So I have been in China for about a year and a half now. Came here by myself to teach English as a foreign language. This is the best adventure I have been on in my entire life. So I want to share some experiences with you guys. I came to China December 28th and in early February I had 2 weeks off which was a great surprise. So I took my first trip out to Beijing the capital of China.
Me outside of the Forbidden City
Now if you have ever been to Beijing you probably have already heard about the scams that go on their. They are mainly targeting foreigners. First thing to watch out for is the taxi drivers. Man they can be the worst and it's not just Beijing. It will happen from time to time in my own city. So basically what they do is they rig the meter to go up really fast and sometimes it will start at a higher rate. It will be useful to know some Chinese. My advise if you are in Beijing or any city for that matter, just take the subway they are really easy to use here and will have announcements in English.
The Summer Palace
Another scam to be aware of is the tea shop scam. So if you are alone (which I was) you might get approached by an attractive girl who will strike up a random conversation with you. She will seem really nice and maybe show you around a bit and then offer to take you to a tea shop (sometimes a bar). What will happen next is they take you to the tea shop and will order some tea for you. You will talk for a bit then she will excuse herself to go to the bathroom or something. The person who works at the tea shop will bring you out a bill and it will be crazzzzyyyyy expensive and the girl will be nowhere to be found. So you will get stuck paying this huge bill. This is a very famous scam in Beijing so be careful. A girl did approach me and ask me to go with her but I luckily had already heard about this so i saw the signs and told her to kick rocks.
A few other things to be careful of is pick pocketing, being given fake cash, and the foreigner menu. The first two are self explanatory. The third one is when a restaurant (usually in a tourist area) gives you a different menu then they would give the locals. This menu will have the same items on it but everything will be double the price. This one might be hard to figure out.
So I don't want this to give off the wrong impression, I still had a great time in Beijing. These are just some things to be careful of. If you are prepared and well researched you will be fine. It is still a great place with a lot of culture and history. The amount of places to see in Beijing will keep you busy for your entire stay. I was there for a week and I still didn't get to see everything. I did make it to the great wall so that will be my last picture to leave you guys with.
