|
Sick stuff, it really sucks ofc.. still feels like -$1600 is like hitting the jackpot in that kind of situation could have been way way worse, hope your alright and the bank is able to stop the transaction!
|
People saying it isn't worth a thread.. shut up please and show some sympathy for a fellow human being, and a fellow member of the community. Just because you're anonymous on here doesn't give you the right to be a massive dick.
I'm about to travel around Asia for 6months+, so not only has this served as a stroke of fortune for Mr Bitter in losing out on some money instead of a limb, it has served as a travel warning for me too.
Hope to see you casting soon. Don't feel bad about not running or fighting, I would've done exactly the same. This thread literally equates too ($1600 < your life). GGWP
|
Glad you're okay Mr Bitter. Money loss is far better than the loss of health and your life. Hope the rest in of your time in Shanghai is an enjoyable one and something positive comes out of the investigation.
|
On November 16 2012 23:31 Cosmos wrote:I aggree so much with you, it doesn't deserve a thread at all. Could be in blog section if he REALLY wants people to know about that.
I disagree, im glad it got posted.
even if i didnt care about mr bitter (which i do) theres a good lesson to be learned from this by everyone.
|
Funny hair guy asks me what the limit on my card is.
I'm like "well fuck."
I tell him $300 US. Because it is. I have a $300 daily withdrawal limit on my checking account. This is very deliberate. I like to play poker, and I'm bad at stopping myself, so I had my bank limit me to $300 per day. lol. Embarrassing but true.
The only thing I didn't understand from this story is this. How did he withdraw 1600 despite claiming 300 is the limit?
Edit: People should always try to avoid drinking more than a bottle of beer or 100 ml (0.1L) glass of vodka (or other type of alcohol) in a foreign country unless you've lived in that country long enough so you know it well. E.g. I've lived in England more than 6 months, so I allow myself to get drunk from time to time.
|
On November 17 2012 01:06 wraggy1234 wrote:
I'm about to travel around Asia for 6months+, so not only has this served as a stroke of fortune for Mr Bitter in losing out on some money instead of a limb, it has served as a travel warning for me too.
The thing is this can happen anywhere. It doesn't matter if its Dallas, Amsterdam, Shanghai, Paris, etc. Street smarts can only get you so far. That's why it's best to go around town in a group and to avoid certain things.
|
Seriously Mrbitter? :o
I mean some random guy says come with me and you just go there knowing pretty much 100% that it won't end well?
I hope you was just too drunk to think, because if not then it's crazy..
|
On November 16 2012 23:30 droken wrote:Bitter, I thought your parents told you never to get into cars with strangers 
Yea man, it could have been the car from Mystic River.
|
On November 17 2012 00:43 allen_ami wrote:Show nested quote +On November 17 2012 00:28 StarcraftMan wrote:
Hi, as somebody who lived in Shanghai, I'm going to give a word of advice to foreigners who go there.
First and foremost, relative to the other Chinese cities in China, Shanghai is probably one of the most safest cities in China. However, there are a lot of migrant workers in Shanghai and more often than not, it's the migrant workers that cause problems because they may not be able to find a job in Shanghai so they resort to other things, and a minority of them may resort to illegal activities.
The reason why Shanghai is safer than other cities in China is because it is a model of development for China so the government usually cracks down harder on Shanghai (ie; there are very few brothels in Shanghai compared to other Chinese cities). On average, the police in Shanghai is also less corrupt than the police in other Chinese cities. However, there is corruption everywhere in China so don't think for a second that the Shanghai police is not corrupt.
Now this is common sense when travelling in a foreign country but unfortunately, Mr. Bitter had to experience this the hard way: when you are travelling in a foreign country, you must always be extra vigilant and more cautious than when you're at home. If you suspect something is not going right, be ready to exit the situation as quickly and as peacefully as possible without offending the people you are dealing with.. This applies everywhere you travel, especially in developing countries. If Mr. Bitter had followed this rule, he would have left the cab the moment the stranger got in the cab with him.
As for violence towards foreigners in China, rest assured, the penalty is 10x more severe for the local offender if he/she is caught. The Chinese government does not tolerate any violence against foreigners, especially in Shanghai, for good reason - the Chinese government wants to keep the news free of any incidents where a foreigner is harmed in Shanghai, which is supposed to be their model city. If Mr. Bitter was severely harmed, and being an American, it made the news in the US, it would really hurt Shanghai's reputation. For that reason, I highly doubt these thugs would have had the guts to kidnap Mr. Bitter either - they simply make the threat but there is no way they would go further with their threats.
