Singaporean singer recounts ordeal with China tour guide who threatened group for not spending 'enough' at shops
The tourists eventually received a refund of their spending after lodged a police police.
PHOTO: Instagram/Shawn Tok

PUBLISHED ON
November 28, 2025 5:40 PMBY
LIM KEWEI
A vacation to Chengdu, China, in November turned into a nightmare for 23 tourists from Singapore when they were taken to various shops and pressured by their guide to buy items.
Local singer Shawn Tok, winner of the 2007 Campus SuperStar competition, revealed in a series of now-unavailable Instagram Stories that his tour group had been forced to buy jade, silverware, combs and herbal medicines in the first half of their nine-day tour.
"The tour guide literally wouldn't let us leave the store until we hit his sales quota
," said the 31-year-old, who alleged that the guide had shouted at them and behaved passive-aggressively towards non-buyers.
"We spent a total of 105,000 yuan (S$19,000) and it still wasn't enough."
Tok also said that the guide would wake those who fell asleep on bus rides, and "make (them) listen to his sales pitch".
Exhausted from the early mornings and shopping stops, 16 group members decided to take a two-day break and rejoin the group after.
But the agency got "very aggressive" and refused to let them back out, Tok alleged.
"I told them some people were sick and vomiting. Another guide replied, 'It's fine, you can puke in the car, I don't care.'
"We all know it was because if 16 of us didn't go, they would earn less from the forced shopping."
The Singaporean added that the agency then threatened to cancel the tour, with no refunds issued.
The group then sought help from the police, showing the authorities their transaction history and receipts as evidence of the forced shopping tour scam.
"Thank God the Chinese authorities are actually very protective towards tourists, so they (the tour agency) were forced to give us a full refund," Tok said.
He has this advice for visitors: Book a private driver.
China has been cracking down on such forced shopping cases, which typically entice victims by offering low-priced tours.
Operators would then coerce them to shop at selected stores so they could earn commission.