It's embarrassing to admit. Stories and warning are constantly shared about it. I don't even like tea.
I've been scammed for tea twice. The first time I was shopping at a bookstore in a particularly touristy part of Beijing. This girl scared the hell out of me by starting a conversation unannounced.
"Hi! I'm Susan. I want to practice my English. Would you like to go for a cup of tea?"
Entirely skeptically, "No, I'm just on my way home right now."
"Oh, you live in Beijing!? What do you do?"
"I'm a lao shi. At Beijing University of Technology."
"Oh! That's great! Well, how about I get your phone number and we can meet up when you have more time?"
"Uh, ok."
Phone numbers were exchanged. I never really planned on meeting her, but after the new foreign teacher orientation (where they gave us ample supplies of free wine and beer), I felt like going out. I didn't really know anyone, so I decided to see what Susan was up to.
We met in front of the bookstore. She dragged me down about 10 dingy alleyways and sidestreets in Beijing. Finally, we reached our destination: a small (TINY) bar that served tea and beer and pistachios. I'm not a big fan of tea, so I said I wanted a beer. She said, "No, no we share."
I looke at the prices. Astonishingly, the tea was Y388 for a pot.
"Susan, that's really expensive. I don't have that much money."
"No, it's ok. We share it."
"Susan, I don't even have half of that much money."
"Well, give me what you have and next week we can go somewhere else and you can pay me back."
"Ok."
I gave her Y100 thinking why the hell is tea $50 here?
When I took a cab home, I didn't delete her number because I wanted to know it was her calling and not answer the phone. I didn't realize until much later that it was a scam. She still hasn't called back.
This weekend in Shanghai, I was sitting outside enjoying the scenery getting ready to go to a museum. Two Chinese people about my age started a similar conversation with me. This girl's English was very good. And she invited me to celebrate the tea festival with her.
"Oh, a traditional tea ceremony? That takes like two hours, doesn't it?"
"Oh, no! Only about 30 minutes!"
"How much?"
"Thirty yuan."
I did a shifty eye thinking pose for about 10 seconds before I decided what the hell?! And followed them.
This place was much closer. It was a very nice ceremony. The girl spoke such good English that she knew words like cholesterol (which I don't even know how to spell) and kidneys. My suspicious was spiked.
In the end, Y30 didn't include the tea. The bill was over Y1000. Then they asked how I wanted to split it.
"Uh, I'll pay for my share."
I forked over Y300 wondering how the hell I got in this situation again. She gave me some tea for my birthday. (It's actually really cool. It blooms when you put it in hot water. She gave me two of them.) And I left, satisfied with the tea ceremony but still perplexed about how expensive it turned out to be.
I realized later that it was yet another freaking scam.
So now I've lost Y400 to tea scams. And I'm still wondering why I let it happen. It's so frustrating to have to be wary of every single Chinese person who speaks English.
And I still don't like tea.
The picture is of me with the scam artists. Don't they look sweet?
