Mainland China series, Bu Bu Jing Xin <步步惊心> was extremely popular and left more than an emotional impact upon viewers. The drama’s time travel twist, which featured Liu Shi Shi (刘诗诗) traveling back in time to the Qing Dynasty and embroiled in romances with Nicky Wu (吴奇隆) and Kevin Cheng (鄭嘉穎 ), may have impassioned naive teenage boys and girls to pursue the same time travel fantasy!
Recently, a teenage girl in China, known as Xiao Dan, was cheated of her money by a time travel scam artist. Psychologists maintain that such time travel urges, a form of extreme escapism, was quite rare. Such fantasies may stem from dissatisfaction with real life and a curiosity in living a fantasy in an ancient era.
The victim of a recent scam, Xiao Dan was particularly fascinated with novels and TV series centered around time travel themes. She wished to travel back to the Qing Dynasty or Tang Dynasty. One month ago, Xiao Dan met an online friend known as “Immortal Sister.” The pair got along very well and in one of their conversations, Xiao Dan indicated that she was interested in traveling back in time. “Immortal Sister” claimed that she possessed the knowledge and power to travel across different time periods, after which the pair met in person. When “Immortal Sister” asked for money to help her fulfill her fantasy, Xiao Dan agreed to pay $18,00 Yuan (all the money she had in her possession). After counting the money, “Immortal Sister” thought that it was too little money, but promise to give Xiao Dan one time travel trip.
A few days later, Xiao Dan met with “Immortal Sister” and her “time travel expert” friend. A remote, isolated areas was selected as the destination for Xiao Dan’s time travel trip. Xiao Dan was asked to drink a bottle of wine, upon which she will wake up and travel to the Qing Dynasty. Xiao Dan followed instructions, drinking the entire bottle of wine and woke up cold. She found herself still in the same remote location as before, with “Immortal Sister” and her $1,800 Yuan gone. Realizing her foolishness, Xiao Dan reported the scam to the police.
Excerpt from ifeng.com
Jayne: Fortunately, the scam artist did not suggest electrocuting the poor girl in their travel back to the Qing Dynasty scheme. Can’t help but laugh…the age of the girl was not mentioned in the news.
Tags: Bu Bu Jing Xin
1st thought after reading the article?
What an idiot.
exactly what I was thinking too when I read it. I just tried to trick my niece who is 10 years old btw, and she didn’t even fall for it.
Hey Jayne,
I’m travelling to New York this May 15..any recommendation of hotel? I’d like to stay near Times square or broadway area..
Veejay,
That area is extremely expensive and jam packed with tourists. Seriously, staying anywhere in Manhattan is good, since the trains are so accessible. And you will have to take the train, since you cannot walk from attraction to attraction every day.
To save a little money, I would suggest the Herald Square (34th Street area), which is about 15 minute walk to Times Square, accessible to all trains to get you downtown and uptown.
Do you like boutique hotels? What do you think of the Herald Square Hotel?
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60763-d93452-Reviews-Herald_Square_Hotel-New_York_City_New_York.html
If money is not a problem, the Hilton brand of hotels are always nice. Here are two more in the Herald Square area:
Hampton Inn Madison Square Garden
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60763-d498869-Reviews-Hampton_Inn_Madison_Square_Garden-New_York_City_New_York.html
Hilton Garden Inn at 35th Street
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60763-d1218792-Reviews-Hilton_Garden_Inn_New_York_West_35th-New_York_City_New_York.html
Closer to Times Square is more expensive. Generally, a hotel downtown will be cheaper.
One of the things I recommend you do is visit the downtown Financial District waterfront, which will be very nice in the May time frame.
Thank you so much Jayne,
I think Herald Square is good because I’m also looking for a hotel which is close to the subway so I can travel around without hassle. Don’t think I’ll go for hampton cuz it looks too expensive for me haha.
I’ll call Hilton Garden Inn to check out the price soon. I’ve actually found some hotels which is in Manhattan too, they’re Holiday Inn Express at Madison Square and Bestown.
