'Half-hearted' massage row gets English teacher jailed then thrown out of China as social media erupts in fury

After an ordeal in mainland China last year that saw him locked in a shed-like prison and then hastily deported, Vernon Davies must view his current residence in Chungking Mansions as a relative oasis of calm.

The young English-language teacher from Scotland never imagined a "simple misunderstanding" over a massage payment in a second-tier city of Henan province would land him two weeks in a freezing cell, followed by a quick eviction from a country he had grown to love.

But that was exactly what happened when pictures of the altercation in Zhengzhou city - his home at the time - went viral online, prompting social media users to put him "on trial".

"It was a small thing that was blown out of proportion," Davies, 22, said in his first press interview after the event in November sparked a media storm across China and even spawned death threats.

Davies' story is a cautionary one, reflecting potential pitfalls facing many foreigners in mainland China, particularly those outside the main cities.

The entire ordeal arose out of a dispute about the payment of a massage, which Davies deemed to be "half-hearted" and not professional.