Still, if you are outnumbered, it makes no sense to fight back, especially if they just want to rob you of a few thousand dollars. You could be severely hurt if they gang up on you and/or they have weapons and the few thousands dollars you lose would be chump change compared to permanent life long injuries (or even your own life).
Overall, I would say Shanghai is quite safe to travel to compared to cities in other developing countries provided you stay vigilant and cautious. Yes, there is an obscene amount of petty crime in Shanghai day in and day out - always watch your belongings and be careful of con artists. However, the severity of crime usually does not exceed the typical petty crime or con artist situation - it rarely, rarely, goes to violent crime. Contrary to what Mr. Bitter is saying, it is quite safe to travel alone in Shanghai - just be a bit cautious and careful in the more remote areas. By far, I would rank Shanghai safer than say, New York, LA, etc.
Now what I said applies to Shanghai only. It does not apply to other Chinese cities, where the cops and gangsters are probably one and the same. I wish Mr. Bitter the best of luck and hopefully he gets to experience the better side of Shanghai rather than this ugly side.
And yes, Mr. Bitter, you should report this to the police. Unlike the police in LA or New York, I guarantee you the Shanghai police will take this very seriously and they will try to stop it, because it is bad PR for Shanghai if it gets onto the news.
As a Shanghainese myself, gotta agree with this guy.
It depends on a matter of perspective. I think foreigners that don't speak Chinese are targets for stuff like this in Shanghai. If it was me, I just would have yelled at the guy 滾開！ 我不知道你，你到底幹什麼來這裡？ But, in Mr. Bitter's perspective, I can relate, as for the first few months I was in China, I could not speak Mandarin.
I think there are many beautiful places and nice people in China, but bigger cities like Shanghai and China are full of people that like to take advantage of what looks like your average laowai on a tour. But, assuming everything Mr Bitter said was true, this was a rather aggressive thing that the guy who took him to the "whorehouse" did.
Here's what I think went down.
Mr. Bitter went in to the bar, some random guy starts chit-chatting with him in English and discovers that bitter doesn't speak Chinese. This is what we'll call the "contact". The contact then relays the info to the escort, the guy who was in the taxi with the driver and Mr Bitter. The escort explains the situation to the taxi driver, and Bitter is powerless to communicate with the driver as he does not speak Chinese nor does the driver apparently speak English.
I've heard of stories where beautiful girls take advantage of foreigners like so.
"Can you help us practice our English? We want to go to a teahouse nearby."
"Sure, why not?"
They go to the teahouse and chit chat about whatever, then when they're finished (no matter how shabby or expensive the place looks), over the course of an hour and a few simple cups of what appears to be nothing more than simple or low-grade tea, the bill comes and it appears to be 4 or 5 thousand RMB. And the muscular guy at the door won't let you leave without paying.
I've even heard of foreigners having everything they owned in their apartments stolen from them (but to be quite frank, the foreigners I've heard of that had this happen to them really deserved it, in my opinion.)
What is all this talk of foreigners? We, the foreigners, are in every high-budget film that is produced in the People's Republic of China as villains (unless your name is Dashan or BenJieMing or Daniu). If you've seen Jet Li's Fearless (霍元甲), then you've seen the summary of just about every high-budget film that comes out every year in China.
|
Haha this shit happens all the time in my country.
Be careful next time, bud.
|
On November 17 2012 01:26 Enders116 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 17 2012 00:43 allen_ami wrote:On November 17 2012 00:28 StarcraftMan wrote:
Hi, as somebody who lived in Shanghai, I'm going to give a word of advice to foreigners who go there.
First and foremost, relative to the other Chinese cities in China, Shanghai is probably one of the most safest cities in China. However, there are a lot of migrant workers in Shanghai and more often than not, it's the migrant workers that cause problems because they may not be able to find a job in Shanghai so they resort to other things, and a minority of them may resort to illegal activities.
The reason why Shanghai is safer than other cities in China is because it is a model of development for China so the government usually cracks down harder on Shanghai (ie; there are very few brothels in Shanghai compared to other Chinese cities). On average, the police in Shanghai is also less corrupt than the police in other Chinese cities. However, there is corruption everywhere in China so don't think for a second that the Shanghai police is not corrupt.
