The 52-year-old Mediacorp host claims her tour contract promised no compulsory shopping, yet two mornings were spent visiting cotton and jade shops.
(Photos: Instagram/quanyifong)
Remember those horror stories about tour guides taking tourists to shops and pressuring them to buy things? Well, Quan Yifeng has now experienced one herself.
And apparently, not buying anything could earn you a scolding.
The Singaporean host took to Instagram on Sunday (Nov 1) to share her unpleasant experience with a local tour group during a recent trip to southern Xinjiang, China.
According to Quan, she had always wanted to visit Xinjiang but with winter approaching, many tourist routes in the northern part of the region were closed or at risk of temporary closures because of unpredictable weather and snowstorms.
And because of the vast distances involved, Quan felt that travelling independently wasn't practical, so she joined a local tour group after arriving.
"I'd already done all my research, but I still ended up getting ripped off left, right and centre," she lamented. According to Quan, the tour contract clearly stated, in black and white, that there would be no compulsory shopping or additional charges.
So imagine her surprise when the group was taken shopping on two consecutive mornings. The stops included shops selling Xinjiang long-staple cotton and Hetian jade, with the group visiting two jade shops. And these weren't exactly quick souvenir stops.
Quan claimed that each purchase was expected to cost at least 2,000 yuan (US$300). "Those who didn't buy anything would be mocked and even scolded by the tour guide on the bus," she wrote.
Quan admitted that she'd previously only seen such incidents in short videos online and never expected to experience one herself. "I bought a piece of Hetian jade. For the rest of the journey, I just watched the tour guide constantly harass and make fun of the other tourists. I was completely dumbfounded," she wrote.