Scams and more scams

Apparently, to learn English fluently in China means a life of professionally scamming tourists. I've never seen such an widespread and effective effort to scam tourists as I have seen here.

Some reasons I believe is because it is easy to decipher who are Western tourists. Anyone that travels this far to reach China obviously isn't poor either.

I have been approached many, many times already. My guess is at least 90% of the times I am approached by a local...it is for scamming purposes. How sad is that? I would like to connect with the locals here in Beijing, but I fear that make that impossible. Trust no one is my new motto.

Scam 1 - this one is very widespread across the entire city's tourist infrastructure. You have random locals just walk and and try to start conversations with you (to test their English or just to make friends while they also are traveling). Westerners are already a curiousity so it makes sense. Unfortunately, in neither case, is that the true intention. The first person was a male and after ten minutes of conversation wanted me to meet his sister (who spoke even better English). They were both very, very chatty and completely took me out of my "schedule". Well...after 15 minutes of this...they request that you join them for coffee or tea. Scam! Why...I'll tell you later. I got semi-suckered on Day 3.

Scam 2 - it's almost always girls that approach you. They are always younger. This one grabbed my attention just hours later in the Forbidden City (that's like getting pulled aside inside of an open-air museum...a safe zone? I think not). They took me into a side room of a restaurant to show me their school's artwork. The young lady did a very fine job of explaining the artwork professionally and what all of the Chinese characters and paintings mean. The spill goes on for nearly ten minutes...and that's when you realize she has invested far too much time in this for it to be "Free". Sure enough, the heavy sells pitch begins and so does the guilt. I ended up with a nice piece of artwork, but it set me back about $40 as well. Good deal...not too bad, but it can be had for cheaper in other parts and certainly on your own terms.

Scam 1 revisited - ah yes, they are persistent. I've had random people try to get my attention many times, but these two particular girls were better than the rest and got me started in conversation when I had nowhere in particular to go. They "oodle" over me and butter me up for awhile and then insist they follow me along to go investigate the shopping scene (my original intent). Sure enough, here comes the punch line to go for some refreshments and I kinda agreed to go (theyed seemed innocent) but with some reservations. We bypassed McDonald's (uh oh) and go up to the second floor of this semi-deserted bar. They asked me if I wanted anything and I insisted I did not. They eventually bought some tea and almonds and said I could share some with them. Thoughout the entire chat they kept insisting that I try some of the tea and almonds and I continued to refuse (onto them? yeah). At the end, I started to get some pressure from them that I was being rude not to drink/eat with them. But then the bill comes...$50!!!

My guess is...their plan was to put the entire bill in my lap, but it made it somewhat difficult since I had not eaten or drank anything at all. So they insisted that I split the bill with them, which I refused as well. Talk about guilt and loathing...they were putting it on me. I finally plopped down $7 and told them that was the best I was going to do for them for their "company" and then proceeded to march off. One of the girls was pretty ticked while the other seemed a bit...well, I dunno, realistic to their failures. In the end, I have no earthly idea what the entire scam was about. Was there a kickback with the restaurant involved? It didn't seem so. Was it a way to get a free expensive meal or a thrill to watch a tourist swirm??? Lame. I dunno. I was approached by a single girl one more time that night and I almost just wanted to flip her off on the spot without another word coming out of her mouth!!!

So when in China, don't go it alone. None of this happens when I'm with the group.