The only scam I've encountered so far was a taxi driver going the long, long way to Prince Gong's Palace, and the fare being 30 RMB instead of 20.

But on a positive note, we sat down to have lunch at a small restaurant near Qianmen. I dumped my purse, tote, and camera bag on the chair next to me. After looking at the menu, there was nothing I could eat as it all had chili peppers in it. So we got up and left.and went elsewhere. I didn't realize until we were leaving the second restaurant that my camera was gone. I thought about where I might have left it and went back to the first restaurant. I looked up camera in my phrase book and pointed at the word and asked if they had a camera? It took a few people but the waitress came running up to a cabinet, she opened the drawer, and took out my camera that I had left on the chair. I was so happy I wanted to hug her, but thought that might be a faux pas. A lot of xie xie's. Bob was impressed with the honesty of the Beijingers. And I was relieved that I didn't have to go camera shopping.