With the amount of shame emanating from the pictured women’s body language, you’d think the cop was busting a Shenzhen whorehouse. But no– this is Nanjing Lu East, and the scam is overpriced tea.
But don’t go reporting your local Starbucks to authorities, yet. This morning at 12:30AM police raided Taihe Teahouse based on a report from three French tourists who racked up a 7,455 yuan ($920) bill in one short hour. The Frenchmen allege that, while strolling the Bund, a group of 5 Chinese women approached them, struck up a conversation, and brought them to the teahouse. As it turns out, the five women were part of a ring of conspirators who lure hapless, lust-struck foreign men to teahouses full of giggling ladies before hitting the laowais with an astronomical bill and demanding they pay up. The duped trio say, when they refused to pay, a teahouse manager threatened them.
Authorities report that the teahouse owner, a man by the name of Wang, employs 20 people and owns two teahouses. Perplexingly, they announced this morning that the second teahouse, Yaoyuan, would be raided later tonight. We hope that went well for them. Surely Mr. Wang was kind enough to keep the lights on and WELCOME mat out.
Shanghai Daily: Teahouse closed down for ripping off foreigners
Picture from Shanghai Daily

