Chinese police love us!

Last week was an interesting one. We are fast approaching a Neal and Alyssa-free Weihai, so we have to get in as much hanging out time as possible. We decided to meet Neal on the beach so we could go eat somewhere. The week before Rory and I had gone to a little joint that had a nice view of the water, where the owners were super-friendly and didn't overcharge us, so we opted to go back. The two dudes went inside to decide what we were eating; looking at the pictures on the wall, asking for recommendations and checking the prices. The meal was just okay--the highlight being fried potatoes--and we asked how much we owed. The woman wrote down some exorbitant price, and we were shocked.

Neal speaks Chinese very well--he can actually understand things in a conversation format--and he had demonstrated this with the owners right from the get-go, so we didn't understand why they would try to be jerks to him or to us. We (I say "we", but I mean Neal) kept telling the wife/waitress that it was too much, especially since she had already quoted the prices when we ordered. We all looked at the ticket. The prices she had initially given us were written down next to the menu items, but then they were crossed out, and some higher numbers were written. For no valid reason, other than the fact that we're American. Neal pointed this discrepancy out, and we tried to compromise on the price, offering 100 rmb (which was still way too much). She refused. She walked inside and started cleaning, and we continued to do the math in our heads. There was no way the meal should have been more than 80, yet we were offering 100. We went back and forth about how unreasonable her logic was, showing her that there was no way our lamb dish cost more than the most expensive seafood on the menu.

Rory went back inside with 100, and tried (again) to offer it to her. She refused. Again. So he came back out, and we all tried to figure out what to do. Giving her the 127 she wanted was like giving in. Everyday we have to deal with people trying to overcharge in one way or another, simply because we're foreign and must, therefore, be rich. But we work in China, and we make Chinese money. Granted, it's a lot more than these restaurant owners make, but that doesn't mean we should have to pay more. It's just flat-out discrimination, and it wouldn't happen in the United States (this is where I mention that I fully realize we live in Communist China. There, I said it).

Also, the last time we were in so obvious a situation was in Qufu, where another mom and pop place tried to charge us more than 5 times what we should have paid. We stood our ground then; we were firm in our refusal to pay what they were asking. It was like a little game, and we left that place paying significantly less than they wanted (and significantly more than we should have). No one was upset, it was just a series of motions we had to go through in order to get our point across. Neal only has a few more weeks left in China, too, and I'm sure that a year of putting up with this whole Chinese bargaining system takes its toll on a person.

I had been relatively quiet up to this point, so I thought that maybe I could try again, and they wouldn't yell at me because I'm a woman. At first we thought "we'll just leave the 100 on the table", but we didn't want it to blow away. So I walked in with the 100 and put it under the calculator at the cash register. No problem. I walked outside, and we started to head off across the street, to the beach. We figured it was over. We put our collective foot down and stood up for ourselves as foreigners.

But the next thing we know, the woman was clutching Rory's sweatshirt, digging her claws into his arm and refusing to let go. We couldn't believe that she was actually touching him. So we told her a few more times that she had overcharged us--and that she knew it--and she still didn't let go. So Neal and I reached down and tried to peel her fingers off of Rory's arms. Then she grabbed Neal with her other arm. What happened next is sort of a blur, but we knew the whole time that we had done and were doing nothing wrong. We were the ones who were getting screwed. Soon the husband joined the mix. The woman tried to grab my purse. She clawed at Neal and ripped a huge hole in his shirt. He hit her arm. The husband hit me in the shoulder. It was real. We were in the middle of this giant Rory tug-o-war. We just wanted to get out of there. The woman ripped a hole in Rory's sweatshirt. I started pounding on her tiny little arms, but she refused to let go. Rory tried to make everything stop, to just stop the fighting and talk about it, but it was already past that point. I was much bigger than the woman, so I tried to puff my chest up and nudge her away from Rory using my boobs. Didn't work. If I would have continued, I would have knocked her down. I think the three of us were fine just being in defense mode, but we weren't going to make a heated situation even hotter. The woman made Rory's sweatshirt hole bigger. Then she made a phone motion, like she was gong to call the police. The three of us had a collective "bring it on" sort of moment. All the neighboring restaurant folks were watching us at this point, trying to see who would prevail. I somehow freed myself, so I took Rory and Neal's wallets and got into the cab that we had hailed (that the woman tried to shoo away). I didn't know where I was going, but I knew she wasn't getting any more money.

I rode in the cab for a few minutes, having a hysterical freak out in the back seat. I realized I didn't have a phone, and I would have no way to communicate with Rory or Neal. I got out a few blocks later, and the cabbie didn't charge me. He could see I was in distress. I started walking back to the scene, regaining my composure. When I got closer to the restaurant, I could see that a police van was there, and two officers were talking to Rory and Neal. I approached them, and the boys brought me up-to-date. The officers asked Neal if we could pay the 27 rmb, and Neal responded (very appropriately), "No, we can't pay it, because it's too much." Neal also told the police that there was no way the meal should have been more than 80 rmb, so we were already paying way more than we should have. At this point, we couldn't believe that they restauranteurs had actually called the police over 27 rmb. I don't think the police could believe it either. There was a lot of back and forth between us and the cops and the couple from hell.

The cops kept telling us: "you have to check the menu beforehand, you have to check how much they're charging you, blah blah blah...". And each time, Neal told the police, "we did do that". We had done exactly as we were supposed to do the entire time. The police said something like "you can't just put money on the counter and walk out." Our argument was that we doubt the police wanted to hear from foreigners every time they get overcharged in a restaurant. There was a lot of suspense--who would win this battle? If the couple won, it sent a sign to all the other shop owners that they can charge foreigners as much as they want. If we won, the police were taking the sides of foreigners. Ultimately, though, the police knew that we had been wronged. They were actually really straightforward about everything, and they let us walk away, without us having to pay a single extra yuan.

We were really shaken up after that. We decided not to go to the beach, instead walking more in Neal's direction. We stopped and sat on the sidewalk, recounting all of the things that had just happened, sort of laughing about it a little bit, happy (and relieved) that the cops had done the right thing. The gravity of the situation didn't really hit me until the next day, when I realized what a potentially dangerous situation we had gotten into. When something like that is actually happening, you don't really have time to think, only to react. But I do know one thing--we sure as shit aren't going back to that restaurant.