Most foreigners feel very safe when traveling in Beijing. But that doesn’t mean foreigners don’t have any safety problems. While you are expecting your trip to Beijing, please note the top 10 tourist traps which may happen.
Scam #01: “Black” Taxis at Beijing Airport
When arriving at the airport, keep away from the taxi drivers who approach you in the terminal or outside the terminal as they will charge you much more than the actual price. Just following the sign pointing to the taxi line just outside the terminal. Taxi drivers should use their meter; make sure that the driver puts down the flag. Taking a taxi from the airport to the downtown Beijing costs just over RMB 100 plus RMB 10 toll fee. Beijing legitimate taxi license plates will begin with the “Beijing B” otherwise it is possibly a black taxi! After paying a legal taxi, you will get a legal computerized receipt in which you can find the taxi company’s phone number while a black driver only offers you a hand-written receipt with which you will never find him! A black driver would charge you RMB 400 – RMB 500 for the airport downtown drive!
Scam # 02: “Fake” Badaling Great Wall
Badaling Great Wall is one of the five popular sections of the Great Wall around Beijing. The other four are Juyongguan Great Wall, Mutianyu Great Wall, Jinshanling Great Wall and Simatai Great Wall. Badaling Great Wall is the most visited section of the Great Wall of China. Opened to the public in 1057, it is the most well-preserved section of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It has a spectacular view, firm, magnificent, well preserved and leading to the all directions, hence the name of “Badaling”. But along the Badaling Expressway between Juyongguan Great Wall and Badaling Great Wall is located another section of the Great Wall – Badaling Shuiguan Great Wall (Shuiguan or Water Pass Great Wall). The Shuiguan Great Wall is a short restored section which is created in an effort to reduce the tourist volume and overcrowding at Badaling Great Wall. It’s not the best choice for your first trip to the Great Wall in Beijing. Some of the “black” tour buses use “Badaling Shuiguan Great Wall” to replace Badaling Great Wall covertly since the former is much cheaper than the latter.
Scam # 03: “Fake” Ming Tombs
If you join a local group tour or bus tour visiting Badaling Great Wall, you are very often arranged to visit Ming Tombs on the way. When we say “visit Ming Tombs”, it is quite misleading. Actually there are 13 Ming Tombs, but only 3 of the 13 Ming Tombs are open to the public – Dingling (underground palace), Changling and Zhaoling. Of the three, only Dingling has been excavated with its underground palace open to the public. Zhaoling is not so worth visiting as Dingling and Changling. If it is your first time to visit Ming Tomsbs, you are advised to visit either Dingling or Changling. But it is a pity that some of the local tour travel agencies only organize day trips to Zhaoling in the name of ”Ming Tombs” instead of Dingling or Changling simply due to the fact that the entrance fee to Zhaoling is cheaper plus few tourists know the difference among the tombs.
Scam # 04: “Official volunteers” at Bus 919 to Badaling
The cheapest way of going to Badaling Great Wall is to take the Bus 919 at Deshengmen. To get to the Bus 919, you are advised to take the subway and get off at Jishuitan Stop. Then you walk all the way to Deshengmen, which is a whole block east of the Jishuitan Subway Exit A. There are about 5 lines of 919 in Beijing which lead to different places all throughout Beijing, a little bit confusing. So be sure to get the correct Bus 919 to Badaling. Kindly reminder: there will be allegedly “official tourist information volunteers” with red badges on, who will try to drive tourists to get on their minibuses with all sorts of excuses to lure you on. Just don’t go for it. Otherwise, you will be on a nightmare trip.
Scam # 05: “Black Tour Bus”
In Beijing, there are some illegal tour buses offering day tours to the Great Wall. You will have a terrible trip once you get on it. To promote their illegal tours, these sales people hand out business cards to passing-by travelers at some big destinations like Tiananmen Square, the entrance of Forbidden City…
Very often they use their “unbelievable low price” to attract those “blind” tourists. But once you come aboard their bus for the Great Wall, they have to make you pay additional fees again and again. You are kindly advised not to take their card if you happen to meet them. Most of the black tour buses don’t offer English speaking tour guide service. You are suggested to use the slightly more expensive yet reliable organized bus tours through your hotel, or local tour operators.
Scam # 06: “Black Tour Guide”
In China, to be a licensed tour guide, you must pass a national tour guide certificate examination sponsored by our China National Tourism Administation. In addition, to be a legal tour guide, you have to register at a travel agency. After your registration, you will get a tour guide IC card ( or tour guide offcial permit ) from the local tourism administration. Tour guides are requested to hang their IC card around their necks when they escort touists. Black tour guides have neither IC card nor travel plans from a travel agency. They touch the tourists directly by using some low-cost sales channels like web forums, online chatting, phone calls, direct encounter at some scenic areas. Some trendy black tour guides also make a simple travel website and contact the internet travellers directly! You are kindly advised not to use their services even though their service charges are much lower maybe. To put yourself in the hands of a black tour guide is dangerous!
