The tricksters are very good at telling apart who the foreigners are. I was walking along Wangfujing Street (王府井) which is the shopping belt of Beijing when a girl in her 20s approaches me and asks me in Chinese if I’m a local. I said no, and she continues to tell me some sob story about how she and her friend have just come from Harbin and have run into some problems. And she wonders if I could give her 10 yuan so that they can buy some food.
Having been warned of such tricksters before, I said sorry, no, but she continues and says that she’s only approaching me ‘cos we’re all fellow girls alone in a foreign place blah blah blah. I brushed her off several times and walk hurriedly into a department store before she gave up.
Geez. I must really look like this lost little lamb, and so I have all these predators preying on me. I mean, I look Chinese (well I AM Chinese) but yet they can tell me apart from the natives. Must be the wide-eyed tourist look.