Zhouzhuang Warnings Or Dangers

Last week, my friends and I visited ZhouZhuang first time ever. And we have encounters feel con job attempts in ZhouZhuang alone. We feel the village is beautiful, and we are more than willing to pay a RMB100 for just visiting the village and help contributing to pay for the maintenance of this beautiful heritage. But we don't expect to be con after having to paid the such of money.

First of all, there are a so-called free transportation (only for those who has purchased the entrance ticket) to send us from one tourist place to another. We happily went up to the transport, after everyone there has told us "no parking" near the village and the walking distance from the main huge car park is around 1 hour to and fro. Then we arrived at our first spot - a huge very new temple.

After our tickets have been inspected, the personnel brought us in and gave us an introductory about the temple. Then we were asked to select a red-packet (hong bao) which content an image of Kuan Ying and some description in Chinese. Then the personnel told us we were lucky that day they have invited 3 masters (monks) to give us "guidance" according to the different version of Kuan Ying that we have separately selected. Then he told us we don't need to pay any money for that special service. Without suspecting anything, we went in and waited for our turn.

Only when my turn is up, first trick they do not allow you to be attend to the master together with your friend. Second trick, the "master" ask where I am from and what is my job. Then he tried to convince me that if I want a better luck and life, I must light a "lotus" candle (or light in Chinese). And he told me the price is RMB1300. OMG, at that point, I felt we were cheated. I mean at the end none of us fall for that con but it has gave us a bad impression for the whole place.

Then as we thought that's it. Then inside the village, we walked in to another small temple (a temple about (12 animals of the year). Again, without asking our permission, we were asked to pay RMB100 for a small shining Buddhist card. We were never being explained in the first place. This is as good as robbing the tourist. And give a bad impression about the place, China and the religion. Beware the next time you walk into a temple, you may be the next victim!