While walking down the pedestrian street, East Nanjing Rd., you will enjoy there most by shopping or Shanghai beauty or whatever.  However, as a local Shanghai rat, I never shop anything there.  The reason: price may be higher, but quality may not be what you expect unless you go to branded super mall for shopping.

East Nanjing Road, a famous pedestrian street in Shanghai, is full of tricks or scams for tourists. Not only for foreigners also Chinese tourists too. So when you shop something or entertain something, please always watch out. Don’t let yourself in a trap. Specially when you are alone and strangers approch you for something. 

Here is a true story always happened on the East Nanjing Road.  So watch out.

A young Chinese girl approched to me and explained that she was a college student, wanted to practice her english, and she could walk along with me in this beautiful day.  A good excuse, huh? As a man, this should be what kind of romantic I dreamed of, specially in a sunshine and warm April afternoon. 

Then we walked a few hundred meters away, she suggested having “coffee” and she knew about a great coffee shop on the blah, blah.  Well, once up in the coffee shop, a couple of “coffees” ended up with a bill of over 1500RMB! Crazy price, huh? 

Then I realized I was in a trap. The girl had a role to seduce man or whoever coming into coffee shop to spend money, then got her own commission by skyscrape price. She is a scam girl.  

I could protest but I really felt there was no alternative but to sign the charge slip and get out.  A couple of Chinese blocked me if I didn’t pay.

So what did I do next?

1. Get out as quick as possible

2. Go to police station

3. Through police, I got my money back.

If you got a trap, hope you will like me. Get courage to talk police about your experience. If not working out, see your consulate in Shanghai for help. Basically, Shanghai is a well-manged city for public safety.

Tags: Shanghai Scam

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