Monday, March 03, 2008
Posted by Miss Neddy at 08:30 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Related

The tea ceremony scam is prevalent in Shanghai and Beijing, but very likely some of the other big cities in China will have hustlers running the same kind of game. Especially if you are by appearance obviously a foreigner, do be careful of such scams. Usually a young lady, sometimes accompanied by an elderly relative, will approach you and introduce themselves. The young lady is an English student and would like to practice her English with a native speaker. A leisurely afternoon may follow, as she shows you around, probably showing you typical tourist traps selling souvenirs and cheap knockoffs.

After that, the young lady may offer to bring you to a teahouse for some refreshment. The teahouse either offers no menu, or the menu provided has no prices attached to the items offered. Do be very, very careful if you encounter a situation like this, even if you entered the teahouse on your own. Any respectable, aboveboard establishment will display a price list clearly (if discreetly) on its premises; if you cannot find the price list, remember to ask for one prior to ordering anything at all (even if it is a “sample” of tea, or a glass of water).

The scam runs to its finish when you are done trying the teas, and the bill is presented. It is usually an astronomical amount, possibly as much as several hundred US dollars’ worth. The young lady accompanying you will either pretend to be shocked by the price, or pay her half of the bill (seed money, since she is also in on the scam).

Here are some references to this infamous Tea Ceremony Scam:

Sir Mustang from Virtual Tourist Road Junky Mark Baker from The Chinese Outpost (who in turn is reproducing an entry from Roddy Flagg, owner and admin of Chinese-Forums.com chengdude from Lonely Planet’s forums The Encyclopedia of Scams

[Postscript: My knowledge of Latin, bar the common phrases used today, is nonexistent. I understand that “combibo” means more “to quaff”, than “to drink” but I couldn’t resist the alliterative effect. My apologies to real Latin scholars.]

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