Tourist Scams in China: The Ones That Really Happen and How to Avoid Them

The short version

China is a safe country for visitors, and scams here are about money, not violence. Almost all of them follow a few patterns. Three habits block most of them:

1. You choose the place. Never follow someone you have just met to a tea house, bar, gallery or shop they picked.
2. Meter or app. In a taxi, the meter runs or you get out. Better, book through DiDi.
3. Official channels only. Buy tickets from the official site, app or ticket window, not from a helpful person outside.

For a wider view of crime, laws and health, see Is China safe for tourists?

How common are scams, really?

Most visitors never meet one. Many people who live in China for years report one or two attempts in total.

The attempts cluster in a small number of places where foreign tourists gather:

• Beijing: Wangfujing, Tiananmen Square and the streets around the Forbidden City, the airport taxi area.
• Shanghai: East Nanjing Road, the Bund, People’s Square, Yu Garden, Pudong Airport.
• Great Wall car parks and the roads leading to them.

Outside these areas, and in smaller cities, people who talk to you are usually curious or kind. Many travelers tell stories of strangers who helped them buy tickets, walked them to a station or paid for a meal. The skill is not to distrust everyone. It is to notice one specific moment: when a new acquaintance wants to take you somewhere.

Scams at a glance

The tea house and bar scam, step by step

This is the one that catches the most people, including careful travelers. It works because it feels like a nice travel moment.

How it unfolds

1. One or two people start a conversation. They are friendly, well dressed and speak good English. They may be women in their twenties, a couple, or women in their fifties. They ask where you are from and say they are visiting too, or want to practice English.
2. After a few minutes of easy chat, they suggest tea, coffee, a traditional tea ceremony, hotpot or a drink. They know a place nearby.
3. The place is upstairs, down a side street or inside a mall, and quiet. There is no price list, or you see one only briefly.
4. Things are ordered for the table: tea, snacks, a bottle.
5. The bill arrives: often RMB 1,000 to 5,000 or more. Your new friends pay “their half”, which goes back to them later. Staff may block the door or become aggressive.

The warning signs

• A stranger approaches you, in fluent English, in a tourist area.
• The conversation moves quickly to going somewhere.
• They insist on a specific place and resist your suggestion.
• The menu has no prices, or you are not shown one.

A rule many experienced travelers use: if someone you have just met proposes a venue, propose a different one yourself, such as a chain café on the main street. A genuine new friend will be happy with that. A scammer will lose interest.

The dating-app version

The same scam runs through Tinder, Bumble and similar apps. The match is keen to meet quickly, has a particular bar in mind, and orders expensive drinks. If a date will not meet anywhere but one venue, do not go.

Do not confuse this with ordinary dating customs. In China, the man often pays on a first date, and being expected to pay for dinner is not a scam. A bar that charges several hundred yuan for a beer is.

If you are already inside

• Ask for the menu with prices before anything is ordered. If there is none, leave.
• If the bill is abusive, say calmly that you will pay only for what you ordered at the listed price.
• Say you are calling the police, and dial 110. Travelers report that this often ends the pressure at once. These venues do not want the police.
• Do not hand over your card to be taken out of sight. Card fraud has been reported after these scams.
• Do not fight. In China, everyone involved in a physical fight can be detained.
• If you feel unsafe, pay by card or phone so there is a record, leave, and report it straight away.

Taxi scams

Taxis in China are cheap and mostly honest. The problems are concentrated at airports and railway stations.

The airport fixed price

You join the official taxi queue. Once your bags are in the car, the driver quotes a price, or shows a number on a phone. It is often two to four times the real fare.

What the fare should be, roughly:

Road tolls are added to the meter, and late-night rates are higher.

What to do

• Say “dǎ biǎo” (打表), which means “use the meter”. Many drivers give up the moment they see that you know the rule.
• Photograph the driver’s ID card on the dashboard, and the number plate.
• Ask for a printed receipt (fāpiào, 发票) at the end. It shows the taxi number. “The printer is broken” is a warning sign.
• If the driver refuses the meter before you leave, get out and take the next taxi.
• Check the DiDi estimate for the same trip before you land, so you know the right range. See DiDi in China.

