Anti-Scam
This post isn’t about some trick or strategy to avoid the minefield of scams you’re bound to face while traveling. Although that would be nice, I’ve found it isn’t really necessary here for the most part. Rather, this post is about the Chinese people. Moreover, their tendency—at least, in my limited experiences—to give you the honest best deals even in scenarios where they could so easily markup the price.
The obvious first thing that makes the culture here different to other parts of South East Asia—or Tanzania even, from by brief exposure to Africa—is that prices are generally just shown straight up. No guesswork. No bartering. No games. It really saves you a tremendous amount of stress and uncertainty, and reduces the friction to buying things significantly. Add that to the remarkable fact that even the smallest, most remote vendors take AliPay, and you can pretty much buy anything without saying a word, let alone negotiating. I’ll admit: finding an agreed price with a street seller can be fun, but the exercise can irritate after a while.
So, usually, the price is very obvious. Even when it isn’t though, and we ask, they really could say any reasonable number and we’d agree to it. After all, the language barrier is immense. But no, the same remarkable low price exists for us as for the locals, even if we’re completely oblivious.
DiDi, too, means you’re never getting into arguments with taxi drivers.
Today, I went to the outlet store to buy trail running shoes. I took the shoes up to the counter, satisfied I was already getting a great deal. The lady serving us tried explaining some promotional deal involving purchasing more items. I didn’t understand fully, and waved it off. But, despite the broken conversation, she insisted. Not for her sake, I soon realised. Purely for mine. She was recommending that I buy two of any other item and save a sizable amount on the shoes. Specifically though, she pulled out a calculator to show me the total transaction cost if I purchased two of the cheapest items that would qualify. I’d save $30, and get two pairs of free underwear? I was clearly planning on buying the shoes at full price regardless, plus the additional space taken up in my luggage wouldn’t be significant so it was a no-brainer.
Anyway, I just came away from this feeling the opposite of scammed. Helped, instead. Even though the profound cultural and language barriers sometimes blur the message, I’ve truly felt like the Chinese have usually had our best intentions in mind. Most of the time, I would’ve happily paid more than I have, blissfully unaware.