Now this is common sense when travelling in a foreign country but unfortunately, Mr. Bitter had to experience this the hard way: when you are travelling in a foreign country, you must always be extra vigilant and more cautious than when you're at home. If you suspect something is not going right, be ready to exit the situation as quickly and as peacefully as possible without offending the people you are dealing with.. This applies everywhere you travel, especially in developing countries. If Mr. Bitter had followed this rule, he would have left the cab the moment the stranger got in the cab with him.
As for violence towards foreigners in China, rest assured, the penalty is 10x more severe for the local offender if he/she is caught. The Chinese government does not tolerate any violence against foreigners, especially in Shanghai, for good reason - the Chinese government wants to keep the news free of any incidents where a foreigner is harmed in Shanghai, which is supposed to be their model city. If Mr. Bitter was severely harmed, and being an American, it made the news in the US, it would really hurt Shanghai's reputation. For that reason, I highly doubt these thugs would have had the guts to kidnap Mr. Bitter either - they simply make the threat but there is no way they would go further with their threats.
Still, if you are outnumbered, it makes no sense to fight back, especially if they just want to rob you of a few thousand dollars. You could be severely hurt if they gang up on you and/or they have weapons and the few thousands dollars you lose would be chump change compared to permanent life long injuries (or even your own life).
Overall, I would say Shanghai is quite safe to travel to compared to cities in other developing countries provided you stay vigilant and cautious. Yes, there is an obscene amount of petty crime in Shanghai day in and day out - always watch your belongings and be careful of con artists. However, the severity of crime usually does not exceed the typical petty crime or con artist situation - it rarely, rarely, goes to violent crime. Contrary to what Mr. Bitter is saying, it is quite safe to travel alone in Shanghai - just be a bit cautious and careful in the more remote areas. By far, I would rank Shanghai safer than say, New York, LA, etc.
Now what I said applies to Shanghai only. It does not apply to other Chinese cities, where the cops and gangsters are probably one and the same. I wish Mr. Bitter the best of luck and hopefully he gets to experience the better side of Shanghai rather than this ugly side.
And yes, Mr. Bitter, you should report this to the police. Unlike the police in LA or New York, I guarantee you the Shanghai police will take this very seriously and they will try to stop it, because it is bad PR for Shanghai if it gets onto the news.
As a Shanghainese myself, gotta agree with this guy. It depends on a matter of perspective. I think foreigners that don't speak Chinese are targets for stuff like this in Shanghai. If it was me, I just would have yelled at the guy 滾開！ 我不知道你，你到底幹什麼來這裡？ But, in Mr. Bitter's perspective, I can relate, as for the first few months I was in China, I could not speak Mandarin. I think there are many beautiful places and nice people in China, but bigger cities like Shanghai and China are full of people that like to take advantage of what looks like your average laowai on a tour. But, assuming everything Mr Bitter said was true, this was a rather aggressive thing that the guy who took him to the "whorehouse" did. Here's what I think went down. Mr. Bitter went in to the bar, some random guy starts chit-chatting with him in English and discovers that bitter doesn't speak Chinese. This is what we'll call the "contact". The contact then relays the info to the escort, the guy who was in the taxi with the driver and Mr Bitter. The escort explains the situation to the taxi driver, and Bitter is powerless to communicate with the driver as he does not speak Chinese nor does the driver apparently speak English. I've heard of stories where beautiful girls take advantage of foreigners like so. "Can you help us practice our English? We want to go to a teahouse nearby." "Sure, why not?" They go to the teahouse and chit chat about whatever, then when they're finished (no matter how shabby or expensive the place looks), over the course of an hour and a few simple cups of what appears to be nothing more than simple or low-grade tea, the bill comes and it appears to be 4 or 5 thousand RMB. And the muscular guy at the door won't let you leave without paying. I've even heard of foreigners having everything they owned in their apartments stolen from them (but to be quite frank, the foreigners I've heard of that had this happen to them really deserved it, in my opinion.) What is all this talk of foreigners? We, the foreigners, are in every high-budget film that is produced in the People's Republic of China as villains (unless your name is Dashan or BenJieMing or Daniu). If you've seen Jet Li's Fearless (霍元甲), then you've seen the summary of just about every high-budget film that comes out every year in China.
