foreigners beware of sarah

Unfotunately, there is more than one person doing this tea house/coffee shop scam and not just in the Oriental Plaza.  You are not the first victim and I suspect not the last.

Thanks for posting. Hopefully people will read and be careful.

These people are common around Tiananmen square, I think Ive met one every time Ive been there, usually right outside the subway station (but I never followed them anywhere).

While on the subject of bad things: Watch out for fake 100s in taxis! (You give them a real one, they switch and tell you that you gave them a fake one)

Yoh yoh yoh Viblo I guess there are many mean things happening. A chinese friend just told  me that if you are confronted with such bad situations  just tell them you gonna call 110, i guess thats the chinese version of 991 , the emergency number. I,m told most chinese dont like the police especially if its a foreigner involved coz the police in most cases are always on the side of the foreigner.

Same scenario in Shanghai. We were warned and refused this kind of offer, 3 times

Really Julien you mean its not only Beijing? Wow when I first came to China I was so impressed by the laxity  of security like with the friends i was staying with. Windows not being closed or sleeping with curtains completely open, i thought wow, in my country you never do that. So i guess i had created a china utopia  in my mind such that when i was conned i did not see it coming because to me this was an idyllic world. I hope morepeople could post on the other kinds of bad chinese behaviour which we should look out for

Unfortunately me and Ms got invited 3 times by unknown couples (who previously asked us to take a picture of them) to tea ceremonials

what made me understand there was something weird on the first time is even if it was written in Chinese I understood that the memory card was full and I didn't actually took the picture. But they've quickly shown me another picture (not taken by me) and quickly engaged a discussion. Ms couldn't understand why I got a bit upset when they started insisting (I just wanted to leave as I was pretty sure they were lying). That was close to Yu Yuan garden in Shanghai.

Then it happened us two more times in People's square on the day after...

There are scams and thieves all over China, as there are all over the world.  Tourists are duped in New York's Times Square every day.

The best way to avoid a scam is to use common sense.  Failing that, not looking like a tourist helps.  Unfortunately, most of us do not look like the locals in China.

MiaCulpa wrote:

..... most of us do not look like the locals in China.

How very true

I met this problem at People Square... also tea ceremony... it gives really bad impression, but good not everywhere is like that...

Oh,this is unbelievable.I have never run into such kind of situations.Maybe they are not interested in locals.^-^

Berry

You are lucky berry. I think these people have been in the business long that they know just the right target. Maybe a tired looking foreigner, who looks like they need a cup of coffee or a confused one who looks like they might just need some help. Whatever it is that they use they just knwo their targets. Maybe once in a while they just make the wrong pick

yes they normally target the obvious tired looking out of towners