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 travelling 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.
[Travel China Guide, China National Tourism Administration(Chinese), People’s Daily Society Page (Chinese)]
Photo: lzf / Shutterstock
Comments
14 responses to “Check Out China’s Ridiculous Guidelines For Chinese Travellers”
Explains why I’ve noticed a marked decrease in Chinese tourist buses leaving dead animals in their wake….
Some Australian travellers could do with some rules to follow
And some aren’t the travellers that could use to follow these rules.
So, anyone up for a trip to Spain to ridicule women not wearing earrings in public?
Such a weird one. Is that really a thing?
The “countries” might bend over to received said money, but the citizens of said countries will NOT tolerate bad behaviour
Dont get me wrong, I’ve been to China heaps of times (I love the place, my partner works there so if I wanna see her, I need to travel) but some of the behavior does leave a lot to be desired (especially the urinating in public, thats grosses me out – and the clearing of the throats. My partner and I have this saying called the Shanghai Song, which is just a series of different throat clearing noises)
The assaulting of animals is interesting – I remember seeing a Chinese tourist poking a sting-ray in a Singaporean zoo, and a man in a zoo in Shanghai putting his hands through the cage of an eagle (and secretly hoping the eagle would bite him….)
But hey, no country is perfect – and I think Australians need a rule book of how to behave in places like Bali and Thailand
1) People are not your slaves
2) Have respect for local cultures
3) Dont bring drugs into the country and act innocent
4) Not every 16-30 year old woman is there for your sexual gratification
5) Dont get drunk and act like a yobbo in public
6) Lines are there for a reason, dont get shitty when you have to wait in one
7) Learning a few locals words like Hello and Thank You wont hurt
etc etc
I’m pretty sure everyone knows that, which is why we have to ask them all – to find out which ones are there for that. If you don’t ask, you never know!
The behaviour of Aussies in Thailand every time I’m there, but particularly between November and January, is nauseating. Basically the NYE Full Moon Party and all of Phuket becomes a yobbo convention. They try to hit on anything that movies, from 14 year old girls travelling with family to Thai bar girls (euphemism for prostitute).
This list isnt surprising when you spend a bit of time in retail working in a predominantly chinese suburb. Culture transition doesnt happen at all in alot of cases, as the community is somewhat insulated (See; Campsie).
I think you will find there are similar guidelines on our Govt’s website: smartraveller.gov.au
These are absolutely not “Ridiculous” if you have been traveling recently and happened to run into some of the Chinese tourists.
Being Chinese and living in another country, frequently seeing Chinese tourists, I whole-heartedly support this guide.
Whilst it seems like “common sense” to us, you have to remember that cultures and customs are different everywhere.
Are you left handed? Don’t ever shake an Indonesian’s hand with your left hand, it’s considered incredibly bad, for reasons that make sense when you know them.
Guides like this are important to avoid offending people, and should be required reading for anyone going to a place with significantly different customs.
There are quite a few people who should follow these rules on principle.