THE TEA BITCHES- the complete story

I decided to put the complete story (all four blogs) all in one blog post which should make it easier for you to read the entire story.  The first three blogs take place during my first two days in China.  The fourth section takes place three months later, when I return to the USA.

The Tea Bitches

 Part I – My first Day in China- Feb 2012

I am just leaving the Forbidden City when I am approached by two women in their late thirties. "Hello, Hello, You speak English, I speak Chinese. Ha ha, we walk with you and practice our English. OK?"

When I am in Asia, this is a request that is made of me a hundred times over. I never say no but it is tiring to be interviewed by these people. And it is equally hard to be polite when they distract me from my original plans. So these two women, Jen and Tan, tag along and ask me the same damn questions I am always asked. “You from America? You have husband? You have children? Where your family?"

After about a half hour, Jen asks me if I want to join them for a cup of tea.  "It very cold today. Tea hot, good for you. Good for you digestive system."  It is cold and I am tired so I say yes and off we go to a nearby tea house. Jen seems to know everyone in the place and they seem to know her. We get a private room and Jen asks me what kind of tea I like. I ask to look at a menu and reach for the one on the table but Jen grabs the menu and abruptly says, "No, this not ours. This something different."

 

She hands me a different menu and suggests that we try a variety of teas. So a waitress, who is in her 20s, comes in and pours us six different cups of tea and all of them are delicious.

After an hour, the waitress comes in and mentions something about my credit card and hands me the bill. I am a little confused but notice that Tan looks away, almost in shame, and then I know something is up. I look at the bill and it is over $300. Jen tells me, very matter of factly, I can put this bill on my credit card. I protest and say that this is outrageous but then Jen pulls out that original menu and I see that all of the prices are grossly inflated. The three of them work in unison on this scheme and I realize I am not going to get out without paying some sort of hefty price. Then I hear the gurgle of the boiling tea pot. Jen is holding a pot of hot water, standing right beside me. I don't think she would throw it on me. But then I also didn't think she would try to take me for my money. So I just angrily decide to cut my losses and get out unhurt. There are three of them and only me. Now, they were all talking to each other only in Chinese and the waitress is growing impatient.

"I don't have my credit card with me. I don't have enough money to pay for this." I tell them without confidence.

 

 "That OK", Jen says, "we pay half and you pay half. You pay more because you college professor and we just lowly kindergarten teachers You have more money than me”.

 

So they fork over about a third of the cost. I angrily pay 1500Yuan which I think is the equivalent of about $200.  I am filled with anger and fear. So I just throw her a wad on bills.  we quickly leave after that.

 

Once outside, Jen asks if there is anywhere I want to go next. I tell her I have to leave right away; I am so angry. I want to get away from her. She seems surprised, but says goodbye. I go back to my hotel, seething with anger. When I was in the midst of the confrontation at the tea house, I just thought that I had to get out unhurt. But now that I am away from them and safe, I am so angry with them and with myself. How did I let this situation get so out of hand? And when I reflect back, I can’t determine if I was being cowardly or prudent?  I am outraged and don’t know what to do with all of this anger and shame.

 

The Tea Bitches: Part II- The Next Day- Feb 2012

I am up all night, so angry that I couldn't sleep. I recalculate that I gave them and  I discover that I gave them about $300.  Now I am filled with more shame then fear. Now I am really mad. So I decide that I would go to the police station in the morning and file a complaint.   I try to sleep but I can’t.  I want to put this behind me.

 

I am up, bright and early by 7AM, the sun is just coming up. I go down to the front desk and ask the staff member if she would call the police for me.

"No, I can’t" she tells me.
"Why not?"  At first I thought I misunderstood her but her unresponsiveness confirms what I heard.
“I don't know the number" she says without any hesitation.

"Can't we look it up?"  I am puzzled by her indifference to what I consider to be a serious request.

"I don't know how to do that" she tells me shamelessly.
"Well, we can look it up on the Internet," I suggest with a little tone of aggravation.
"No, the Internet is broken for three days now." She says flipidly.
"No it isn't. I used it last night and your system is on right now. I can see that it is on. Can’t you look up the number for me?"
"No, the police will do nothing about it. It happens all the time. Last week a lady lost $500. Police can’t do anything because they didn't see it."

