A massive bill served up to a Chinese tourist in the eastern port city of Qingdao has gone viral on the country's Internet, prompting local authorities to fine the restaurant for deceptive practices.
The tourist, identified only by his surname Zhu, had taken his family on vacation to the picturesque port with its colonial German architecture, where they stopped in for a seafood meal at the Shande Live Seafood and Barbecued Home-Cooked Dishes restaurant.
He ordered a dish of "large prawns caught at sea" with a price-tag of 38 yuan (U.S.$6), but was outraged to receive a total bill for 2,700 yuan (U.S.$426)at the end of the meal.
The restaurant owner pointed to a line of small print at the bottom of the menu which said "prices are per item." Zhu had been charged 38 yuan per prawn.
Zhu refused to pay, whereupon the owner threatened him, and police were called. Zhu settled the bill, while the owner justified the price of the prawns by saying they were "freshly caught."
Another tourist surnamed Xiao had a similar experience, and both men took their stories to the local media.
The story has been trending on China's Twitter-like platform Sina Weibo, with netizens slamming the restaurant and flooding comments sections with waves of satire, warning each other to check the price of individual rice grains in future.
On Tuesday, the Qingdao municipal government responded to the report for the first time, announcing that the district government prices bureau had issued a notice ordering the Shande restaurant to pay a fine of 90,000 yuan (U.S. $14,160) and requiring it to clearly publish the true price of the prawns on its menu.
The restaurant has already shut its doors, local media reported.
A Qingdao resident surnamed Gao told RFA said the problem lay with corruption between business owners and officials, who require bribes in return for protecting them in such disputes.
"Nobody in the Qingdao municipal government will do anything on behalf of ordinary people; none of the departments do their jobs," Gao said.
"I know that business is very bad in Qingdao right now, and they rely on cheating people to make money; there's no way to make an honest living," Gao said.
Gao said he had closed down a car repair business in the city in the face of constant harassment by officials looking for payoffs.
"I had a friend who used to run a small guesthouse, and he used to swindle people too."
Retired Shandong University professor Sun Wenguang agreed.
"The government won't do what it is supposed to do in today's China," Sun said. "That's why this thing blew up online, with everyone piling in to criticize."
"Yes, there are people running private businesses, who are unethical, but the more important factor is official corruption," he said.
Anti-corruption campaign
China punished 249 officials for "inaction" this year as many chose to do nothing for fear of being targeted by President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign, official media reported last month.
The officials were fired, warned or demoted after an investigation from May-June, with investigators citing failure to spend development budgets, project delays and sitting on land earmarked for development.
The central government has scolded local government officials for their laziness and repeatedly threatened to punish them by recalling untouched budgets, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
"The aim of holding these people accountable is to promote work and manage the issue of laziness in government ... and ensure this year’s economic targets are on track," Xinhua cited an unidentified official as saying.
"Corruption is endemic in the current political system," U.S.-based political commentator Liu Qing told RFA in a recent interview.
"Historical precedents in China and overseas have shown us that the only way to uproot it through reform of the system" he said.
Reported by Qiao Long and Xi Wang for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.