Getting robbed is one of my favorite memories

Katrina Cobb
Sep 9, 2018 · 4 min read

Seriously.

Picture this.

2 American mid-20s grad students on the loose in Shanghai. One tall, lean, fair and blonde. One shorter, brunette and with an average, bordering on fluffy, figure. Both women suffer from the malady of resting bitch face. And yet, when sitting on a park bench poring over a map on a rare blessedly smog-free afternoon, we may as well have a beacon flashing neon lights overhead that we are ripe for the plucking, RBF be damned.

A cheerful young Chinese duo wearing backpacks, looking like they just left high school for the day, approach and offer to help. In the ensuing conversation, we are enlightened to learn that our timing in Shanghai is very fortunate and coincides with a tea festival.

Fortuitous, no? (If you can already see where this is going, you are two steps ahead of where we were on that day)

After cheerful inquiries, the duo offers to lead us to a nearby tea house which is participating in the festival and would allow us to participate in a traditional Chinese tea ceremony.

Delighted to have a peek into this tradition, we agreeably follow their lead.

We’re led to a tiny little tea shop off the beaten path, up the stairs to the second level of a strip mall, and shown to a small room with a tidy low table and patterned cushions around to sit. A hostess in a lovely Cheongsam traditional dress greets us and explains the ceremony. Our two new friends join us around the table.

Similar ceremony Photo by 五玄土 ORIENTO 王杉 on Unsplash

We are treated to a little history of the ceremony, and in the course of the next hour or so, we sample 5 different types of teas -green teas, black teas, flower teas. We learn of the teas’ origins, and are taught to sense out the different flavor notes between varietals of green and black tea. We marvel watching our flower tea bloom in front of us in its special clear teapot.

We learn the proper way to hold our cup and the etiquette of traditional tea ceremony. In between samplings, our new friends teach us a few word in Chinese and ask us about our travels.

It’s a pleasant and enjoyable afternoon, more so because we didn’t have anything specific planned for the day and we’ve been traveling alone for 2 weeks already.

As the tea ceremony comes to its conclusion, the predictable offer to purchase any of the teas we sampled or even a traditional teacup arrives. Everyone is happy to make a purchase, including our new friends. We didn’t spend much by American standards, each purchasing two or three of our favorite blends to take home or as gifts for our family, in nice tins decorated with Chinese artwork.

We take a photo with our new friends, write down all our new words in our sketchbooks, and carry on with the rest of our evening before heading back to our hotel, very pleased with our good fortune, our lovely insight into Chinese culture, and our souvenirs.


As it happens, we are traveling for 6 weeks together, so we do have some travel guidebooks that we reference in the evenings as we make plans for the next portion of our journey.

This evening, we happen to come across an entry warning of the classic Tea Ceremony Scam. (apparently it’s so well known it has its own section in the travel guide books…)

I kid you not, it was just after our wonderful day that we turned the page and were faced with a description nearly identical to our experience.

At this moment, upon reflection, we recall that our new friends left the room to make their purchases. The pieces of the day’s events come together in rewind and highlight both our nievete and our blind agreeableness. It occurs to us we haven’t yet shopped for tea and don’t have a frame of reference to what pricing is standard.

Over the next few days it becomes clear we paid somewhere between 5 and 8x the retail value of our purchased goods.

Yes, I paid around $100 for maybe $15–20 worth of tea.


I suppose I could be angry, I could be jaded, I could allow this experience to make me skeptical of experiences beyond my own borders, but honestly, what I feel is anything but anger.

I laughed heartily when I discovered the truth.

I shook my head in knowing disbelief and even felt a bit of admiration for those kids at how well they played their game.

I smiled thinking I’ve now got a story worthy of a travel guide book.

I giggled a bit at how two very intelligent and generally travel savvy women got caught so off guard.

And I rolled my eyes at the irony of reading that page in the guidebook a day too late.

But mostly, the smile prevails. We really did have a lovely afternoon, and I would have probably paid to experience that tea ceremony if it had been offered up front.

So I got robbed, but in the most delightful, tasty and informative way. If you’re going to get swindled, you might as well get swindled in style.

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Katrina Cobb

Written by

Trying out this digital nomad thing. Writing about travel, life, business, and this grand adventure.

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