Finally, she relents and draws a map of where she thinks the local police station is located. So I set out on my own to find the police. But that is a wasted effort because I found nothing that remotely resembles a police station. So I come back to my hotel in defeat but more determined that the staff woman was going to help me.
I implore her to help me but she was unmoving in her steadfast position that the police would do nothing.

 

 "Get your manager," I demand with arrogance and anger.

 

 So she walks to the back room. When she returns, she tells me that the manager is not going to come out because the police can do nothing. Now I am furious. In my loud voice, so that the manger could hear, I tell her that she has a responsibility to help her guests and she should not be harboring criminals. Then the manger appears. She says they have a night watchman who helped out the lady who lost the $500. Apparently, the watchman wrote something on a piece of paper and told the woman to take it back to the shop and she got half of her money back.

 

The manager calls the night watchman at home and he dictates something to her. She writes it down, tells me to go to the tea house right away and see if I could get some of my money back. I ask her twice what is written on the note but both times, she just ignores my question.

So with note in hand, I march off to the tea house with anger, determination and just enough confidence to be dangerous. As I open the door I am greeted by a pleasant young woman and I immediately step in to my crazy mode. I show her the note and yell that I demand all of my money back. She jumps in fear and I now feel empowered. She immediately calls her boss and as she is talking to this woman, I am yelling in the background, "Tell her I am not leaving until I get my money. Tell her I am a crazy woman.  I am furious and I want my money.”  I am immediately offered half of what I paid yesterday. "No," I bark back loudly, “I am not leaving until I get all of it."

Just then the door opens up and in walks the waitress from yesterday. She begins to greet me but then she realizes who I am. Her coworkers call to her in Chinese to give her a heads up that a crazed lady is in their midst. She quickly throws out an offer for a 75% return on my money.

"No, I want it all. I have already called the police and I called the US Embassy and I filled out a report on you." That seemed to get her attention.  She turns her back on me and picks up the phone.  She talks to someone in Chinese so I don’t know who she just called.

 

"You no go to the police for this." She said.  She sounded worried. “Police too busy for this.”

 

“Yes, I did.  And they have a video of me leaving the tea house yesterday.  They showed it to me.  At the police station.  They have a big room with lots of security cameras.  They are watching everything”, I tell her.  I speak with confidence at this point because I do know that the police do watch and record everyone’s move in China.

Then I noticed a local police officer, walking the streets, right outside so I ran to get him. I was directed to go to Tiananmen Square to get help from the national police. I came back in a police car with flashing lights and three police officers.

 

I go back in the tea house and notice that outsiders are now leaning right on the storefront window and watching us.  A crowd is gathering.

 

I continue to demand my 1500Y.  But my request is being denied.  Then the door cracks open. A hand slips in and hands the owner something.  The waitress shouts, “OK, we have all your money.”  She holds a wad of cash.  She then demands that I sign a statement that I received all of my money.  She speaks to me as if I am the dishonest one.  I am indignant.  But I grab her sheet of paper and write “I received all of the money you stole from me yesterday, you stupid little thief.” I hand it back with a great sense of satisfaction that I have made a mockery at her attempt to protect herself from any further abuse from me. She appears triumphed and clever. And I want to ridicule her.  But I don’t because I just really want to get out of there.   And I leave with all of my money.

 

Tea Bitches: PART III- 4 days later- Feb 2012

 

It is several days later and I am now comfortable walking about Beijing without getting lost.  I am returning to my hotel at dusk. Things are looking familiar to me.  I am beginning to recognize some of the neighbors.  I see the neighborhood communist watch guard. I wave to the pineapple saleslady.  Some of the neighborhood kids wave hello and I wave back. I notice a woman waving to me. But I don’t recognize her.  It is really cold So Everyone is bundled up.   This woman waving to me is wearing a big puffy coat and hat and scarf.   I wave back.

 

As I get closer I hear, “Hello, remember me.  I Jenny”, she says so cheerfully, so full of goodwill.