Scam # 07: “Tea shop or tea ceremony”
At some heavy tourist areas, you will be approched by an attractive female or gentleman, who is willing to give you a free tour of hutong or chats with you in a polite way. She or he will talk about the interesting things in Beijing, or even talk about the culture or history of your home country. Then if everything goes smoothly, then invite you to a traditional Chinese teashop or ceremony. The whole ceremony proceed then at the end of the ceremony your “friends” will ask you to pick out some favorite teas. So the scam start when it comes time to pay the bill, and it can again run into the hundreds or thousands of dollars. Simply don’t go for it!
Scam # 08: “Art Student” Scam
Also at some big tourist destinations, some young people, disguised as ” art student’”, will approach you. They offer you a free tour of a art show. Thus begins the “Art Student” scam. Actually they will take you to an art shop selling all kinds of “art” stuff. This is just a waste of time. You can easily find these art pieces on the market. They sell the same “art” at higher prces. Simply say bye bye to them.
Scam # 09: Pickpockets
Pickpockets, like croaches, die hard. The thieves in Beijing are no exception like every large city in the world. The most endangered places are public bus lines, subways, airport, popular tourist spots and shopping centers as well. These crowded places are where pickpockets often cruise around. If things from you are stolen by thieves , or you have pickpocket clues, you are encouraged to call the anti-pickpocket hotline 110 or 64011327. If you find you are not in the good position to call the hotline in case you will be endangered, you are kindly reminded to send a text message to the anti-pickpoket hotline mobile – 13911991234. They will be on the spot within 20 minutes.
Scam # 10: Child Beggars
85% beggars in Beijing are professional beggars, only 15% are really poor men. In professional begging, using a child for panhandling is quite popular. It is said professional beggars are the members of a kind of beggars’organization, a large, complicated organism. Just avoid those child beggars. If you give money to child beggars, you may have the risk of getting a swarm of them
On Scam #6. I have been in contact with a Beijing guide who claimed that he/she has been a certified English-speaking tour guide by the Beijinig Tourism Administration, NOT the China Natinal Tourism Administration. Does each city certify its guide in addition to the national license? Does the City of Xi’an require its own certification?
Hello hklo,
Yes, each local tourism adminstration certifies its guide, but under the total guidance by China Tourism Administration. Actually Beijing Tourism Administration represents China Administration, same thing like Xian Tourism Administration.
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I want to quote your post in my blog. It can?
And you et an account on Twitter?
Hello Devolina,
Glad that you like it. Sure, you can quote my blog. Twistter is not available here. Sorry.
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Some readers just don’t get it, like my neighbor who couldn’t see the actual intention of this section on your post “… your life long trip to Beijing, you are kindly reminded of the top 10 tourist traps which are also
Very informative article… Looking forward for more articles on your blog
I got back from Beijing last night. On no less than two occasions I was approached by girls, speaking very good English, who wanted me to go drink tea with them so that they could practice their English.
I was in china last week and thanks to this web page, I did not get any scam! Many time girls and black taxi approached, but I remembered your advises. What I did not like about China was the environment…too much contamination..I got sick…. the pollution is too high. The washroom are too dirty! no soap, it is easy to get sick there….Now I have to detox my body..
I will bear these in mind when i go to beijing, thank you. However In scam 9 is it a typo when you say “if YOU are stolen call…” or do actual people get ‘stolen’ off the streets in Beijing regularly?
Hello Emily,
Thanks for your pointing out the sentence in Scam 9 which sounds a bit weird, a little misleading. I have a try to change as below:
If things from you are stolen by thieves, call the police at once
I got scammed by the tea scam last night. One young girl, pretending to be visiting an older friend in Beijing for New Year came up to me in front of the entrance to the forbidden city, introduced herself and her friend and said she liked to speak English. Then she suggested that we go for a drink together (coffee, juice… they never mentioned tea.) At the first junction past the big imposing gate, the older lady, suggested that we turned left and 50m or so further down the road she entered a narrow shopdoorway. It didn’t look like a cafe but it had lettering on the door saying ‘coffee, juice, tea, snacks.’ We go into the shop and are sent into a small private room at the back. Theres a traditional style tea table and lots of teas.
When the menu comes out, its all tea. The 2 girls both want to drink it… and, at 50 yuan, per person per cup its not cheap. I tell them that I think the tea is very, very expensive and that I dont have very much money (I reckon I have between 30-50 yuan in my purse) The younger girl says its OK, that she has some money left from her trip and wants a treat before she goes home. The older woman has already sat down and looks reluctant to move.
