You are walking along the street admiring the sights of Beijing and a cute Chinese girl pops out of no-where and asks, “Hello, where are you from?” and “I am a student, can I practice my English with you?”

If it is your first time to China, you are probably thinking, great, I just made a new friend who can show me around town. You might be thinking that you are the type of person that would never be fooled by a scam, but you are just entering the web of the infamous China ‘tea ceremony’ or ‘art exhibition’ scam.

While there is not much harm in chatting with these ’students’ they will eventually try to rope you into going to their ‘friends’ art gallery or tea house.

Be aware! They are good at what they do and are excellent manipulators. Most people will have trouble ignoring a friendly local who just wants to practice their English.

At the art gallery, they will then try to pressure you into buying an overpriced picture or painting. At the tea house, they will order the most expensive tea. When the bill arrives, your new friend will be long gone.

Perhaps you are convinced your new friend is not a scammer and you even go to Starbucks where you know the prices of the drinks (probably not much cheaper than the tea house, but that’s another story!). You could still be only delaying the inevitable. You may not get stung at the first place, but you will eventually at a bar or restaurant if you meet again in the evening, where your friend orders an expensive bottle of wine.

With over 500,000 foreigners visiting Beijing for the Olympics, you can be sure that the scammers will be out in full force while the games are on and you can be just as sure that there will be plenty of people who will fall for the scam.

How many people will be able to resist a young, cute smiling face who just wants to chat?