 

“Jenny, Jenny”, I think, “who is Jenny”.  Then I get a good look at her.  She is the tea bitch.  She has tracked me down and now she is standing right in front of me, happy as can be to see me.  Acting as if long lost friends have reunited.

 

Anger surges through me and I have an urge to punch her.  But I don’t.  I am too stunned to see her and I am shocked by her audacity to speak to me with such a pleasant tone.

 

“Hello. How you.  Hey, we no get our money back at tea house”.  She says and then points to her friend, Tan, who sheepishly nods in agreement.

 

 “You help us?” she asks with a tone of sincerity, as if now we were comrades against the immortality of the waitresses at the tea house.

 

“What”, I shout in complete astonishment.

 

“Yea, they say you take all the money.  They say we get the money from you. We give lot of money but they not give it back. Can we have money”?

 

My anger starts on my toes and run through every pore in my body.  I am trembling in so anger that I think I am going to throw up. “Are you fucking kidding me?  Get the fuck away from me you thieves.  Fuck you.” I am shouting as loud as I can and the two of them jump back in fear.  They huddle together.

 

“We need our money.  We have no money”, she pleads

“Get the fuck away from me.  Who the hell do you think you are? Get the fuck away from me”

People are passing us and watching.  No one stops or tries to establish eye contact. But everyone now walks backwards to watch our interactions.

 

I take a few steps towards the two of them who have now become one big lump of huddled, trembling cowards.  I point at them, “Get the fuck away from me before I call the police. Get away, you thieves.”

 

They take off, not quite running but they are scurrying.  As they make their way down the alleyway, I am shouting, “Watch your purses, everyone, these two women are thieves.  They are thieves.  They will steal from you.”

 

Now, everyone in the alleyway has stopped to watch the show. As my volume got louder, their pace got quicker.  Soon they were out of my sight.

 

Back in my hotel, I go to the bar and have a beer in celebration of yet another victory against crime and injustice.  But as I am taking my last sip, a thought crosses my mind.  “What if they come back here with friends and attack me.  Should I change my hotel?”  I only had one more day in Beijing.  I have tentative plans to go to an evening concert.  I decide to lay low for the evening and stay in my hotel. I leave town the next day, thankful to put this incident behind me.

 

PART IV- May 2012- in Philadelphia PA

 It is May and I am back in Philadelphia.  After a few months, I am finally able to review my bank statements.  I go back to my February statement and look at my first ATM transaction in China.

In February, upon arrive in China, I went right to the ATM machine in the airport.  I remember withdrawing 2000 Yuan (about $330).  I remember having 20 bills of 100 Yuan.  I spent 100Y on a taxi to the hotel.  I cashed another 100Y for breakfast.  I put 100Y away with my passport and return flight ticket (just in case I needed it). And I broke a 100Y for my ticket to the Forbidden City.  When I paid the bill at the Tea House, I gave the damn waitress everything I had, 16 bills of 100Y and she gave me some change. By my calculations, I had paid approximately $250 to those damn tea bitches. 

But now, a few months later and back in the USA, when I look at my bank statement, it clearly shows that I only withdrew 1200Y (about $200). If I can account for 400Y and I left with change; that means I only paid about 700Y (about $115) to the tea bitches.

When I went to the tea house, the day after the incident and showed them the note form the security guard, I was immediately offered 700Y.  But I refused that offensive offer because I was adamant that I had paid 1500Y.

So now, there is a whole new twist to the story: if I really only paid 700Y, there is an 800Y surcharge that I collected from the tea house waitress.  No wonder she was so mad at me.  That means the tea bitches each paid about 300Y which is about a week’s salary for them.  And the tea house waitress lost about 200Y. And I later learned that the local police are all in on this corruption.  They look the other way and then come collecting cut in the profits.  I am sure the police never got a cut in this deal.

Anyway, I had a coat custom made for me.  I didn’t know it at the time, but the tea bitches really paid for it.  And every time I wear this coat, I will think of them.

Thank you tea bitches. I hope I taught you more than just English skills.

End of story.