Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A7

May 5, 2016

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Opinion » Foreign Views

Expensive ‘lesson’ doesn’t mar opinion of city

By Justin Kor | May 5, 2016, Thursday | Print Edition

When I came across the Shanghai Daily’s article on April 14 about a teahouse owner who cheated two Japanese tourists by charging exorbitantly high sums for a few cups of tea, I was wistfully reminded of a similar predicament that happened to me a month ago.

I had recently arrived from Singapore for my internship at the Shanghai Daily, and on one Saturday, took the opportunity to take in the sights along Nanjing East Road. As I sauntered down the famed pedestrian walkway, a bespectacled girl approached me asking for directions to Metro Line 2.

At first glance, she seemed completely innocuous, with her friendly demeanor putting me at ease as we struck up a conversation. She introduced herself as Wang Ning, a Hangzhou native who had made a weekend trip to Shanghai.

She suggested heading to a café to chat over a cup of coffee. I agreed, seeing it as an opportunity to make a local friend in China. Advice I’ve read on the Internet about never following a stranger you meet on the streets and about the scams along Nanjing Road all went out the window. After all, Wang Ning seemed sincere about building a friendship, and I was fairly certain I could hold my own against anything that could happen.

We headed to a café of her choice, where I ordered ginger ale and she had a can of Coke. We continued our conversation about life in China. Wang Ning then ordered two shots of sake. I accepted the drink, regarding it as a way to mark the start of a promising “friendship.”

More shots soon followed.

Alcohol in China is much cheaper than in Singapore. For instance, a pint of beer could cost as little as (US$3.85) yuan at a bar in Shanghai, versus the equivalent of 90 yuan back. Figuring that I would not pay more than what I usually do for drinks in Singapore, I did not protest against the shot glasses that kept coming. In total, we had 12 shots of sake.

Falling for a scam

Imagine my horror when I received a bill for 1,825 yuan. Looking at the ludicrous figure, a single thought reverberated in my mind. I had just fallen for a scam. All the material and warnings I read online about scams were all flooding back into my head.

Protesting against the bill, I was shown the menu. A shot glass of sake cost a staggering 150 yuan. According to the manager, it was high-quality sake. Not even in Singapore would a single shot glass of sake cost so much.

I demanded that Wang Ning pay half the bill. But she told me that she did not have her wallet with her. Left with no option and wanting to avoid a major confrontation with the restaurant staff, I handed over my card.

Leaving the café, I asked that Wang Ning transfer me the money. She flatly refused and insisted that she assumed that I was going to foot the bill, as a mark of our “friendship.”

After about 40 minutes of trying to make my point and realizing I was never going to get my money back from her, I gave up and beat a hasty retreat, not wanting to have anything to do with my new “friend” anymore.

In the space of three hours, I had lost an entire month’s budget. My first instinct was to go to a police station. But I was not sure whether the local police could really help, as two weeks before this misfortune happened, another calamity struck when my phone was stolen. Despite reporting the incident to the police, there was never a follow-up.

It was not until a month later when I was talking to my editor about this café incident that he suggested making a police report about it. Together with a friend, I went to the police station. However, the police informed me that the case was too dated for them to do anything.

According to them, even if I had reported the case immediately, it would have been difficult to prove that I was scammed because it concerned alcohol, of which some types, like sake, are actually expensive. It would have been a long-drawn and difficult process on their part to prove the scam. Whatever little hope I had of getting at least some of my money back was extinguished.

According to the aforementioned article from last month, about 30 foreigners have been cheated in 20 similar scams over the past year, making it one of the most common scams in Shanghai.

After my incident, I visited online forums filled with stories of similar experiences. Because of what had happened to them, many posters gave negative reviews of Shanghai as a city, and said they would not return to China.

While it is understandable that one would feel resentful of being swindled, I personally believe it is rather unjustified to evaluate a city based on one bad experience. In spite of the setbacks during my stay in Shanghai, I refuse to view it as a blemish to my experience.

Shanghai is a bustling metropolis steeped in a fascinating mix of rich history and modernity. I’ve found people here in general to be amiable and helpful when the need arises and my share of good experiences have far outweighed the bad. There is no sense in tarnishing the reputation of an entire city of 24 million people based on a single dishonest individual.

Foreign Views


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend