Scammed in Shanghai

Leaving my classmates in Beijing and setting off on my own adventure down through China, I have 5 days alone with no language-aid or guide, absorbing culture in Shanghai, Wuhan and Shenzhen. On the very first day, adventure found me.

I have two main goals with these days: Speak as much Mandarin as humanly possible with locals, and get some respondents to a survey created as part of my Chinese Marketing course. So after dumping my bag at the hostel, I set off into the early evening to see what Shanghai had to offer. I brought my Chinese booklet, as well as my surveys, just in case.

Being tall and white brings you a lot of attention, not least people wanting to take photos and sell you stuff. After being polite in Beijing, I decided that in Shanghai I would try to strike up a conversation in order to make the trade fair. So when a young Chinese girl approached me, I asked her to fill out the survey and enthusiastically threw as many Chinese phrases as I knew at her; her name, where she was from, what she was doing, etc. To my surprise, she seemed eager to answer, but as it turned out she studied English, it made more sense (Chinese people love to meet foreigners to practice their English - like my situation).

After 5 minutes, she asked if I wanted to get a cup of coffee, and suddenly alarms started ringing - a friend of mine got scammed for several thousand dollars in Beijing by going out with others and being abandoned at the bar with the tab. On the other hand, I wanted to get to know a local and speak more Chinese, so I fought my paranoia and I accepted. I suggested Starbucks, but she was hesitant for some reason (which only made me more suspicious), but it turned out she was waiting for a friend, who duly arrived 2 minutes later. They were on their way to dinner, and asked if I wanted to join them. I was hungry, but I wasn't keen on paying a lot, so I declined. But they said I shouldn't worry about it, I could keep them with company and have a drink while they ate. So off to a hotpot dinner we went.

If my paranoia was strong before, it was nothing like the feeling I had stepping onto the 7th floor of a down-town Shanghai skyscraper. Images of drugs, brothels, and someone holding my kidneys in a bag flashed through my head as I exited the elevator, but all there was to be seen was a bustling hotpot restaurant. They ordered food, while I helped myself to a beer, and the next 2 hours were spent cooking food and chatting in Chinese / English. The girls had ordered way too much food so they kept offering me some. The aroma of the hotpot was appetizing, so in the end I caved. My paranoia gradually subsided, since I had a firm hold of my bag containing passport, camera, iPod etc, and because I couldn't figure out how these girls could potentially scam me. A trip to the bathroom was the ultimate leap of faith, but there was no cause for concern. That is, until the bill came. I have had hotpot in Hong Kong, which is around 200 HKD all you can eat. So when the 1.600 yuan bill was presented to me, my heart skipped a beat. Their faces said it all - I was supposed to pay for everything. 

I have heard the best thing here is to just pay - things can get nasty if you don't. But I was furious and confused at the same time. These girls were obviously working with the restaurant to scam naive foreigners, but the way they played it out, their conversations with the waiters, and their cover stories were so good that I couldn't shake the final bit of doubt that they might be genuinely expecting the male at the table to pay (not uncommon in many societies). So I said I needed a couple of minutes to think.

First of all, I didn't have that kind of cash. I only brought something like 250 in my jacket, I didn't bring a credit card. So one way or another, I couldn't cover the bill. I turned to the girls, smiles and laughter wiped from my face, and said that this was not my bill alone. I didn't order it, I never agreed to pay for it, and I was not going to cover their share. At this point any "face" (social status) I might have had disappeared, and it was clear I was nothing to them any more - a cost I was more than willing to endure to get me out of this mess. They said that Chinese culture was different, that we had talked about the role of the male in the their culture, that they were just students etc, but I was immune to that. I was not going to be sweet-talked to pay for these girls.

Things escalated when the waitress returned, flanked by a guard and another mean-looking lady. They used hard words, saying that I had to pay for what I had eaten, and they looked thoroughly unpleasant. I could not do anything but say I could go to the hostel and pick up some money and come back, but I covered my back by lying about having friends waiting for me and not having a credit card that worked in China. The waitress accepted this solution and said that the staff would escort me back to the hostel and get the money. Damn - the last thing I wanted was them knowing where I lived and getting a hold of my belongings.

I blurted out that I only had 500 yuan in cash. Hotel had been paid for on-line, my friends were not in Shanghai yet, and my phone did not work in China so I could not get them to pay for me; it was impossible for me to cover the costs alone. I lied through my teeth, and half-expecting the waitress to take the remaining value in human flesh, one of the girls said she could call a friend who would pay the remaining 1000 or so. I looked at the waitress and her mean colleagues and asked if a total of 700 was a fair deal from my part. I sighed with relief as she reluctantly nodded, and before I knew it I was being escorted to my hotel by the guard and one of the girls. At my hotel I darted into my room, pulled out 500 (which was far from everything I had on me), and went back outside to pay the man. 2 seconds later and they were heading off down the road, my heart still racing.

After all is said and done, I couldn't help but laugh. I had had 2 beers, a glass of wine, a full hotpot dinner at a nice restaurant, and 3 hours of free Chinese tuition. I had also been set up and I fought my way out of it by the skin of my teeth. I probably also ate for more than the two girls combined in the end, so my share of 700 yuan probably isn't that unreasonable (joke), but compared to a Hong Kong night out and the stories it gives me, it was almost worth it. Almost.