Cheated in Beijing

I have one additional story from July 7th that I think I need to share. It is the story of me getting swindled by a street vendor as we were leaving the Summer Palace. This guy was selling fake Beijing Olympics t-shirts and I was haggling with him. I wanted two for 20 Yuan (about 3 dollars) and he finally agreed. Unfortunately I only had a 50 Yuan bill, so I paid him with that. He grabbed it from me and quickly put it in his wallet. I knew this was trouble, and sure enough he began to say 3 for 50 Yuan. I told him I wanted my 50 Yuan back and he dug around in his wallet and gave one to me. I was worried about it being fake so I quickly looked it over and checked for the water mark. The bill looked good, and I was mad at the guy, so I just walked away and boarded the bus. Because I was concerned it was counterfeit, later at the market I took three of my 50 Yuan bills, including the one in question, to a vendor to have them checked. They immediately knew that the one the street vendor had passed me was a counterfeit bill. They can tell by the feel and also by the way the ink looks in the light. Everyone who accepts any bills 50 Yuan or more checks for counterfeits here in China because this crime is so common. So, I lost a 50 Yuan bill that is worth about 7 dollars. I read somewhere that you can’t say you have visited China until you have been ripped-off in some way, and now I can say that I have been ripped-off! I do plan to keep the fake bill and have it framed when I get home.