After Russia and especially Mongolia the train station in Beijing felt so huge but empty. Coming out of it I found the crowd on the square in front of it. Getting around it I decided to walk instead of taking the subway to my accommodation. On the way there I passed a few sights.
One of them was the Tiananmen square ‘just’ around the corner of the hostel. Every morning and evening they pull the flag up or take it back down which is quite a ceremony. The whole square will be occupied by thousands of Chines.
A roommate and me wanted to visit the forbidden city that afternoon. Unfortunately, we were late. While we were standing in front of the closed entrance and discussing about whats next we got approached by a Chines girl. She offered us to walk a bit and finally to go to a tea house. Not knowing whats happening we followed and went to a nearby place. A coca cola for 30 yuan and tea for 300 yuan. Shall be normal she said. With some common sense we refused the tea and went with coca instead. Finally we also had to pay for 50 yuan service charge. Since we didn’t take any tea she paid for it. Few days later I remembered that the staff pointed out to read something on the white wall. It was about the tea house scam!