China wades in on badly behaved tourists: ‘foreigners are just as bad’
Mainland media highlights cases of non-Chinese tourists behaving badly in pre-emptive move
China's media has turned the spotlight on non-Chinese tourists misbehaving overseas, in what appears to be a move pre-empting a new wave of criticism against its own citizens behaving badly while holidaying around the world this Lunar New Year.
"It has been said there is a phenomenon of Chinese people with uncivilised behaviour. In fact, it also applies to many foreigners," the People's Daily Online said. "Our website has combed through a number of examples of uncivilised behaviour by foreign tourists. Let's not learn from them. Ha!"
The state-owned media platform cited several examples of public indecency, such as the pair of American sisters arrested in Cambodia this month for taking nude shots at the Angkor temple complex, a Unesco World Heritage site.
Lindsey and Leslie Adams, from Arizona, were each fined 1 million Cambodian riel (HK$1,870) and given six-month suspended jail terms.
The website also cited a 2009 incident in which a group of foreigners camped overnight on the Great Wall in Beijing - which is prohibited - and a 2013 case when another group was caught relieving themselves on the Shanghai elevated freeway.
Other examples listed included foreigners who stepped on precious monuments, littered and swam in no-swim zones. A graphic accompanying the article reminded readers to display good public behaviour, including not smoking indoors, not misbehaving on planes, not littering, queueing up in an orderly manner and chatting quietly.
