It’s official. I love Shanghai! (well, most of it) What an awesome city, with its abnormally modern subway, futuristic financial district, unique fashion, and tea performance scam artists, it’s sparking my curiosity in every way.
I began my first full day in Shanghai at 8:20am, out the door and ready for the chaotic calamity just waiting outside the doors of my serene hotel. What I found is that Shanghai is strangely clean and modern with a hint of the old-style intermixed into the daily life (i.e. the toilets are still holes in the ground and you have to carry your own toilet paper). The streets are not mass chaos as I had imagined (based on my experience in Amritsar).
The best part about Shanghai is the people, well, SOME of the people. In an effort to pay for my metro ticket, a young man gave me 6 RBM (equal to $1) because the machine would not take my 100 RBM bill. I felt a bit like a panhandler so I offered my 100 RBM bill (equivalent to $15). He refused (good guy, right?) my generous offer and let me be with the 6 RBM. That was ‘act of kindness’ number one.
Act of kindness number two happened right about noon and actually to be nothing but a scam… and the sad thing is that I didn't realize it until NINE hours later! Let’s see if you see the signs.
I strolled down Nanjing Road all the way down to People’s Square when a guy named De Ji and his friend, a cute girl about 5 foot tall named LeeLee asked me to take a picture for them. Of course I’ll take a picture for you! Now these two were quite the curious pair! I’ve never had two people comment so much on how beautiful my big nose is! MULTPLE TIMES! We could be talking about the Dragon Boat festival and (whoop!) one of them would mention my beautiful big nose again and my double eyes! They insisted that these features are valued in the Chinese culture. Whether this is true or not, it sure was comical to hear their excitement and how they described my features in their broken English.
Apparently, they were on their way to a tea performance and asked if I wanted to come with. Of course, why not, right?
Now, a tea performance… I didn’t really understand what this was, in fact I actually thought it was a dancing performance for the dragon boat festival based on our conversation (their English was pretty choppy so it was hard to follow the conversation entirely). But they said it was at the Champs Elysee. This is nothing like Paris though, folks. We walked for about ten minutes until we reached a large old red gate. They took me to a building where a woman dressed in light pink traditional attire greeted us at the door and guided us into a small room with cute little tree stumps as seats and beautiful traditional decorations.
Then the tea performance started, or tea tasting rather. My two new “friends” were so excited to translate the history of China, and we oooooed and awed at the tastes of the six different teas that we sampled throughout the next hour. They taught me “Gambei!” (Cheers in Mandarin). They told me stories of how tea merchants always wanted tea leaves from the mountains because they were the purest of all. De Ji would happily explain the health benefits of each tea. He would say, “Ah, yes, Pink Lady tea for young woman to keep you looking bootiful. You and LeeLee are Pink Ladies! Then LeeLee would joke and say that De Ji is a Pink Man which essentially means a ‘Playa.’
All-in-all, this was definitely a performance, by not only the Tea Specialist. When tea was poured, you should have seen how excited De Ji and LeeLee got. It was like we were all kids seeing a magic show! Especially, when the Tea Specialist brought out the Fairy Blossom tea, which blossoms into a flower when hot tea is poured over it. And then there was even a tea cup with a black dragon on it that changed to red and blue when you poured hot tea in it. We were all just carrying on and having a good time cheering at every little blossom, change of color, new tea to taste, I mean we celebrated EVERY LITTLE THING... and I was just eating it all up!
We were really enjoying ourselves, in fact this tea performance and meeting this comical pair was the highlight of the entire day! They were just so happy, energetic, curious, and just easy to be around! It’s weird, they were almost spellbinding. I’m sure you can imagine how happy I was in this setting…. Tasting different teas, enjoying lots of conversation with these two delightful people, sharing in a typical Chinese cultural experience (yeah… a scam), being complimented on my big nose, double eyes, and how smart I was since I just finished my MBA. Pshhhh…
Then we got the bill. Now they showed me the prices beforehand and I didn’t want to be Debbie-downer on their tea outing that they had already planned so I didn’t care so much about the prices. The final bill was like $2,500 RMB (equivalent to $387!). I guess I didn’t realize that it would come to THAT price! De Ji showed me the bill and asked me kindly, “How would you recommend we pay for this?” (Which I felt was a bit odd.) I suggested to split it in three ways. And then I realized that I was the only person who had purchased tea to take home so I offered to pay a little more. Surprisingly, De Ji said, “No no no… you don’t need to.” So I forked over 850 RMB, which is about $130. This is an insane price to pay for a tea tasting especially in China! De Ji then handed me (with two hands, in typical Chinese gift-giving tradition) a bag of Fairy Blossom tea balls and thanked me for coming with them and then insisted that I marry him. Lol Can you believe this kid?!
So anyway we walked back out onto the main street where we gave each other hugs, and said our goodbyes. I felt so good about that daggone tea performance until… I started writing this blog and noticed that some of the things that took place clearly made this a scam. The location of the tea room, the speed of which the Tea Specialist explained things, the email addresses that they gave me (all numbers@ QQ.com), the fact that they were ready to part right after the tea performance, the PRICE of the performance, asking me how I would recommend paying for it... Ugh… I’m such a nitwit sometimes.
