not provide enough jobs. Ask for a menu and they will charge the appropriate. Don’t pretend like you can buy the place otherwise they will assume that you can.
At the end of 2008, an estimated 1.5 million Uni graduates were still unemployed in China. These uni grads come to Beijing with fresh aspirations. With the hard competition for the few jobs available, many female uni grads are left with only 3 options; which are to either to work in a tea house, brothel or to act as a ‘secretary’ performing ‘special duties’ for the boss of an IT company or the like. In the tea business, these girls essentialy employed as spruikers, more often than not can go for 4 days plus without earning a cent as they recieve no minimum wage. The girls do not enjoy the nature of this work, they just put up with it for the purpose of gaining job references in order to then apply for other more respectable jobs within either real estate or retail sales. At least then they ‘may’ recieve a minimum wage.
Prior to the Olympics, the Beijing Police Department started cracking down on such activity, but keep in mind, some girls were detained for 14 days. Businesses were also shut down and their managers heavily fined, not to mention the waitresses whom were also put out work. In a country with next to no social welfare and a reputation for human rights abuse, I’d like to think this is the worst that happens.
Making the push against these businesses can potentially ruin the lives of these girls merely trying to climb out the hole that is Beijing, all for the sake of saving the next tourist who comes along, the bill of between $85 and $195 as mentioned here. I’m sure it didn’t kill them and it’s not as if it was necessarily their last holiday to China.
Of the people whom make complaints, how many of them do you think do not admit that they initially agreed to having tea because they saw it as an instant date with two attractive Chinese girls. No doubt many of them also do not admit that they were enjoying the girl’s company before they realised the price does not agree with their standards back in their home country.
If someone tries to earn more than the average Chinese subsistance wage the only way they know how, can we label them as scammers? I’m sure you think there are millions of other hard working Chinamen earning an honest yuan, but don’t you also think that millions of other Chinamen have already summed that up?
Find a solution to unemployment before putting more out of work.
Chris the problem with that line of logic is that it creates a sort of “race to the bottom”. China is a wonderful country with spectacular culture and history. Their tourism industry, however, is pretty weak. Tolerating scams is hardly the remedy when China could have a thriving and huge tourism industry. A much better approach than scamming would be to encourage good english speakers to create some sort of “guild” with quality controls and offer legitimate guided tours which would include a powerful and positive cultural experience rather than a con game.
I fell for this too! It was the exact same girl with her “cousin”. The bill was 7100 yuan!!! they were charging 1800 yuan ($250) per bottle of wine!!!! fortunately I paid what had which was about $100 and said can’t pay the rest and left since I had already told the girls I don’t have much with me so we were supposed to split the bill.
An expensive lesson learnt!
Seriously – same person? This is probably a very lucrative niche in Beijing, though very unfortunate because it means the regular folks, honest guides, and businesses will always fall under suspicion of being con artists.
did anyone have any luck with contesting credit card or amex charges. i was threatened that my card does not work and then had to pay cash and now there is a fraud transaction with my signature
I argued this with Bank of America and finally they did credit me all of the $80 charge back. However the fraud rep I spoke with claimed that “fraud protection” does not include any signed transactions, which I felt was unreasonable.
So I’m not sure if they just wanted to keep me happy or if they actually agreed this was a form of fraud (which it clearly is).
This scam just happened to my husband and I in Beijing! Three women claimed to also be in Beijing on vacation and were very glad to meet such nice Americans, wanted to be friends and have a drink together. My husband and I each had one $4 (USD) beer, and they ordered what turned out to be $100 (USD) tea, plush a $100 (USD) private room charge. When the bill came, they wanted to split it down the middle. We caught on to the scam and refused, paying only about $30 to cover our own drinks and a small part of the room charge, since the room was their idea. WHAT A CROCK! Be careful. It’s easy to get duped.