I would like to share a story about my experience in Shanghai between February 27, 2011 and March 4, 2011. During the course of the week, Shanghai went from intriguing to very annoying in just only five days. I'll save the other two stories for another blog post, but I will tell you the weirdest story first. While visiting Nanjing Road at night, you can see various stores, movie theaters, and restaurants that are lit up at night with various colored lights. It's quite the scene. And because of that, many tourists flock there to take pictures and to capture all of the photographic eye candy. Unfortunately, it also attracts scammers of all sorts because they know that's where many tourists will be.
While I was walking from West Nanjing Road to East Nanjing alone at night, a total of about 17 different people approached me in less than an hour. This is not an exaggeration. A few people were guys that were trying to lure me in get a "massage" somewhere. The flyer they showed to me seemed to imply that the massages were sexual in nature and I moved along rather quickly.
But here's the weirdest part. Of those 17 people that approached me, 14 of them were women asking if I could have a drink with them. I was on guard and very careful because on my first day, I got sucked into the notorious Tea Ceremony Scam, which I will share in my next post. Because I was so careful, I even rejected a very beautiful woman who supposedly just wanted to get to know me and have a drink. I was an average looking guy and out of the blue this gorgeous woman approaches me. It was so suspicious it was hilarious. Even on a couple occasions two women approached me at the same time and asked if I wanted to have a drink with them.
However, the curiosity was starting to get to me. The last girl to approach me seemed to be your cute, but somewhat average looking Chinese girl. She asked me if I wanted to go to a cafe and have a drink with her. I asked her, "Who's going to pay for it?" She replied, "You can pay for your drink and I can pay for mine. I just want to practice my English." Thinking that she seemed normal, I accepted the offer and we headed to a cafe. As we get there, we sit down. We both look at the menu, the server takes our orders. I order a cafe mocha and she orders something, but she ordered in Chinese. I ask her what she ordered. She tells me that she ordered coffee and juice. Then a red flag pops up in my head. I thought to myself, "Who orders two drinks at the same time?" I ask her "Who's going to pay for it?" She says "I thought we could share." Immediately, I get the impression that she was going to make me pay for her drinks and I rush over to the server to cancel the order. The girl asks me "What's wrong?" I say "You said you were going to pay for your drink and I would pay for mine?" She responds, "Well it's just one drink." (another lie). I retort, "No. You ordered two drinks." Then she didn't know what to say except "Sorry." Then I say "Me too. This could have been a nice experience but I need to go." And that was that. I heard about "Shanghai girls" and I experienced it firsthand.
Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)
Instagram: l.a.seoulguy
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