When traveling abroad there are two kind of getting lost: There's the fun kind of wandering the streets in a foreign city, no idea whats around the next corner and what you'll stumble upon next. Then there's taking the wrong bus and finding yourself on the side of a street in the middle of nowhere in inner mongolia, with no idea how to get back to civilization. That kind is less fun. My first couple of days in Beijing had a few set backs, to say the least.
There's an odd feeling of being fully aware of a scam, watching the scam develop, and then falling for it anyways. In Beijing, any where you go you are harassed by people who see you are a western tourist, and want your money. On several points on the way to and through the forbidden city, I was asked to check out "student" artwork and then pressured to buy an overpriced piece of art. I became pretty good of politely turning them down. Next were the numerous people who would come up and say I need a tour guide for the forbidden city, and that I'd waste my time and get lost if I didn't; but once again I sternly told them no.
After seeing everything I had planed to see for the day, I was tired of walking and ready to return back to the hostel, but it was a pretty long walk back. A rickshaw driver offered me a tour of the famous hutongs or alleyways of Beijing. I refused, he lowered his price, I refused, he lowered it further; then I figured whatever, it might be a nice experience and a good break from walking, so I offer him an even lower price and he agrees. He takes me a pretty mediocre tour and then stops at a tea shop. This is what I was anticipating. It’s a common scam on tours for them to drop you off at a buddies shop, and pressure you to buy some overpriced item there, it’s a scam I’ve witnessed on the other side of the world in the Dominican Republic, so I was ready for this. However, as he forces several cups of tea down my throat, he offers me this one tea that actually really interested me, so I figure I’ll buy a couple and appease him. He proceeds to pour me a huge bag of the tea and wants ¥200 for it, and then attempts to up sell me to another bag of a different tea on top of that. I tell him I only want half, but he refuses. After a few failed attempts to get him to lower it, I foolishly agree to the full amount anyways. I get back on the rickshaw, a bit upset and the driver takes me maybe a block and says the rides over. I don’t have exact change for the amount me agreed on, and once the driver refused to give me the change upfront, he attempts to shortchange me ¥10. I tell him the price we agreed on, but he refuses. I press him further, and he throws a ¥5 at me. I cut my losses and move on for the long walk back to the hostel.
Halfway back on my return walk to the hostel, another rickshaw driver pulls up and offers me a ride to Tiananmen Square for ¥3. Sounded pretty cheap, but it wasn’t all that far. I agree, figuring it’d be a nice break. I hope on and he starts biking a ways, but then the driver switches with another driver and he takes off with me down some back alleys. I start to realize this might not end well. After a ways down these back streets, he stops and points at an alleyway and says Tiananmen Square is right around that corner. I thank him and hand him the ¥3, hoping there’s not going to be any issue. He says, no, and pulls out a card saying ¥300. I laugh at the ridiculous price, now aware how big of a scam I just fell into, I could have gotten a taxi all the way back for less then that. I tell him I don’t even have that much money on me, and even show him my decoy wallet that has less then ¥100 in it. He says we’ll go to an ATM, I flat out refuse that. He’s not very happy, but he grabs the majority of my cash from my wallet and I leave, feeling incredible stupid for the scam I just fell for. Fed up with this, I hurriedly walk back to the hostel, as fast as I can, blowing past all the others trying to sell me overpriced souvenirs. I spend the rest of the evening in the hostel, incredible discouraged at my own nativity so far on this trip. I’m a pretty skeptical person and knew not to trust anyone, yet I had already fallen for two scams in a row. I attempted to cheer myself up with the fact that this was a lesson I was going to need to learn at some point, and it was a fairly cheap price to pay for it.
For the next few days things seemed to go soothly again, until it was time to get back from The Great Wall. Upon returning to the station, I discovered that the train back the wall wouldn't be leaving for 2 hours, so I decided to take the bus which runs regularly back from the wall and would get me back before the train would even leave. So I walk over to the bus stop, watching two buses leave as I go and then wait over 15 minutes for the next bus. It finally arrives and me and a bunch of other tourist get on board. As I find my seat, I notice some of them getting off. Not sure why, so I double check it, and it's the right bus, so I figure I should be good. After riding for a while, I check the GPS on my phone and realize the bus is going the wrong way, I'm heading north to Mongolia.
So I get off right away at the next stop, but find myself on the side of a street in the middle of nowhere. I can't tell where the bus stop sign is for the other direction to get back, and I have no idea how long it'll be till the next bus going the opposite direction would be. A guy up the street a ways comes running and waving towards me, pointing at his car. He speaks almost no English and I'm barely able to understand that he's offering to drive me. I ask how much to bring me back to Beijing. He motions that it's very far and says ¥800. Way to much, considering I paid ¥5 to get there in the first place. I ask how much to just bring me back to train station, he says ¥200. Still an extravagant price for the short distance, but I have little choice, and don't want to get stranded out here, so I reluctantly agree and make it back to the train station with over an hour to spare.
Once again, I lay low at the hostel for the next day, downtrodden from my failures, and ready to just get out of this town and move on. Taking it easy, I plan out my trip to the train station and give myself just enough time to stop and get a quick lunch. With just enough time to feel safe and not be cutting it too close, I arrive at the train station and attempt to enter. I show them my ticket, but they stop me. The guard speaks no English and calls someone on the radio. I stand, confused as to what the issue is until eventually the other person comes over who speaks at least a very little English. She attempts to explain that I’m at the wrong station and I won’t make it to the correct station in time for the train. Apparently I wanted the west station, not the north; or as my ticket called it “西” not “北”.
I knew train tickets were nonrefundable, and being as it’s right before the Spring Festival, the largest human migration in the world, it would be highly unlikely to catch another train that same day. In the end I was able to get a fairly cheap flight out from Xi’an to Beijing that night, and besides the extra wasted money on the train ticket, everything worked out.
Somedays it seems like trying to travel in a foreign country where I speak none of their language might not have been the best plan.
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