I think it is much more simple than you think, the guy saw Bitter leaving got into his cab quickly and before bitter could say anything to the taxi driver the chinese guy told him that they are going to a club at such and such address and because bitter did not react like he was surprised or confused about this other guy in the taxi the driver just assumed they knew each other.
|
On November 17 2012 01:26 Enders116 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 17 2012 00:43 allen_ami wrote:On November 17 2012 00:28 StarcraftMan wrote:
Hi, as somebody who lived in Shanghai, I'm going to give a word of advice to foreigners who go there.
First and foremost, relative to the other Chinese cities in China, Shanghai is probably one of the most safest cities in China. However, there are a lot of migrant workers in Shanghai and more often than not, it's the migrant workers that cause problems because they may not be able to find a job in Shanghai so they resort to other things, and a minority of them may resort to illegal activities.
The reason why Shanghai is safer than other cities in China is because it is a model of development for China so the government usually cracks down harder on Shanghai (ie; there are very few brothels in Shanghai compared to other Chinese cities). On average, the police in Shanghai is also less corrupt than the police in other Chinese cities. However, there is corruption everywhere in China so don't think for a second that the Shanghai police is not corrupt.
Now this is common sense when travelling in a foreign country but unfortunately, Mr. Bitter had to experience this the hard way: when you are travelling in a foreign country, you must always be extra vigilant and more cautious than when you're at home. If you suspect something is not going right, be ready to exit the situation as quickly and as peacefully as possible without offending the people you are dealing with.. This applies everywhere you travel, especially in developing countries. If Mr. Bitter had followed this rule, he would have left the cab the moment the stranger got in the cab with him.
As for violence towards foreigners in China, rest assured, the penalty is 10x more severe for the local offender if he/she is caught. The Chinese government does not tolerate any violence against foreigners, especially in Shanghai, for good reason - the Chinese government wants to keep the news free of any incidents where a foreigner is harmed in Shanghai, which is supposed to be their model city. If Mr. Bitter was severely harmed, and being an American, it made the news in the US, it would really hurt Shanghai's reputation. For that reason, I highly doubt these thugs would have had the guts to kidnap Mr. Bitter either - they simply make the threat but there is no way they would go further with their threats.
Still, if you are outnumbered, it makes no sense to fight back, especially if they just want to rob you of a few thousand dollars. You could be severely hurt if they gang up on you and/or they have weapons and the few thousands dollars you lose would be chump change compared to permanent life long injuries (or even your own life).
Overall, I would say Shanghai is quite safe to travel to compared to cities in other developing countries provided you stay vigilant and cautious. Yes, there is an obscene amount of petty crime in Shanghai day in and day out - always watch your belongings and be careful of con artists. However, the severity of crime usually does not exceed the typical petty crime or con artist situation - it rarely, rarely, goes to violent crime. Contrary to what Mr. Bitter is saying, it is quite safe to travel alone in Shanghai - just be a bit cautious and careful in the more remote areas. By far, I would rank Shanghai safer than say, New York, LA, etc.
Now what I said applies to Shanghai only. It does not apply to other Chinese cities, where the cops and gangsters are probably one and the same. I wish Mr. Bitter the best of luck and hopefully he gets to experience the better side of Shanghai rather than this ugly side.
And yes, Mr. Bitter, you should report this to the police. Unlike the police in LA or New York, I guarantee you the Shanghai police will take this very seriously and they will try to stop it, because it is bad PR for Shanghai if it gets onto the news.
As a Shanghainese myself, gotta agree with this guy. It depends on a matter of perspective. I think foreigners that don't speak Chinese are targets for stuff like this in Shanghai. If it was me, I just would have yelled at the guy 滾開！ 我不知道你，你到底幹什麼來這裡？ But, in Mr. Bitter's perspective, I can relate, as for the first few months I was in China, I could not speak Mandarin.
This is quite off-topic, but the first part should be 我不认识你
|
On November 17 2012 01:34 coloursheep wrote:Show nested quote +On November 17 2012 01:26 Enders116 wrote:On November 17 2012 00:43 allen_ami wrote:On November 17 2012 00:28 StarcraftMan wrote:
Hi, as somebody who lived in Shanghai, I'm going to give a word of advice to foreigners who go there.