Often the train is the better answer. Both Beijing airports and both Shanghai airports have fast rail links. Between Shanghai’s Pudong and Hongqiao airports, the airport link line takes about 40 minutes and costs a small fraction of a taxi. See Beijing airport to city center and Shanghai airport to city center.

Touts inside the terminal

Anyone who walks up to you in arrivals offering a taxi is not a licensed taxi driver. Licensed taxis wait at the rank outside. Keep walking.

Ride-hailing tricks

A driver may message or tell you to cancel the order and pay directly. Once you cancel, the app has no record of the trip or the price. Decline. Also check that the number plate matches the app before you get in.

Accidents and “compensation”

This is not a scam, but visitors often think it is. If you open a taxi door and hit a passing scooter, or are involved in a minor collision, the other person may ask for money on the spot. E-bikes pass very close to parked cars, so look behind you before opening a door. If something happens, do not negotiate alone. Call 122 for traffic police or 110, let the police record it, and contact your travel insurer.

Ticket, guide and tour scams

Fake ticket offices

At the Great Wall and other large sights, people wait where cars and buses stop. A friendly person says the ticket office is “just over there” and walks with you to a building that sells a tour, a private shuttle or a marked-up ticket. Sometimes your own driver delivers you to them.

• Book in advance on the official site. Mutianyu has official booking in English. See Great Wall tickets.
• Official ticket offices are inside the visitor center, with printed prices. Nobody needs to guide you to them.
• The Forbidden City sells no tickets at the gate at all, so anyone selling one outside is not official. See Forbidden City tickets.

“The sight is closed”

A stranger tells you the museum or palace is closed today and offers to take you somewhere else. Check the official website or walk to the entrance and see for yourself.

Shopping stops

A day tour priced far below the cost of the transport and tickets makes its money elsewhere. The day includes long stops at a jade factory, a silk shop, a tea house or a traditional medicine clinic, with practiced sales talks and pressure to buy.

• Read the itinerary and ask directly: “Are there any shopping stops?”
• Prefer tours that state “no shopping” in writing.
• You never have to buy. Wait outside if you wish.

If you want to buy tea, silk or jade, do it in a shop you choose. See what to buy in China.

Hiring a guide or driver

Most private guides and drivers are honest. Agree the total price, the hours and what is included in writing before the day, and check reviews from other travelers. A guide should never keep your passport. See do I need a tour guide in China?

Online and payment scams

• Fake arrival card websites. China’s arrival card is free. The National Immigration Administration has warned about look-alike websites that charge for it. Use only the official channels. See China arrival card.
• QR code stickers. Before you confirm a payment, read the payee name on your screen. If it is a person’s name at a business, ask.
• Requests for codes. Alipay and WeChat will ask for your passport and card details when you verify your account. That is normal. No real staff member will ever ask for an SMS code or your payment password by chat or phone.
• VPN and eSIM sellers. Buy from the provider’s own website or app before you travel, not from a stranger’s link or a social media message.

Things that feel like a scam but are not

First-time visitors often worry about these. They are normal.

What to do if you are scammed

1. Stay calm. Do not shout, push or block anyone. A physical fight can get both sides detained, whoever started it.
2. Collect evidence. Photograph the menu, the bill, the shop front, the street sign, the taxi’s number plate and the driver’s ID.
3. Before you pay, call 110. Say “police” and give your location. Operators may have limited English, so have the address on your map app ready to show or read out.
4. If you have paid, keep the record. A card or phone payment shows who received the money.
5. Report it.
   • 110 for the police, at the time or afterwards at the nearest station.
   • 12345, the government service hotline, for taxis, shops, tours and hotels. In Beijing it offers service in English and other languages. From a foreign SIM, dial +86 10 12345.
   • 12315 for consumer complaints about shops and services.
   • The app, for DiDi or a booking platform, with screenshots.
6. Contact your card issuer and ask about a chargeback if you paid by card.
7. Tell your hotel. Front desk staff can phone the hotline in Chinese for you, and often do.

Your embassy can advise you but cannot recover money.

Useful phrases

Travel without the worry

Scams are a small part of travel in China, and knowing the patterns is nearly all the protection you need. If you would rather skip the taxi queue and the ticket touts altogether, we can arrange an airport transfer with a fixed price agreed in advance, and attraction tickets booked through official channels. Or start with a free China trip plan.