Veejay,
Another hotel to consider is Stanford Hotel in the Herald Square area. It is located in the 2 block area of Koreatown, so you will have access to the best Korean food that NYC has to offer. Seriously a meal in any one of the Korean restaurants is great and many places are open 24 hours, with some Korean bars and karaoke places. It’s a safe part of town, subway stop a few steps away.
The pictures do show a somehwat basic room though:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60763-d93565-Reviews-Hotel_Stanford-New_York_City_New_York.html
If Times Square is still your first love, you can consider the Courtyard by Marriott (southern part of Times Square):
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g60763-d99368-Reviews-Courtyard_by_Marriott_New_York_Manhattan_Times_Square_South-New_York_City_New_York.html
If you need additional travel advice, feel free to e-mail me:
jayne@jaynestars.com
@Jayne:
Haha Jayne you can also make a travel site!
Also Thanks for the advise. Cuz, I someday I will visit New york too
Ha! Ha! Ha! I mean what can you do to help stupid people? Education perhaps? If time travel is only 1800 yuan, which is cheap by any standards, I may wish to go on a one way journey!!
Ha! Ha! Ha!
But someone please tell her time travel is possible. Like Veejay, if in Malaysia goes to USA, surely it will be 1 day back or same day. That is like time travel man!
Oh China please don’t blame BBJX. At least the girl didn’t think of doing what Ruoxi did; hit by a car then get electrocuted then fall down the stairs.
But where would I go? Tough choice. Maybe same era in Qing, or maybe way back in Han, or Tang, or to Rome and meet Cicero or way way way back to meet Buddha. So many choices. But none of them involves a time that has electricity which will be a bummer for me. Also can’t check Jaynestars often since not existed yet!
Funn,
If you can time travel to fulfill your fantasies, would entertainment gossip matter anymore?
It’s the general urge to keep checking our cell phones that is hard to resist though.
Hehe you would like to talk to Buddha? Go back to the Renaissance?
I think modern world has too many comforts and technology that we cannot live without. What extreme escapism? As if video games, 3D chatrooms, cosplay, etc. are not enough?
We even have assassin game tournaments (pretend you are a hitman and “kill” victims on your list with a water gun), held in different worldwide locations every year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StreetWars
I would stay put in the modern world.
Gossiping is as old as medicine and prostitution! People tends to gossip! Yes would love to meet Buddha, or somewhere nearer would be Gandhi. But would love to go to the old roman world except I would want to be someone rich and powerful because the worst is to be a slave in roman world. No no! Cicero would be good to gossip with!
Yeah I will stay put because I can’t live without Jaynestars!!!! If future, which is not yet, but I hope to see a star trek future.
Oh oh!! Fictional world, HARRY POTTER!!! I wanna see Diagon Alley! I mean I saw Diagon Alley in HK, very crowded with lots of Asian people! Ha Ha!!
I also hope that BBJX does not get blamed due to this scam. There were other time travel series too so BBJX should not be blamed for it all. I would love to travel back in time if it were possible. If I could go, I would go back to the Shang and Zhou dynasty time. I really want to see any of the stuff in Feng Shen Bang is true or not… Many think it is a story full of only fiction, but I think there may be some truth to it in some aspects… Living in the past is nice, but then again, there were no flushing toilets, TV, the net, computers and all of the pleasures of everyday technology so I do wonder if we can all truly live in the past???
Okay reading this you know for sure that this girl is an idiot and really young. Because not even teenagers would give all their money to a stranger.
Seriously you would not believe a drama or story to be real.
It will be tragically funny if she is an adult. Look, people get cheated all the time. So maybe I am wrong to laugh at her naive personality which I interprete as stupid. When people wanna con you, and you’re desperate, you will get conned.
@Khanh,
You should not say it like that. Who said that ONLY young people get tricked and scammed?? I have seen people of all ages old and young get scammed. Even people that usually don’t get scammed or cheated have been cheated before…I saw so many true stories of it happening before when I watched some TV shows. Everynoe is vulnerable in one way or another so I guess you can’t blame this girl 100%. Trust me, IF this has not happened to you then you will think that who ever got fooled is foolish. But if it did, you will not be calling this girl an idiot and assume that ONLY young people get scammed because that is NOT true at all.
wtf?! seriously…I like the concept of time traveling too, but seriously, it only happens in dramas…LOL…
lol lol lol
Holy cow! That is sad, yet funny! Well at least the time traveler is still alive! Goodness these people!