First and foremost, relative to the other Chinese cities in China, Shanghai is probably one of the most safest cities in China. However, there are a lot of migrant workers in Shanghai and more often than not, it's the migrant workers that cause problems because they may not be able to find a job in Shanghai so they resort to other things, and a minority of them may resort to illegal activities.
The reason why Shanghai is safer than other cities in China is because it is a model of development for China so the government usually cracks down harder on Shanghai (ie; there are very few brothels in Shanghai compared to other Chinese cities). On average, the police in Shanghai is also less corrupt than the police in other Chinese cities. However, there is corruption everywhere in China so don't think for a second that the Shanghai police is not corrupt.
Now this is common sense when travelling in a foreign country but unfortunately, Mr. Bitter had to experience this the hard way: when you are travelling in a foreign country, you must always be extra vigilant and more cautious than when you're at home. If you suspect something is not going right, be ready to exit the situation as quickly and as peacefully as possible without offending the people you are dealing with.. This applies everywhere you travel, especially in developing countries. If Mr. Bitter had followed this rule, he would have left the cab the moment the stranger got in the cab with him.
As for violence towards foreigners in China, rest assured, the penalty is 10x more severe for the local offender if he/she is caught. The Chinese government does not tolerate any violence against foreigners, especially in Shanghai, for good reason - the Chinese government wants to keep the news free of any incidents where a foreigner is harmed in Shanghai, which is supposed to be their model city. If Mr. Bitter was severely harmed, and being an American, it made the news in the US, it would really hurt Shanghai's reputation. For that reason, I highly doubt these thugs would have had the guts to kidnap Mr. Bitter either - they simply make the threat but there is no way they would go further with their threats.
Still, if you are outnumbered, it makes no sense to fight back, especially if they just want to rob you of a few thousand dollars. You could be severely hurt if they gang up on you and/or they have weapons and the few thousands dollars you lose would be chump change compared to permanent life long injuries (or even your own life).
Overall, I would say Shanghai is quite safe to travel to compared to cities in other developing countries provided you stay vigilant and cautious. Yes, there is an obscene amount of petty crime in Shanghai day in and day out - always watch your belongings and be careful of con artists. However, the severity of crime usually does not exceed the typical petty crime or con artist situation - it rarely, rarely, goes to violent crime. Contrary to what Mr. Bitter is saying, it is quite safe to travel alone in Shanghai - just be a bit cautious and careful in the more remote areas. By far, I would rank Shanghai safer than say, New York, LA, etc.
Now what I said applies to Shanghai only. It does not apply to other Chinese cities, where the cops and gangsters are probably one and the same. I wish Mr. Bitter the best of luck and hopefully he gets to experience the better side of Shanghai rather than this ugly side.
And yes, Mr. Bitter, you should report this to the police. Unlike the police in LA or New York, I guarantee you the Shanghai police will take this very seriously and they will try to stop it, because it is bad PR for Shanghai if it gets onto the news.
As a Shanghainese myself, gotta agree with this guy. It depends on a matter of perspective. I think foreigners that don't speak Chinese are targets for stuff like this in Shanghai. If it was me, I just would have yelled at the guy 滾開！ 我不知道你，你到底幹什麼來這裡？ But, in Mr. Bitter's perspective, I can relate, as for the first few months I was in China, I could not speak Mandarin. I think there are many beautiful places and nice people in China, but bigger cities like Shanghai and China are full of people that like to take advantage of what looks like your average laowai on a tour. But, assuming everything Mr Bitter said was true, this was a rather aggressive thing that the guy who took him to the "whorehouse" did. Here's what I think went down. Mr. Bitter went in to the bar, some random guy starts chit-chatting with him in English and discovers that bitter doesn't speak Chinese. This is what we'll call the "contact". The contact then relays the info to the escort, the guy who was in the taxi with the driver and Mr Bitter. The escort explains the situation to the taxi driver, and Bitter is powerless to communicate with the driver as he does not speak Chinese nor does the driver apparently speak English. I've heard of stories where beautiful girls take advantage of foreigners like so. "Can you help us practice our English? We want to go to a teahouse nearby." "Sure, why not?" They go to the teahouse and chit chat about whatever, then when they're finished (no matter how shabby or expensive the place looks), over the course of an hour and a few simple cups of what appears to be nothing more than simple or low-grade tea, the bill comes and it appears to be 4 or 5 thousand RMB. And the muscular guy at the door won't let you leave without paying. I've even heard of foreigners having everything they owned in their apartments stolen from them (but to be quite frank, the foreigners I've heard of that had this happen to them really deserved it, in my opinion.) What is all this talk of foreigners? We, the foreigners, are in every high-budget film that is produced in the People's Republic of China as villains (unless your name is Dashan or BenJieMing or Daniu). If you've seen Jet Li's Fearless (霍元甲), then you've seen the summary of just about every high-budget film that comes out every year in China. I think it is much more simple than you think, the guy saw Bitter leaving got into his cab quickly and before bitter could say anything to the taxi driver the chinese guy told him that they are going to a club at such and such address and because bitter did not react like he was surprised or confused about this other guy in the taxi the driver just assumed they knew each other.
