Mainland Chinese tourists creating a bad reputation abroad

Tales of obnoxious tourists are not uncommon, and there has been much finger-pointing at those from China. However, the incidents could also be products of blatant stereotyping.

Desmond Lim’s first long-distance flight wasn’t the rosy experience that he had envisioned. Fifteen minutes into take-off, some passengers began to talk loudly, others removed their shoes and put their feet up on their seats and a few others cleared their throats loudly.

A report circulating online alleged that a Chinese tour group in North Korea threw sweets to children as if they were “feeding ducks”. – Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Lim, a 22-year-old economics student, was on his way from Kuala Lumpur to Chengdu, China, and most of the passengers onboard the low-cost carrier were mainland Chinese.

“I had heard stories about loud Chinese tourists, but it was a shocking experience to see them first-hand. I was so relieved when we landed at the airport in Chengdu. Even then, I had to remain in my seat because the other passengers were pushing their way through the aisle to get their luggage,” says Lim.

Allegations about pushy, impolite, unruly and obnoxious Chinese travellers are neither uncommon nor baseless. Over the years, there have been a barrage of complaints and numerous bizarre incidents involving that particular tourist demographic.

The ‘how to’ of making good sartorial choices is mentioned in the Guide To Civilised Tourism that was issued by the China National Tourism Administration.

 

The Chinese media, in 2013, picked up on reports of a scuffle between Chinese honeymooners in French lavender fields over the best spot to capture a “Monet moment”. And then there was a report circulating online about a tour group in North Korea that threw sweets to children as if they were “feeding ducks”.

On Dec 11 last year, a mainland Chinese passenger caused a Nanjing-bound Thai AirAsia flight from Bangkok to make a U-turn and return to the Thai capital after she had hurled a cup of instant noodles –with hot water inside – at a flight attendant.

According to CNN, Hong Kong Airlines routinely trains its cabin crew in kung fu to deal with drunken passengers to and from mainland China.

The alleged notorious behaviour of Chinese tourists even prompted the China National Tourism Administration to issue the eyebrow-raising Guide To Civilised Tourism, a 64-page illustrated etiquette manual, in late 2013. It is an effort to curb unsavoury incidents involving Chinese nationals who holiday abroad.

The manual’s extensive list of do’s and don’ts include: “Do not insist on taking photographs with foreign visitors”, “Do not sneeze in front of other people”, “Do not occupy public bathrooms for long periods”, “Respect the work of service staff”, and “Respect the customs of all ethnic and religious groups”.

There’s also a call to preserve their national ideology and morality (“Resist superstitious activities, pornography, prostitution, gambling and drugs”); retain a good fashion sense (“Dress neatly and appropriately; do not bare your chest or back in public”); love animals (“Do not chase, beat or feed animals”); and some commonsense matters (“Do not stop to chat on roads or footpaths”).

The actions of poorly behaved travellers do stick out like a sore thumb in a confined space, such as in an aircraft.

 

The guidebook even has some culture-specific taboos. For instance, it states that, in England: “Do not casually ask others ‘Where are you going?’ or ‘Have you eaten?’ like you would do in China – it is considered impolite.” And in Italy, handkerchiefs are not to be given as gifts because “Italians regard handkerchiefs as unlucky because they are used to wipe away tears when parting with loved ones”.

This isn’t the first time a set of guidelines has been issued by a state department. Last year, the Thai Embassy in Tokyo came up with a list of do’s and don’ts for their people going to Japan. This came after complaints from the Japanese surfaced online about Thai visitors being “uncivilised”.

Booming market

The travel quirks of the mainlanders have come under the spotlight possibly because the Chinese have overtaken the Americans and the Germans as the world’s biggest spenders of tourism dollars. Statistics from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) can attest to that.

“Over the past decade, China was, and still is, by far the fastest-growing tourism source market in the world. Thanks to rapid urbanisation, rising disposable incomes and relaxation of restrictions on foreign travel, the volume of international trips by Chinese travellers has grown from 10 million in 2000 to 83 million in 2012,” reads a report by UNWTO in 2013.

UNWTO secretary-general Taleb Rifai, 65, says the impressive growth of tourism expenditure from this region will “surely continue to change the map of world tourism”.

This flight attendant on board a Thai AirAsia flight from Bangkok to Nanjing was scalded after an angry passenger threw hot water at her last December.

 

One way this new trend is changing world tourism, according to a report in The Guardian, is the sentiment that Chinese travellers have replaced the Americans as the world’s new “ugly” tourists. It’s a global image that the Chinese Government wants to change.

Chinese vice-premier Wang Yang, in an address in 2013, asked Chinese tourists to behave better when travelling overseas. “They make a terrible racket in public, scrawl their names on tourist sites, ignore red lights when crossing the road, and spit everywhere. This damages our national image and has a terrible effect,” he reportedly said.

According to Universiti Malaya Department of Anthropology and Sociology lecturer Kamal Solhaimi Fadzil, 42, culture shock might be a contributing factor to such behaviour.

“It’s only recently that China began climbing up the global economic ladder, and a lot of its people who have not travelled much before are now exploring the world for the first time, especially the older generation. It is not uncommon for them to experience culture shock,” he offers.

On Dec 16 last year, a mainlander on a Xiamen Airlines flight to Chengdu decided to open the emergency exit door just as the plane was taxiing prior to takeoff. When probed, he said he had wanted some “fresh air before takeoff”. It was his first time on an aeroplane.

