Beware! Top 10 Tourist Spot Scam In China
Recently in Chinese New Year holiday season, a bunch of tourists visited Hainan island in Southern China
and got rip-off badly, particular on dinning which simple 6-8 courses dinner cost up to $8000 RMB
(roughly about USD$1230), crazy hotel room rate cost $10000 RMB (about USD$ 1530) per night, not to
mentioned crappy souvenirs which worth pennies sell for $10 to $100 USD.
Below are some reported top 10 rip-off tourist spot in China and ways of scam to trap you in to pay a
high price to something which you are not plan. Check it out.
1. Jiu Zhai Gou in Shi Chuan
a. Remember to check the natural park entrance fee for Jiu Zhai Guo and Huang Loong in the
official website online, since sometimes if you are not aware and bought the ticket at
entrance site you might end up buying 2x-3x higher entrance ticket that you are not
supposed to pay.
b. The photo taking with riding on a hairy bull or horse usually cost only $10 RMB, but be
careful many people got rip-off after taking the photo the bull owner wanted USD$10 from
you. So remember to make clarification and negotiate with the photo shooting price before
jump onto the bull or horse.
c. Not to advice to buy beef jerky on tourist spot or dedicated souvenirs center near tourist
spot, since these are the places will definitely slaughter you with high price. Example a 500
gram of beef jerky only cost $30 RMB, but in the tourist spots it can be as high as $100 RMB
for 500 gram. So the advice is to get it at airport or town area.
2. Er Mei Mountain in Shi Chuan
Watch up for the chopsticks cost and sample Buddha souvenirs, it is really sky rocket high price,
especially the chopstick, it goes exponentially according to the numbers of people and wishes
you wanted to ask for, it can goes from $50 RMB to $2000 RMB.
3. Potala Palace in Tibet
There is a visitor quota for visiting Potala Palace per day, most of the time the ticket is booked
out or sold out by local ticket operators, then they try to resell it for a higher rip-off price,
usually is 3x-5x more expensive. So it is advice to buy the ticket through hotel travel agency,
even though you might need to pay some service charges, but it is more worth then buying from
the local operator.
Beware of taxi driver; they are true scam in Tibet by running on an hike agreement price and not
by meter. The offer price usually is 2x-3x higher than the reasonable price.
4. Turpan Grape Valley
Turpan is famous of grapes, but it is extremely expensive to buy locally. The rip-off price can be
as high as $100 RMB more than what you can get in Urumuqi with the same amount, quality
and features or effects that they try to sell at high price in Turpan’s grape valley village
sightseeing spots.
5. Xi An
Many visitors are attracted by the terracotta warriors and horses artifacts in Xi An. Many seller
claims the terracotta they sell is genuine using the soil from the tomb, or is real artifacts. Beware
with this so called real artifacts tag with a blue sky price, they are just merely some clay doll you
get anywhere in the world with a friction of the quoted price.
6. Yunnan Da Li
Yunnan is famous of producing natural high quality jade, but the only high grade jade is for
export and only small portion is sell locally. So always keep alert if someone wanted to sell you
expensive high quality jade, beware this could just another piece of fake jade which doesn’t cost
a penny.
7. Yang Shou
In Yang Shou there are tons of foreigners bar operated by local folks along the river bangs,
hence single guy or group of guys backpackers that have planning to have some fun in Yang
Shou need to be extremely alert. One, the beverages or alcohol sold there sometimes is not
genuine, especially specially mixed cocktail, the cost is maybe just less than a USD$1, but they
marked up the price to $200 RMB, plus if the drink is serve by a pretty waitress they will charge
some extra service fee on top too. Also not over hangout or too close with waitresses there, as
you might end up paying some untold services fee.
8. Tai Mountain
Beware of many local operator hostels at the bottom of Tai mountain, they are “black shop”
which always looking to rip-off foreign travellers. If you are not happy with their services and
charges, some of them which are really bad tempered might just beat you up.
9. Sanya Hainan
Like mentioned earlier, Hainan Sanya is a notorious tourist rip-off place from taxi driver, hotel,
souvenirs, and entrance fees to dinning.
10. Shao Lin Temple
Even through tourist flock to Shao Lin temple is because of its martial art specialty, but there are
tourists going there to pray too. It is pretty common to have high price chopsticks scam in
mostly tourist spot temples, Shao Lin temple is also the same. Just need to be aware if you
wanted to burn some chopsticks in the temple, make sure you ask for the price before burning
any.
Such brutal rip-off cases are pretty common in China, especially in tourist spots. So you have to be
extremely cautious and alert while travelling in China.