Agreed. It sounds logical and possible. The stuff with relay may take more time and coordination.
|
Shit man, crazy story. The bank should refund you that money. Good luck. Dont beat yourself up too much, it's hard to make good decisions when you are in messed up scenarios.
|
Are people seriously complaining about a thread being made about this? Wow... He's one of the big names in the SC2 community and he got freaking mugged while in China BECAUSE OF SC2. It's not like he went on vacation with his family and got mugged, he was out with another caster and is in China because of Starcraft. This definitely falls under valid thread material.
Anyway, sorry to hear about getting mugged. Going to MLG in Dallas taught me to never travel alone while out of town.
|
That sounds quite awful. But overall I would say you handled it pretty well. You never made it personal for the other guys in any way. It was only about the money for them, they had no interest in you as a person. If you had tried to fight them and maybe even ended up hurting some of them, then it would have become personal for them and who knows what could have happened then. Now you only lost some money and maybe your pride. Like you said, they were quite polite about it and you were never physically harmed. I think this is just because you had the sense of not motivating them to move it to the next level. Good job in a very unlucky situation.
|
On November 17 2012 01:26 Enders116 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 17 2012 00:43 allen_ami wrote:On November 17 2012 00:28 StarcraftMan wrote:
Hi, as somebody who lived in Shanghai, I'm going to give a word of advice to foreigners who go there.
First and foremost, relative to the other Chinese cities in China, Shanghai is probably one of the most safest cities in China. However, there are a lot of migrant workers in Shanghai and more often than not, it's the migrant workers that cause problems because they may not be able to find a job in Shanghai so they resort to other things, and a minority of them may resort to illegal activities.
The reason why Shanghai is safer than other cities in China is because it is a model of development for China so the government usually cracks down harder on Shanghai (ie; there are very few brothels in Shanghai compared to other Chinese cities). On average, the police in Shanghai is also less corrupt than the police in other Chinese cities. However, there is corruption everywhere in China so don't think for a second that the Shanghai police is not corrupt.
Now this is common sense when travelling in a foreign country but unfortunately, Mr. Bitter had to experience this the hard way: when you are travelling in a foreign country, you must always be extra vigilant and more cautious than when you're at home. If you suspect something is not going right, be ready to exit the situation as quickly and as peacefully as possible without offending the people you are dealing with.. This applies everywhere you travel, especially in developing countries. If Mr. Bitter had followed this rule, he would have left the cab the moment the stranger got in the cab with him.
As for violence towards foreigners in China, rest assured, the penalty is 10x more severe for the local offender if he/she is caught. The Chinese government does not tolerate any violence against foreigners, especially in Shanghai, for good reason - the Chinese government wants to keep the news free of any incidents where a foreigner is harmed in Shanghai, which is supposed to be their model city. If Mr. Bitter was severely harmed, and being an American, it made the news in the US, it would really hurt Shanghai's reputation. For that reason, I highly doubt these thugs would have had the guts to kidnap Mr. Bitter either - they simply make the threat but there is no way they would go further with their threats.
Still, if you are outnumbered, it makes no sense to fight back, especially if they just want to rob you of a few thousand dollars. You could be severely hurt if they gang up on you and/or they have weapons and the few thousands dollars you lose would be chump change compared to permanent life long injuries (or even your own life).
