Beware these tourist traps in China

vf84tcat (US)

I am an American. Several years ago I was returning from a work trip in Thailand and decided to stop in Beijing for a few days before going on to Washington. I had never seen the Great Wall and wanted to have that experience.

The tour was great. But afterwards the tour guide insisted on taking me to a small pottery plant. There a lady took me on another tour showing how craftsmen made hand-painted copper pottery. She then took me to the show room to see which item I wanted to buy. I hadn’t planned to buy anything. She applied some gentle but distinct pressure to buy “something”. Wanting to look like a respectful American I said what the heck and selected a small copper vase. It turned out to be about 5,400 yuan ($800). I later discovered this to be a massive rip-off that was basically designed for Westerners. They would never attempt to charge Chinese or other Asian countries this much.