Subway Scam: Think Twice About Free Rides

Despite the price of a subway ride in Beijing, it might be tempting to buy into offers of free passes. China Buzz reported that a dealer surnamed Zhao is selling cards for RMB 200 that will let you get anywhere and everywhere for a year without you having to buy a single ticket. The problem is, it's a scam.

Zhao claims his cards come from an insider at the subway company, and authorities are currently looking into the situation. In the meantime, you may want to avoid these cards as if this guy is caught, you'll might just have to pay for all those subway tickets in the end anyway. Here's what China Buzz says about them:

The ID has a yellow background and the subway logo on the top left corner. In the middle are the Chinese characters for “Temporary Beijing Subway Security Staff ID” with a blurred red seal. On the back, there are instructions saying that the card can only be used by its owner for daily commute.

Either way, no scam is going to change the chances of getting stuck in Guomao for hours during rush hour or the length of time you'll have to spend on line 15 getting to Shunyi, which are situations that are arguably much worse than two kuai.

Look out for our subway board game in the May issue, which will debut on Issuu.com Friday. It's free and there are no long waits.

Photo: Jess Zimbabwe on Flickr