NINE HOURS later, when I realized that I was scammed, I felt even more stupid than when someone points to your chest, says, “You got something there!”, you look down and get your nose swapped at. Yup, I felt a million times more stupid than when that happens. It’s the oldest trick in the book! That’s why!
Even while I was telling my Director and colleague about this whole experience, they kind of looked at each other, and said, “Ya know, that’s pretty expensive. You may have been scammed.” I said, “Nooo… of course not. They were so nice!” Pshhhh… Pammi!
Yup… I was scammed and I didn’t even realize it the whole time, in fact, I had a such a fantastic time, I would’ve recommended it to others despite the price! That’s a true scam artist… they make you feel good about the experience.
Prior to finding this out, I was in such a cheery mood so let me tell you about the next person I met. On my way to find The Bund (a beautiful riverwalk along the Jetson-esque skyline of Shanghai), I saw a foreigner looking at a map at the crosswalk, I walked up to him and asked if he spoke English. He said very fervently and with a thick Russian accent, “No. Russian.” I said “Oh, ok. I am from the U.S. (chipper as ever)," and continued to walk across the street with him. I kept talking with him despite him indicating that he doesn’t speak English, and learned that although he can’t speak it, he’s decent at understanding it. So I tagged along with him asking him questions about his visit.
[This poor guy; he was enjoying his lovely lone walk when this crazy American girl jumps in to put a stop to his peace.]
When I would ask questions, he would answer with one word and would often ask me a question by using fragments and using his Iphone to speak/translate. We went on to talk about Shanghai, and I said my favorite part are the people, they are just SO nice. I explained the whole tea performance and how lovely those individuals were and how fun that whole ordeal was. Yeah… if he knows about this whole scam tradition AND understood anything I was saying then he probably found this story ridiculous, especially because I was still so oblivious that I’d been scammed.
Within minutes of walking with him I saw a cart with a GIANT slice of Chinese cantaloupe, and I gasped and said, “Oh Wow! Do you want one?” He grunted, “No, no sweet.” As I got my money out the woman handed my cantaloupe on a stick to this Russian guy, lol and so this TOTAL STRANGER is stuck holding this giant fruit on a stick waiting for me to find two coins instead of continuing on his pre-planned route. I can imagine that he felt a little silly and was probably thinking, “WHAT THE HELL IS THE CRAZY GIRL DOING AND WHY AM I HOLDING HER FRUIT LOLLIPOP?!”
I take a bite and then I hand it to him and ask again if he wants some, lol, now I think about it, and it’s like, “Pammi. Honestly. Who wants to eat after a girl they just met walking along on the street. Of course he doesn’t want any!”
We walk along and run into a Chinese couple who asks us to take a picture for them. They ask where we are from and Roma (that’s the Russian man’s name) says, very proudly, “Russia.” And I say, “The U.S.” These two Chinese folks were so confused. I mean think about this for a second. It’s like the beginning of a joke.
A Russian and an American are walking down street and they run into two Chinese folks…
Now to understand how ridiculous of situation, you relaly have to think about like movie in your head. I’m walking along with this Russian guy, who is insisting that China is the most powerful country in the world. We run into this Chinese folks who for all I knew would love to take us to a freakin’ tea performance. They apparently thought this guy was my boyfriend. But I just met him about 15 minutes ago on the street. I've got this giant Chinese cantaloupe with juice ripping my chin and I'm talk to these people. It's kind of ridiculous scene... I mean if the leaders of the countries could just be as friendly as we all were then the world would just be a better place, right?
I walked along with him chatting and just really enjoying his company (primarily because I was eager to find a traveling buddy). You could tell this guy got a kick out of my reactions to Old Town, and the architecture and all that so I really did think he was enjoying my company as well. Although, there was that one time when he seemed to drop a hint that he loved traveling alone… Pshhh
As we were getting closer to the Bund and the Ya Yuan Gardens, I reassured Roma that I wouldn’t tag along much longer because I was planning to go to the Bund (whereas he planned to go to the Gardens). But once we got to the Gardens, I thought, “Wow! I want to explore this place!” So I followed him into the Gardens and asked, “Would it be alright if I came along with you into the Gardens?” And he looks up and kind of cringes his eyes and says, “Hmmm… meh.” I wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic, but I took it as a clue to leave him alone so I chuckled at his honesty, shrugged a bit (not gonna lie I was disappointed), then shook his hand, and said thank you so much for the company and wished him luck on the rest of his trip.
The rest of the day was filled with fun times on the Riverwalk, in the Bund, the Gardens, and a unique dumpling lunch of prawns and kale and some yummy dried mango and papaya. I had a great time that day and it’s funny when I think that the best part of my day was with those two mangy little swindlers. I’m not gonna lie, I felt pretty cruddy that night when I realized I was scammed, but after talking to my Director, she insisted that I was never really in any danger and that it’s just a business transaction to them. That's kinda what hurts though. I thought I actually found friends! Oh well, I did really enjoy the experience, and boy does it give me a good story! Honestly, the in-person version of this story is much funnier…. But I tried my best to reenact it.
Moral of the story… don’t trust people on the street…. Ugh… That’s no fun…. I will just be more skeptical next time. Oh well, this is why we travel, right? To experience other cultures, scam artists included!
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