I agree to have one cup of jasmine tea and tell them again that I dont have much money. They order one each. When they ask me about the tea ceremony and I say no, they dont look too happy. The menu says the tea ceremony has an additional fee – it doesn’t say how much.
A couple of minutes later 3 teapots arrive. I drink my cup of jasmine tea. Before its empty, the younger girl refills it – with the wrong tea. She says sorry then says its OK, and that I should try all the teas. I say (again) I dont have much money.
2 plates full of cheap potoato chip like snacks arrive. The girls offfer me the snacks. When I say no, they start eating them. Since they’ve already eaten them and we have to pay for the plateful, I figure I should too.
The conversation dies out and a couple of minutes later the younger girl recieves a phone call telling her to go home. She suggests we settle the bill now as she doesn’t have much time left.
The bill arrives. 150 yuan per person per tea (total… 450 yuan) 100 yuan for each plate of snacks (200 yuan total) and 100 yuan for the tea room. Total cost 750 yuan for less than 15 minutes of tea drinking (1/2 cup of jasmine tea and 1/2 a cup of jasmine tea mixed with some bright pink stuff…)
They expect me to pay all the bill. When I tell them that I cannot the younger girl gets upset. Then the older lady suggested that the bill is split 1/2 and 1/2. (375 yuan for me, 375 for them) I tell them again, that I cannot. The younger girl gets angry calling me a liar and saying I have money somewhere and demanding to see my credit card (thankfully I left it in the hostel) I take out my purse and offer to show them the money I have… a couple of English pound coins and 37 yuan. I take away 3yuan for the subway and tell them they can have the rest. They guve me the Englsh coings back and the younger one becomes angrier saying ‘I show you memu.You say its OK.’ I repeat that I never said it was OK that I said it was expensive. She calls me a liar again and says she knows that I have money somewhere. I empty out my pockets, tisses, gloves and 3 1 yuan notes. She yells again and says that I wanted to take them to drink tea. I said that I never wanted the tea, that they suggested that we go for a drink and that I thought that we would be going to somewhere like Starbucks. Then she starts yelling that I dont even have enough for starbucks, Starbucks is 39 yuan. That I had cheated them and that I was being rude expecting them to pay for my drinks (I never expected them to pay… they were the ones who suggested it was ‘OK’ when I said that I couldn’t afford it.) I tell her that I dont know how much Starbucks coffee costs as I dont drink there.
I push my way past them and leave. They pull my bag (a small backpack) but let me go. Walking back towards Tianamen square I start to feel a bit guilty walking away… What if I hadn’t been scammed and the girl was spending her New Year saving on my stupdily expensive cup of tea etc ??? what if she really was upset etc ?? Then a couple of miutes later when I reached the junction with Tiamamen square and I saw the 2 women walking back towards the tea shop (they told me that they would go to Xidan station…) I knew that it was probably a con and felt quite glad that I hadn’t had enough to be able to pay.
For anyone who wants to taste Chinese tea / see the tea ceremony…
The kind of tea normal people drink in restraunts etc. never costs this much… Also, if you go to a tea shop in a Chinese town they will normally let you taste the tea for free before you buy it… When you taste it they will usually sit you down at a small table and pour the tea in front of you (so you can see the way they use the first pot of tea to warm up/wash the cups etc… what the scammer claim is a ‘tea ceremony’)
Also, if you go out with Chinese people, and they invite you to go with them, they rarely expect you to cover the whole bill.
Loads of Chinese people do want to practise their English and some of the people who say hi in places like Tianamen square aren’t scammers. They are who the scammers claim to be, students front small towns visiting Beijing and glad to see/be able to speak to a foreigner. They will talk to you without pushing you into taking them anywhere.
By staying in youth hostels, drinking in hostel bars etc you can meet lots of very friendly people who are very enthusiastic about learning/speaking English and talking to foriegners. They will suggest places you would enjoy travelling to, help you learn basic Mandarin, discuss English movies they like, tell you a bit about Chinese hostory, tell you about their upbrining and why they are travelling etc etc etc.. None of these people expect will you to buy them anything, even a cheap bottle of beer…
And if you meet someone around Tianamen or around the tourist spots who wants to practise their English and go for a drink, and you like them, are enjoying the conversation and want to buy them one, suggest they walk with you for a while… For a drink take them to a cheap milk tea/fruit juice shop, for a coke in somewhere like McDonalds or KFC or for coffee, tea in somewhere like Starbucks. If they really are a scammer they will make excuses as to why you should go to a teashop or they will soon get bored and want to be back on the streets looking for their next victim(s)