Myself and my colleagues were walking around Beijing near Tiananmen Square and ran into the scam of the English speaking "art students" who want to show you their work and practice their English. I guess the end game is to try and get you to buy some crap or something else. I had to lead our group out of there and tell the other, more trusting folks that it was just a scam.

The ones in the Forbidden City were tricky. They approached us speaking English and I answered in the little German I know. The problem was that one of them switched to German! The next set that tried didn't understand Spanish though.

After a few weeks I got really annoyed by these people making a beeline for us, whether they were selling handbags and shoes, were hookers, or just beggars. It kind of sucks when you can't blend in.