Overtaking obnoxious American tourists as the most annoying tourists in certain parts of the world, Chinese tourists now have a guideline to follow when they travel. Certainly, not all are bad, but sadly, the travel guidelines listed by the Chinese government for its people to travel by are nothing short of ridiculous.
While Chinese golden week might be coming to an end today, the guidelines for Chinese travellers going abroad don't seem to be going away anytime soon. Covering everything from common sense to the obscure, the guidelines put out by the official China National Tourism Administration are pretty comprehensive.
These guidelines aren't only for Chinese tourists seeking vacations out of China—there is also a separate guide for those traveling domestically.
The 64-page guide (available for download here) breaks down the guidelines for different scenarios, which range from being on the bus to how to act after a plane lands. Kotaku has taken the liberty of translating and excerpting the some of the guidelines.
- Don't shout in public.
- Queue up in line and do not cross the yellow line. (What if the line isn't yellow?)
- Eat in an orderly fashion. Do throw away your own trash. (People don't throw away their own trash in fast food restaurants in China)
- Don't engage in gambling and sexual activities.
- Don't spit in public, do not spit out chewing gum on the floor and do not smoke in non-smoking sections.
- Don't walk on the grass and don't pick flowers or fruit.
- Don't assault any animals.
- Don't aggressively ask locals for pictures with you.
- Respect others' religion and beliefs.
- Don't show your bare chest in public.
- Don't horde the public facilities.
- Flush the toilet after use.
- Don't relieve yourself in public.
- At a buffet, please do not take everything in one go, they will be refilled.
- In Spain, women should wear earrings in public to prevent ridicule.
- In Germany, whistling is used to call the attention of dogs—do not use it for people.
So why did the Chinese government feel compelled to put out a guide to guide their tourists? Well, according to TravelChinaGuide.com, the number of Chinese tourists visiting foreign countries in 2013 is expected to reach over 93 million. That's a lot of people leaving China.
On top of that, over the past few years, Chinese tourists have garnered a poor reputation, particularly in neighbouring areas such as Hong Kong and Taiwan. There was also the incident of the Chinese kid carving his name into a 3,500 year-old pyramid. The pyramid incident led to Chinese vice-premier Wang Yang to personally address the issue. Wang even went as far as saying that some Chinese tourists had behaved in an "uncivilised" way, giving China a bad image abroad. Anecdotally, domestic tourists receive the same amount of scorn within China.
It's a mystery how these guidelines will shape the future of Chinese tourists. I highly doubt it'll affect much change. Chinese tourists have money, and host countries will bend over to receive said money, enabling bad behaviour. One thing I do want gone is messy nose hair. I don't need to see any more overgrown nose hair.
Sources: Travel China Guide, China National Tourism Administration(Chinese), People's Daily Society Page (Chinese)
Photo: lzf / Shutterstock
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Eric is a Beijing based writer and all around FAT man. You can contact him @FatAsianTechie@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @FatAsianTechie.