I have just returned to my hotel a few hours after an interesting afternoon which I am pretty sure involved me getting ripped off. I have only been in Shanghai 2 days and this is my first time in China. I am 90% sure I was just scammed but some doubt remains. The damage to my wallet was not too bad as far as scams go so I am not about to let this ruin my day.
It is a cold and rainy day in Shanghai. I failed to get laid the night before and am walking around People's Square. In a deserted part of the Square a group of 3 girls asks me in their Chinglish if I can take a picture of them. After snapping the photos they ask me where I am from. "America" I say and they inform me that they live in Beijing and are on their winter holiday at university. The small talk beings and they are surprisingly chatty. From what I heard of Chinese girls I expected almost all of them to be closed off and shy. 2 of the girls are terrible but the tallest one is not bad, maybe a 6.5 or 7. They ask what I am doing and I tell them I was on my way to get something to eat. They say its too early to eat dinner and invite me to a tea ceremony nearby. This is actually something I wanted to do in Shanghai as I love tea and drink about 6 cups of green tea a day. I had no plans so I agree to follow them along. The tall cute one is walking next to me, offering to share her umbrella.
We get to a shopping complex and take an escalator 1 level up. I follow them into a tiny shop which has a narrow hallway with several small rooms opening off of it. We sit down in one of the rooms and the waitress comes in to show us the menu. Each tea is priced at 49 rmb (about 8 dollars) and the girls tell me its normal to get 6 to share. This plus a room fee of 30 rmb per person (5 dollars) seems reasonably priced.
The conversation in the tea room is pretty fun. The 3 girls keep asking me about my previous girlfriends and tell me about their previous boyfriends. They compliment my looks over and over, especially my large nose which Chinese girls supposedly find very attractive. My favorite part was the repeated fat jokes at the expense of their fat friend. As we are drinking tea and they are regaling me with compliments I get a sense of doubt in the back of my head. What am I doing here with these girls I met 15 minutes ago? It could be so easy for them to rip me off.
After we finish the tea, the waitress brings out a menu and asks if we would like to buy any. The tea was pretty fantastic. I decided to buy a small jar of the green ginseng, priced at 140 rmb (22 dollars). When the bill comes the total is 3,000 rmb (480 dollars). While I was distracted chatting up the tall one I failed to notice the 2 ugly girls "ordering" several large jars of tea. The fat one says to me that since we both have jobs we will split the bill between the two of us. So for a small amount of tea and a few ounces to take home she is asking me to pay 240 dollars. I say that is crazy and I don't have that much money. The girls look genuinely concerned and apologetic. I refuse to pay for a few minutes. They assure me everything is fine and that they will have the other two girls contribute as well and the host has agreed to give me an extra jar of tea. After being incredulous for a few minutes I just give in and pay 700 rmb (112 dollars). I hand over the cash and so do the other girls. Part of me wanted to fight it more but the girls sold their concern so well that I was not sure that I was being scammed anymore. After all, I saw them pay the same amount too.
On the way out of the tea house I snapped a picture of the front door. The waitress ducks out of sight as soon as she sees my camera. A few hundred feet from the door, the tall girl says she "forgot" her jars of tea and runs back to the tea house to get them. I think at this point the waitress must have given back the cash that the other girls "paid."
As we walk back into the street my mind is running. I am still not sure about whether or not I had gotten ripped off. The tall girl was flirting with me quite a bit. I decide to go to dinner with them anyway knowing full well that there is a huge chance I am going to be ripped off again. But the combined forces of curiosity and wanting to bang the tall girl made me go.
Dinner is at a hot pot restaurant on the busy shopping street Nanjing Road. Looks like some of the other hot pot restaurants I have been to. Families and all sorts of people are enjoying the place. We sit down to eat. I sit next to the tall girl who shows me pictures on her phone of her American exchange student friends. This looks totally normal and reassures me a bit. I think to myself that these girls do not look like scammers. They are just not that hot and seem rather wholesome. I have been ripped off in Europe and Asia before and it was by people who looked a lot different than these girls.
At the end of dinner the fat one gets up for a while. When she comes back she said she already paid and that I need to give her 300 rmb (48 dollars). We had eaten a lot of food, but there is just no way that this meal cost 200 dollars total. I should have protested again but I just forked over the cash. I am regretting this bit as I sit here. I exchanged emails with all the girls and they said they will invite me to party with them tomorrow.
After writing this story I am now 99% sure that I was scammed. But I only paid about 160 bucks and did get some great tea and dinner out of it. Definitely not going to break the bank but I am just curious about what just happened. If there is anybody who read my whole story and knows Shanghai I would love to hear their assessment. Because if I did not get scammed I am definitely going to try to fuck that tall broad.