It’s a phenomenon that the Japanese are familiar with. In Paris, there’s a 24-hour hotline for Japanese tourists suffering severe culture shock. Symptoms, according to a report in The Huffington Post, range from depression and anxiety to acute delusional states, dizziness, sweating, hallucinating and having “feelings of persecution”.

Travel providers and tour guides have a significant role to play. Universiti Tun Abdul Razak Head of Tourism Studies Fairul Ifnee Othman, 32, says that travel providers should ensure that the tourists under their wing are informed and educated before travelling, especially for the first time.

“Tourists should be exposed to the cultural background of the places they are planning to visit. At the very least, know the do’s and don’ts when visiting a certain location, to avoid misconduct and miscommunication,” he explains.

Trouble in the air

However, bad behaviour – regardless of passengers’ nationalities – sticks out like a sore thumb when one is in a confined space, such as an aircraft. It’s something that commercial flight attendant Dominique Choe, 24, knows all too well.

“Once, a flight to China was delayed for more than three hours and the aircraft, along with all its passengers and crew, had to remain on the ground due to bad weather conditions. After a while, the predominantly Chinese passengers got impatient and kept pressing the call buttons like they were playing music,” she recalls.

“There were even a few mainland passengers who went to the front, started shouting and demanded that the pilot open the aircraft door,” Choe adds.

According to an online report, some children in North Korea were fed sweets, as if they were ducks, by a Chinese tour group.

 

That particular incident brings to mind the incident on Dec 8 last year, whereby a passenger on China Eastern Flight MU2331 opened the emergency door of a plane as it was still taxiing to a parking bay, because he was “just too eager to get off the plane”. This triggered the automatic deployment of the emergency slide. It cost the airline RM56,000 to repair and replace the opened cabin door and emergency slide.

On April 25, also last year, Australian Matt Christopher Lockley caused panic on a Brisbane-Denpasar flight when he banged on the cockpit door, demanding to be let in. Apparently, he had mistaken the cockpit for the toilet.

Seven months later, on Nov 25, Briton Mohammed Khelya drank from a bottle of duty-free vodka in-flight, got drunk, then started quarrelling with his wife and threatening the flight crew. Ironically, the couple was on their way to their honeymoon in Cuba. Their Thomas Cook charter flight, from Manchester, had to make an unscheduled stop in Bermuda where a handcuffed Khelya was escorted off the plane by police officers. His wife continued on to Cuba without him.

“When I face difficult passengers, I will first listen to them and get to know what they want. If it’s related to service, I will try my best to fulfil (the demand). But if it concerns safety, I will be firm and tell them off in a nice way to avoid any complaints,” says Choe.

Correcting misperceptions

Kamal suggests that it is not nationality that determines the behaviour of tourists from certain countries.

“We cannot classify all (mainland) Chinese tourists as ‘ugly’ just because of a few isolated cases. It paints a bad picture of us as stereotyping nationalities,” he offers.

“We must distinguish between individual actions and societal behaviours. Just because an individual acted in a certain way does not mean that it is accepted or practised by the community.

“The few reported cases of tourist misconduct do not represent the majority of Chinese tourists, who are polite.”

SOME TRAVELLERS ARE JUST BAD -->

Some travellers are just bad

Misbehaving travellers might need a strong dose of chill pills and common sense drummed into them before embarking on their next trip.

Some travellers and tourists have been known to overstep their boundaries and do the unthinkable.

Baby’s cry sparks catfight

The cry of an innocent baby drew the ire of four mainland Chinese tourists on board a Hong Kong-bound flight on Dec 17 last year, according to a report by South China Morning Post.

Two women, who were sitting next to each other, became annoyed when the baby behind them began crying. When they told the baby’s mother to “shut her child up”, she did not take kindly to it.

They started shouting at one another, and before long, were hitting one another. In the full-blown fight, one of the women almost hit her head on the overhead compartment.

Haven’t got a football to throw? Well, a prosthetic leg will do!

This incident, which was first reported on July 31 last year, happened on a Tunisia-Edinburgh flight when a drunk woman requested for “cigarettes and a parachute” from the airplane crew. As they refused her strange demand, she got enraged and slapped a young passenger nearby, before taking off her prosthetic leg and swinging it at a stewardess.

Nature, graffitied

A group of artsy French hitch-hikers decided to express their creativity on one of the world’s best natural views, the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland – by spray-painting a 2.4m tall graffiti onto the cliff wall. What a way to “enhance” Mother Earth’s beauty! The multi-coloured abstract graffiti was spotted by a photographer on Feb 18, 2013.

Heritage treasure vandalised

“Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but photographs,” goes the saying.

It appears that 15-year-old schoolboy Ding Jinghao was never taught this. He carved his name onto a 3,500-year-old Egyptian artwork in the Temple of Luxor, Egypt, thus defacing it.

The etched Chinese characters, which read “Ding Jinghao was here’”, were photographed and posted online by a fellow Chinese microblogger in May 2013.

The boy’s parents issued a deep apology following their son’s action. The incident caused outrage in the mainland Chinese community, who condemned the boy’s action which subsequently painted a bad image of their country.

Broken pinky

Imagine breaking off the pinky of a priceless 600-year-old masterpiece just because you wanted to measure it against your own finger. That’s exactly what an American tourist did in August 2013, on his visit to the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (Museum of the Works of the Cathedral) in Florence, Italy.

Patrick Broderick, 55, a surgeon from New Fairfield, Connecticut, was attempting to measure his hand to that of the marble statue known as Annunciazione, when he accidentally snapped the finger off. —Compiled by Caysseny Tean Boonsiri