It seems like people here will try anything to scam westerners into spending money.  One popular mechanism is what’s called a tea party.  I had heard about these from other foreigners here; until today I had never witnessed one.

Jim and I escaped work for a few minutes while the building was evacuated for a fire drill.  We went to the local park and played some hacky sack.  Two locals approached us and asked to play, one spoke English and the other didn’t.  We played hacky for a while and had a blast.  But then it hit us, like a tree branch hits a snowboarder.  They asked us to go to tea.  We weezled our way out of it for reasons described below:

Often young locals will be very friendly with young foreigners.  Sometimes this is honest.  However, in the tea party case, the locals will say that they’re students or foreigners, etc.  They’re very good at not letting you suspect anything, so most foreigners go with them to get traditional tea.  Upon arriving, you will be presented with a menu.  You’ll order a few teas, and the bill will be astronomical given the quantity of tea you drank.  We’re talking 250 Yuan (~$35) or so for a few small cups.

Close call, but we survived.