It is a cold and rainy day in Shanghai. I failed to get laid the night before and am walking around People's Square. In a deserted part of the Square a group of 3 girls asks me in their Chinglish if I can take a picture of them. After snapping the photos they ask me where I am from. "America" I say and they inform me that they live in Beijing and are on their winter holiday at university. The small talk beings and they are surprisingly chatty. From what I heard of Chinese girls I expected almost all of them to be closed off and shy. 2 of the girls are terrible but the tallest one is not bad, maybe a 6.5 or 7. They ask what I am doing and I tell them I was on my way to get something to eat. They say its too early to eat dinner and invite me to a tea ceremony nearby. This is actually something I wanted to do in Shanghai as I love tea and drink about 6 cups of green tea a day. I had no plans so I agree to follow them along. The tall cute one is walking next to me, offering to share her umbrella.
We get to a shopping complex and take an escalator 1 level up. I follow them into a tiny shop which has a narrow hallway with several small rooms opening off of it. We sit down in one of the rooms and the waitress comes in to show us the menu. Each tea is priced at 49 rmb (about 8 dollars) and the girls tell me its normal to get 6 to share. This plus a room fee of 30 rmb per person (5 dollars) seems reasonably priced.
The conversation in the tea room is pretty fun. The 3 girls keep asking me about my previous girlfriends and tell me about their previous boyfriends. They compliment my looks over and over, especially my large nose which Chinese girls supposedly find very attractive. My favorite part was the repeated fat jokes at the expense of their fat friend. As we are drinking tea and they are regaling me with compliments I get a sense of doubt in the back of my head. What am I doing here with these girls I met 15 minutes ago? It could be so easy for them to rip me off.
After we finish the tea, the waitress brings out a menu and asks if we would like to buy any. The tea was pretty fantastic. I decided to buy a small jar of the green ginseng, priced at 140 rmb (22 dollars). When the bill comes the total is 3,000 rmb (480 dollars). While I was distracted chatting up the tall one I failed to notice the 2 ugly girls "ordering" several large jars of tea. The fat one says to me that since we both have jobs we will split the bill between the two of us. So for a small amount of tea and a few ounces to take home she is asking me to pay 240 dollars. I say that is crazy and I don't have that much money. The girls look genuinely concerned and apologetic. I refuse to pay for a few minutes. They assure me everything is fine and that they will have the other two girls contribute as well and the host has agreed to give me an extra jar of tea. After being incredulous for a few minutes I just give in and pay 700 rmb (112 dollars). I hand over the cash and so do the other girls. Part of me wanted to fight it more but the girls sold their concern so well that I was not sure that I was being scammed anymore. After all, I saw them pay the same amount too.
On the way out of the tea house I snapped a picture of the front door. The waitress ducks out of sight as soon as she sees my camera. A few hundred feet from the door, the tall girl says she "forgot" her jars of tea and runs back to the tea house to get them. I think at this point the waitress must have given back the cash that the other girls "paid."
As we walk back into the street my mind is running. I am still not sure about whether or not I had gotten ripped off. The tall girl was flirting with me quite a bit. I decide to go to dinner with them anyway knowing full well that there is a huge chance I am going to be ripped off again. But the combined forces of curiosity and wanting to bang the tall girl made me go.
Dinner is at a hot pot restaurant on the busy shopping street Nanjing Road. Looks like some of the other hot pot restaurants I have been to. Families and all sorts of people are enjoying the place. We sit down to eat. I sit next to the tall girl who shows me pictures on her phone of her American exchange student friends. This looks totally normal and reassures me a bit. I think to myself that these girls do not look like scammers. They are just not that hot and seem rather wholesome. I have been ripped off in Europe and Asia before and it was by people who looked a lot different than these girls.
At the end of dinner the fat one gets up for a while. When she comes back she said she already paid and that I need to give her 300 rmb (48 dollars). We had eaten a lot of food, but there is just no way that this meal cost 200 dollars total. I should have protested again but I just forked over the cash. I am regretting this bit as I sit here. I exchanged emails with all the girls and they said they will invite me to party with them tomorrow.
After writing this story I am now 99% sure that I was scammed. But I only paid about 160 bucks and did get some great tea and dinner out of it. Definitely not going to break the bank but I am just curious about what just happened. If there is anybody who read my whole story and knows Shanghai I would love to hear their assessment. Because if I did not get scammed I am definitely going to try to fuck that tall broad.