I would like to travel back in time too. Not because of BBJX or similar stories. I just want to see how the past is really like.
Which past Kidd?
Too many to list. But, I would like to go as observer and not get involved. Maybe, I could see them and they cannot see me. I won’t want to stay there for years like Ruoxi. I want to travel to many past timelines to see the happening. Go to prehistoric time to see where the missing link starts, see the neanderthals, the extinct animals, then, go to other places to verify history. See how the Egyptians really built the pyramids, see how they move foreign stone to make the Stonehenge, see Jesus and Buddha, and many more.
@Kidd,
Can these ppl or animal feels you when they accidentally bump on you? since they can’t see you?
If 5 or more people travel together to the same destination I might be able to offer a discount due to “economies of scale” hahaha…
@ Veejay
After thinking over your question, I think it’s better that they can, so that I can also pick up stuff and feel stuff too. I’d be careful when I move around to minimise unwanted contact.
Harry’s invisibility cloak plus the tardis is what kidd needs!
Annabeth’s Yankee cap would be better. Just wear in and your will be invisible.
But Kidd, wind blow and poof! The cap gone! And imagine being seen with a cap in olden times! That will mess with the whole history thing!
I dont think I’ll be interested in travelling back to ancient just because I can’t live a day without electrity haha
This teenage girl is lucky she wasn’t sexually assaulted. Anyway, I guess she’s too young to have seen “back to the future”. Everyone knows u need a vehicle like the Dolorean to really time travel! I’m still waiting to get those futuristic Air Jordan’s.
Which is why none of us could afford it. Or do like Planet of the Apes did; go to space, hibernate and come back and voila! Future!
One more option- hot tub time machine!
That Tardis from Dr Who!
Jayne!! This article no pictures?
LOL, I thought it was only 18 yuan at first but realized it was 1800. Hope the general population is smarter than this girl, otherwise China got a huge problem, hehe
1800 yuan is cheap for time traveling. Plane tickets are far more expensive!
Ofcourse im aware of that! I just LOL when I initially thought it was only 18 yuan.
This girl should be grateful towards “immortal sister” since she hopefully has learn an invaluable lesson for life, haha
the impact of drama/media. awww.
Moral of the story: Stupid people are stupid.
All you need is to repackage the old scam ideas and people will buy it.
Thought in the 21st century people would’ve gotten a little smarter due to evolution. Guess I was wrong, LOL
lol wow this is embarrassing.
So Red China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) is right all along to censor “time travel” because of this incident…
But the real reason was because of Gong butchering and bastardizing history. However the real real reason is so that they can stop the producers from letting the heroine time travel back again in Gong 2. Of course sacrifices must be made. Luckily BBJX being wiser ended with 1 series.
BBJX2 is planned, isn’t it?
@Larry3,
I agree but I still think it is fun to have series that travel back in time. However, I think that theme has been reused way too much lately that it is getting old. I wonder if they will allow more time travel series in the future?? I don’t think that this incident should stop the companies from making some good time travel series in the future.
I think the silly girl got off lightly by only being tricked out of money.Money can be earnt againt. Anything could have happened to her whilst she was unconscious
Is there a way to reach the victim? For a small fee I could help her go back in time before the scam so she could warn herself not to go and she could save the money!
*wink wink* =D
Well I mean people like that deserve to be scammed, so they’ll learn to not trust anyone
I find that sad that people still dream of traveling back in time. I personally dream of it and all, but know that it is not possible even at a young age. I think that is one of the few reasons why I love ancient series so much. It is like a temporary gateway or refuge for us to go back in time instead of the typical modern world that we live in…
SO STUPID ALSO HAVE.
Does anyone have a link to the original article? I can’t seem to find it on ifeng.com.
Don’t mind me, I found it!
http://zhongyi.ifeng.com/news/bgt/20122/142500.shtml