Overall, I would say Shanghai is quite safe to travel to compared to cities in other developing countries provided you stay vigilant and cautious. Yes, there is an obscene amount of petty crime in Shanghai day in and day out - always watch your belongings and be careful of con artists. However, the severity of crime usually does not exceed the typical petty crime or con artist situation - it rarely, rarely, goes to violent crime. Contrary to what Mr. Bitter is saying, it is quite safe to travel alone in Shanghai - just be a bit cautious and careful in the more remote areas. By far, I would rank Shanghai safer than say, New York, LA, etc.
Now what I said applies to Shanghai only. It does not apply to other Chinese cities, where the cops and gangsters are probably one and the same. I wish Mr. Bitter the best of luck and hopefully he gets to experience the better side of Shanghai rather than this ugly side.
And yes, Mr. Bitter, you should report this to the police. Unlike the police in LA or New York, I guarantee you the Shanghai police will take this very seriously and they will try to stop it, because it is bad PR for Shanghai if it gets onto the news.
As a Shanghainese myself, gotta agree with this guy. It depends on a matter of perspective. I think foreigners that don't speak Chinese are targets for stuff like this in Shanghai. If it was me, I just would have yelled at the guy 滾開！ 我不知道你，你到底幹什麼來這裡？ But, in Mr. Bitter's perspective, I can relate, as for the first few months I was in China, I could not speak Mandarin. I think there are many beautiful places and nice people in China, but bigger cities like Shanghai and China are full of people that like to take advantage of what looks like your average laowai on a tour. But, assuming everything Mr Bitter said was true, this was a rather aggressive thing that the guy who took him to the "whorehouse" did. Here's what I think went down. Mr. Bitter went in to the bar, some random guy starts chit-chatting with him in English and discovers that bitter doesn't speak Chinese. This is what we'll call the "contact". The contact then relays the info to the escort, the guy who was in the taxi with the driver and Mr Bitter. The escort explains the situation to the taxi driver, and Bitter is powerless to communicate with the driver as he does not speak Chinese nor does the driver apparently speak English. I've heard of stories where beautiful girls take advantage of foreigners like so. "Can you help us practice our English? We want to go to a teahouse nearby." "Sure, why not?" They go to the teahouse and chit chat about whatever, then when they're finished (no matter how shabby or expensive the place looks), over the course of an hour and a few simple cups of what appears to be nothing more than simple or low-grade tea, the bill comes and it appears to be 4 or 5 thousand RMB. And the muscular guy at the door won't let you leave without paying. I've even heard of foreigners having everything they owned in their apartments stolen from them (but to be quite frank, the foreigners I've heard of that had this happen to them really deserved it, in my opinion.) What is all this talk of foreigners? We, the foreigners, are in every high-budget film that is produced in the People's Republic of China as villains (unless your name is Dashan or BenJieMing or Daniu). If you've seen Jet Li's Fearless (霍元甲), then you've seen the summary of just about every high-budget film that comes out every year in China.
The tea house scam is pretty famous, I've read about that in the Lonely Planet! Anyway the rule is simple wherever you are, don't follow people you don't know in places you don't know either!
|
On November 17 2012 01:25 Elurie wrote:Show nested quote +On November 16 2012 23:30 droken wrote:Bitter, I thought your parents told you never to get into cars with strangers Yea man, it could have been the car from Mystic River.
Man, Clint Eastwood makes some depressing movies. His whole human triumph wins out in the end is kinda overshadowed by the crappy things that happen to his main characters. Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, Mystic River... et all.
|
On November 17 2012 01:21 Alpina wrote:
Seriously Mrbitter? :o
I mean some random guy says come with me and you just go there knowing pretty much 100% that it won't end well?
I hope you was just too drunk to think, because if not then it's crazy..
This is just so typical. You knowing the whole story and how it ended is an entirely different thing from being there and living in that situation. Yes, it might have been a very wrong decision but in real life people usually do wrong decisions when they don't know the results in advance.
[very offtopic]This kind of reminds me of how me and my friend have been speculating many times about the difference between the human ability to really imagine thelmselves in a similar real pysical situation compared to just verbally taking in the position and the whole story afterwards and then verbally expressing what they would do in that position. The first part is so much more demanding and complex process compared to the latter that it might explain why people give so different replys as to what they "should do" in that situation compared to how they would really react in that situation.[/very offtopic]
|
I'm glad he's OK. This story brought many lulz. MrBitter got owned, fortunately just had money extorted with no bodily harm.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
