Inside Look at China's Teahouse SCAM
Two unsuspecting Japanese students were victims of the old Chinese Tea Ceremony scam recently in Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai. When the students were approached by strangers eager to strike up a conversation, they gave them the benefit of the doubt as just being nice and personable. Little did they know that the play was on. The students were then asked to be given a traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony. They agreed and were lead to a local teahouse where they believed the entire event would cost 48 yuan or $7. To their surprise, when they received the bill, it was 2,100! ($324) basically they were charged PER SIP. After paying only what they had on them (about 1,000 yuan), they left. It wasn't until later that they realized they were the victims of the common scam used on foreigners. They went to the police and got their money back. Mike and Dan discuss this scam and how to avoid it (basically don't follow pretty people).
Comments
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my buddy who went to China told me that they offer tea ceremony sessions. is that a scam as well. i always thought tea ceremony or teac apreciation was just for culture to show foreigners. didnt think it would turn into a scam smh.
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china is a country better experienced from tv documentaries or the internet!
only go to china for business and even then watch out for scams and pollution and crime and legal trouble!
even the chinese restaurants in america and europe work with far superior fresher ingredients than the ones in china! -
lol. these guys have absolutely no clue about tea. too funny.
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You are 2 of the most westernized Asians I have ever seen.
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Wat
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Watch out for pedicab scams in London where they'll try to charge hundreds of pounds for just going a mile across town. People should just tell them to sod off, but some end up paying.
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Makes me glad I don't like tea.
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When I went to China my friend said always say no to anyone who just walks up to you and knows english really well. Those are for sure scammers
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If the scammers get busted, the marks are their downfall.
Our friends took us to a fish market in Guangzhou, then took it to have it prepared. The server came back and said that 4 of the crabs were dead. On the way out, we went to the stall where our friend got the crabs and they denied having sold to him. When the only paper exchanged is currency, there is little evidence. But a "souvenir"... -
I was at a tea ceremony in china. my god the women were beautiful. anyway it was at the place that i was staying and we didn't pay anything. I did dress up for it. all the people came down to watch it was very lovely.
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If a beautiful Chinese girl sends me to teahouse, I'll just kiss her and run away.
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They tried this on me when I went to Shanghai. Pretty girls asked us to take a picture for them, then invited us to a tea ceremony. Luckily I was already wise to it and we made our excuses and left. We passed them 2 hours later at the same spot, still scouting for foreigners. 骗子！
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This is funny. I was with a group of university students "doing summer" in China - foreign and Chinese. We visited a GOVERNMENT run tea museum in Hangzhou as part of our tour. We were divided into two groups: English speaking and Mandarin speaking. Some of the Hong Kong participants opted for the English-speaking group because they spoke English better than Mandarin. I opted for the Chinese speaking group because 1.) I had more friends there and 2.) I wanted to practise my Mandarin. So what happened and who got ripped off most? The MANDARIN speakers!!! The hosts KNEW the Americans knew NOTHING about tea and wouldn't even THINK of spending a lot of money for it so they offered it to them at a reasonable price (and sold about one or two boxes to them). But they conned the Chinese speakers into paying about TEN times what the English speakers were charged! WHY??? Because they offered all of these "mystical", health inducing qualities. One by one ... They were literally lined up to get ripped off!!! FORTUNATELY I didn't fall for it. Only later when I compared notes with an American student (in the English speaking group) did I learn the truth. I didn't have the heart to tell my Chinese friends. What really galled me was this was this was a GOVERNMENT run museum, and I am SURE that even the English-speaking students had been ripped off!
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if you know you've been scammed couldn't u just leave without paying?
would they call the police on you even tho its a scam and they could get
busted themselves? -
Haha I know exactly which teahouse you went to in New York. Tea Drunk right? I've been there a couple of times and yes, the teas are expensive, but they are really high quality teas. I wouldn't recommend going there just because, but if you do really like tea and know the difference, it's not a bad spot to give it a try.
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Why wouldn't they just call them out on it when the bill came? I guess it might be hard to argue in a foreign country, especially if you don't know the language. Though it can be hard to get money back once you give it to someone.
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In the Old days the "Tea Ceremony scam" was having sex with the pretty girl in the private room
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TWO WHINNY CHINKS ,NO ONE FORCED YOU TO PAY THE PRICE FOR POT OF TEA,PRICE WAS FIXED;LIVE AND LET LIVE YOU FUCKERS.
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When I went back to China, we actually did one of these 😂 I don't know how much it cost though
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