So today was my cousin's belated birthday family gathering. We were suppose to have dim sum but because all the dim sum places were crowded we ended up having lunch at a restaurant that does not offer dim sum. It's crazy how Easter would boost business for Chinese restaurants. Anyways, my lovely girlfriend was with me, of course. During the lunch, one of my aunts who works at a travel agency, told us about a great deal with regards to traveling in China. For a limited time, you can go to Shanghai or Beijing (and their surrounding areas) for 7 days and 6 nights. This deal costs $49.95 per person if you were born in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Singapore. It includes all tickets, meals, hotels, and transportation within China. What it does include was the tickets to fly to China and $50 for tips to the tour guide. Well, it sounds great right? It does unless you are a whity or ABC. For those people, they have to pay an additional $180. Why? it's because the program is subsidized by the Chinese government and it is part of its effort to win hearts and minds of Chinese people overseas, regardless of their citizenship. I guess to the Chinese government, if you are an ABC they automatically assume that you have betrayed your culture or that you don't care enough about it. Anyways, my lovely girlfriend instantly said, "Oh, a whity tax!" So that's how the title came about.
What do you think? Should they charge you a whity tax because you are not Chinese or because you were born overseas? In any case, it's still a good deal if you've never been to those two places. Oh, except that the tour guide can only speak Chinese.
Yeah, you have to read the fine prints sometimes.
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I got hit by a whity tax when I was going to China about 2 years ago. My boyfriend rang the Chinese travel agent and asked how much it would cost for 2 return tickets to Shanghai. She told us it would be 500 euro each. That sounded reasonable. The next day we went to collect the tickets and the travel agent did a double take when she saw me and then told my boyfriend that my ticket was going to be 610 euro and gave no explanation that's the way it was and the worst thing was my luggage allowance was 15 Kg my boyfriend was 25 Kg. It was really annoying at the time but we just had to accept it.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...that's strange. I've never heard of that before. Perhaps you should try a different agent next time?
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