[Travel] Chinese Rickshaw Scams

I just got back to the US from a trip to Hong Kong and China and wanted to warn people thinking about going there about a potential scam.

BEWARE OF CHINESE RICKSHAW SCAMS! SHARE WITH ANYONE WHO IS PLANNING ON GOING TO BEIJING
Beijing has great history with many incredible sites but it also has tons of scams. One of the biggest is the rickshaw / Tuk Tuk scam that unfortunately I got hit with. For those who don't know a rickshaw (called Tuk Tuk in some places) is a small vehicle pulled by either a bike, or small three wheeled car or motorized tricycle. These are especially prevalent near the major tourist sites such as Tianmen Square, Forbidden City, and Temple of Heaven. Often drivers will advertize taking people to other tourist spots or to tour Hutongs (traditional neighborhoods). Many of these are scams and particularly avoid the open red ones pulled by motorized tricycles working around the Forbidden City!

Avoid them if you can and instead either walk or take official taxis (in Beijing they are yellow, brown and green). Here is the way the scam works. They quote you one price and then they take you someplace off the beaten path where they will then say the price is different, several times the original price, they will then keep you there until you pay.

In my case on the last day I was there I was pressed for time and really wanted to go see the National Museum. I needed to get from where I was staying just north of the Forbidden city to the Museum just east of Tiananment, about a 20 minute walk. Since I was pressed for time I took one of these. I asked for the price in advance and it was cheap, which I though was due to that it wasn;t that far. The driver had me switch to a different rickshaw about a block away saying that guy was the fastest driver. He headed in the right direction so wasn't too suspicious near Tiananmen though he turned into a Hutong and then stopped at an alley with a gate at the far end. I knew at that point that I was being scammed. He said the price was a hundred times what was originally quoted and produced a card in english listing the high price, a card that had never been shown earlier. There were a couple of other guys waiting at the alley who said the high price was the right price. I told them I didn't have that much money and they had tricked me but being outnumbered, in their neighborhood in a foreign country there wasn't much choice. I ended up paying them and they let me go. I was only a couple of minutes walk from the museum but this clearly an organized scam that these guys have pulled off before and will again.

There's pretty much nothing I can do about this since the Beijing police will do nothing petty crimes like this and might even take the side of the scammers. At least I can get the word out so hopefully others won't get taken in and also deprive these guys the opportunity to scam other visitors.

 

Yeah it was partly my fault and would not have taken one if not in such a hurry. My mom had taken one of the closed three wheelers a few days earlier and hadn't been scammed so that had let my guard down. I should've been suspicious right away when the initial agreed upon price was low. In most cases like these and with black cabs they start with a high price and then negotiate down. Once the guy started with a low price I should've been suspicious. I'm a frequent traveler and besides this the only time I've been shaken down is by Indonesian police. I'm frankly embarrassed by this but at least others can learn from my example.