Beijing Tourist Trap Tips by SirMustang

The Beijing "Tea" party Tour Scams Review

We met a very polite young woman who said that she was studying English at college and could she speak to us to see if we understood her so that she could find out how good her English was on the street. We found this innocent enough and said yes. Anyway she was a really pleasant woman and her uncle (who didn't speak English) offered through her because of our kindness towards them, to guide us through the old city (where we were heading next anyway) and we agreed.

It was really interesting and he, through his niece, explained all the different remedies they used in everyday life and we spent a good hour talking with them and generally having a good time. After this experience, they had obviously got our confidence and when we were asked if we would like to see a traditional “Tea Ceremony” we jumped at the chance and were taken to a ceremonial tea house.

We entered the building, and we were shown upstairs into a private room with all the ceremonial tea equipment already laid out. We were then introduced to a young girl (who spoke no English) who once again through our young Chinese interpreter, went through the ritual of the tea ceremony.

To cut a long story short we had the tea ceremony and our young translator friend said that she would like to purchase some of the tea for her mother from Shanghai. So she ordered some tea and we asked for the bill through our interpreter. The young girl came back with a bill for 4,860YNB, with the exchange rate at 13.50RNB to the £1 the total cost for our simple tea ceremony was £360.00. We thought they had made a mistake and asked them to check, they replied that we were in an official government tea ceremony building with officials participating and that it was only open on special days of the week for the special ceremonies.

We told them quite plainly that we didn’t have that kind of money and couldn’t pay it, we made the best out of a terrible situation gave then 1,000RNB (£74.00) and left immediately.

Unique Suggestions: ADVICE TO TRAVELLER’S

Before entering into any ceremony please ask the cost 1st, this is the basic mistake we made, and we have heard of others falling for this as well. Once you have a price stick to it unless you feel that an extra gratuity should be paid because of the standard or time and effort put in etc. China is a fantastic place to visit, and this was the only stumbling block we came across, so don’t be put off, just be careful.