“I was taken back by their great generosity at first too”, told me Johnathan, “but believe me, you’ll get used to it very quickly”. Johnathan, an American foreign exchange student in Beijing, was one happy camper. This was his first time travelling by himself and he had great concerns over being cheated, which is why he was so glad to have met the Zhang brothers. He had encountered the Zhang brothers, who own a small hostel at Yabuli village in northern China, outside the Yabuli train station and from that point on they had provided for his every need. “I feel as if I’ve found a new family”, confided Johnathan. The two brothers accompany him everywhere he goes - from going out to dinner, through logging on to the internet and even on trips to the nearby city. Johnathan feels that the brothers are looking over his interests and are the only thing protecting him from being duped at every turn.

Despite being a student in China for almost half a year, Johnathan is rich (in Chinese standards) and has no real sense of value or of how much things should cost in China. When his digital camera stopped working he immediately rushed to the nearest city (accompanied by the brothers) and bought a new one for more than four hundred dollars. He does not know how much a meal should cost, or a cab ride. In fact, while being accompanied by the brothers he almost never gets to actually see the bill - they take care of the payment he he settles the account with them later. Johnathan is confident that this way he is getting a better deal. Sometimes the Zhang brothers treat him to a meal out of their own pocket, and they will often suddenly buy him a bottle of coke or some gum. Other times,  Johnathan insists on paying for the entire meal himself.

Johnathan’s main reason for coming to Yabuli was skiing in the relatively large ski resort next to the village. The brothers take him skiing every day, but do not ski themselves as it is quite expensive. He gives them money which they use to buy him a ticket, plus pays them for the ride expenses to the site. Johnathan believes this way he is getting the best deal.

The Zhang brothers make lots of money off Johnathan. He never actually gets a ticket to the ski site (he believes there are no tickets) and it seems that most of the ticket money goes directly to their pockets, with a portion probably appropriated to an accomplice within the site who takes advantage of the chaos to get him in. On his second day of skiing Johnathan was “caught” by the site staff and almost forced to pay again for the skiing - Johnathan believes that those were corrupt people who were trying to take advantage of him. At the end he did not pay twice, a success he attributes to his relationship with the Zhang brothers.

The Zhang brothers can’t always smoothly insert Johnathan into the skiing site. When the situation is not favorable (for example, there is some ticket inspection) they simply lie to Johnathan and tell him that the site opens late that day, or that it is closed for the day for a skiing competition. Even though they pocket the money themselves, they are still greedy enough to sometimes invent reasons for him to pay for the ticket even more than he should pay for a “proper” one. The other expenses - food, transport - are of course overpriced as well. The hidden reason behind his 24/7 escort is to isolate him from the environment and prevent him from somehow being enlightened as to his situation. Johnathan is their prize cow, and they are milking him dry.

Johnathan is happy. He pays too much, with the money going to crooks, but as his mindset is still set on an American expense standard and he has a lot of money, so he does not really mind. He feels that even if he is not getting the best deal he could find it does not matter as he has found real friends, people he is glad to be with. Should the genuine state of affairs be explained to him, bursting his bubble, or should he remain in blissful ignorance? I honestly don’t know.