May 5, 2014
ASIA / PACIFIC
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 3
Teething troubles for Chinese tourists in Thailand
TROUBLESOME TOURISTS. Chinese tourists
pose for a photograph at a Buddhist temple in Chiang
Mai province, northern Thailand. The bucolic, once
laid-back campus of one of Thailand’s top universities
seems to be under a security clampdown these days.
Not against a terrorist threat, but Chinese tourists,
thousands of them, who have clambered aboard stu-
dent busses, eaten in cafeterias, sneaked into classes
to attend lectures, and even pitched a tent by a pictur-
esque lake. Now visitors are restricted to entering
through a single gate manned by Mandarin-speaking
volunteers who direct Chinese tourists to a line
of vehicles for guided tours. (AP Photo/Apichart
Weerawong)
By Denis D. Gray
The Associated Press
C
HIANG MAI, Thailand — The
bucolic, once laid-back campus of
one of Thailand’s top universities
is under a security clampdown. Not
against a terrorist threat, but against
Chinese tourists.
Thousands clambered aboard student
busses at Chiang Mai University, made a
mess in cafeterias, and sneaked into
classes to attend lectures. Someone even
pitched a tent by a picturesque lake. The
reason: Lost in Thailand, a 2012 slapstick
comedy partly shot on campus that is
China’s highest-grossing homegrown
movie ever.
Now visitors are restricted to entering
through a single gate manned by
Mandarin-speaking volunteers who direct
Chinese tourists to a line of vehicles for
guided tours. Individual visitors are
banned, and a sign in prominent Chinese
characters requesting that passports be
produced is posted by the gate.
With their economy surging, mainland
Chinese have become the world’s most
common world traveller, with more than
100 million expected to go abroad this
year. In 2012, they overtook American and
German travellers as the top international
spenders, according to the United Nations
World Tourism Organization.
But in Chiang Mai and elsewhere,
Chinese tourists have acquired the same
sort of reputation for loud, uncouth,
culturally unaware behavior that inspired
the term “Ugly Americans” decades ago.
Many in the tourism industry are
delighted by the influx, but 80 percent of
2,200 Chiang Mai residents polled by the
university in February said they were
highly displeased with Chinese behavior.
The survey and numerous comments on
Thai social media blamed Chinese for
spitting, littering, cutting into lines,
flouting traffic laws, and allowing their
children to relieve themselves in public
pools.
Some
restaurant
owners
complained of Chinese filling up doggy
bags at buffets.
The low point in local-tourist relations in
Thailand’s second-largest city was likely a
photograph widely seen on the internet of
a person, purportedly Chinese, defecating
in the city’s ancient moat.
“Unfortunately, right now, the feeling is
very anti-Chinese. In order to bring out
such strong feelings in Chiang Mai people,
it must be really bad. Generally, Chiang
Mai people are quite tolerant of
foreigners,” says Annette Kunigagon,
Irish owner of the long-established Eagle
Guesthouse.
But she and others point out that much
of the inappropriate behavior applies to
tour groups rather than individual
travellers who are generally younger,
better educated, and more attuned to local
customs.
Some of the censure smacks of
hypocrisy. The Thais themselves are
champion litterers and have notched one of
the highest traffic fatality rates in the
world.
Residents of Chiang Mai, a 700-year-old
city rich in cultural traditions, may be
particularly sensitive to some Chinese
ways, priding themselves on refined,
gentle manners and soft speech. Perhaps
their most common complaint is how loud
the visitors tend to talk. There is also
anxiety, reflected in the university poll,
that in tandem with the tourists an
increasing number of Chinese are buying
property, setting up businesses, and
taking jobs from locals.
Thais are far from the only people
unhappy. Over the past few years, some
hotels and restaurant buffets — where
guests have filled doggy bags after eating
— have made it clear that Chinese are not
welcome. Hong Kong Airlines has trained
crew members in kung fu to subdue
drunken passengers and a sign in Chinese
at Paris’ Louvre requests that visitors not
defecate or urinate on the museum
grounds. Widely publicized was graffiti
etched into Egypt’s ancient Luxor temple
reading “Ding Jinhao was here.”
Chinese vice premier Wang Yang last
year said negative conduct had “damaged
the image of the Chinese people.” The
government issued a tourism law mainly
to regulate the domestic market but which
urges travellers abroad to “abide by the
norms of civilized tourist behavior.” It also
produced a 64-page Guidebook for
Civilized Tourism with a long list of “do
nots,” including nose-picking in public,
stealing life jackets from airplanes, and
slurping down noodles.
One of the most virulent critics has been
Wang Yunmei, who recently published
Pigs on the Loose: Chinese Tour Groups
after six years of travel abroad. While the
book drew mostly “nasty” comments from
fellow countrymen, Wang says some told
her that the book should have come out
years ago.
Some Chinese media commentators say
improper behavior is often an extension of
domestic habits. Wang says many Chinese
tourists are rural people who recently
acquired money through land sales but
have little education and speak only their
own language. If public toilets don’t exist
in their villages, she says, they may not
know to look for them when the need
arises. She also says education has also not
kept pace with the rapid rise of the middle
class and its growing wealth.
“It’s going to take some years before they
behave better. There has been a campaign
in China for some time, but these things
are still going on,” she says.
Those who are making money off the
influx are looking on the bright side.
“We have talked to many businesses and
they are very happy,” says Wisoot
Buachoom, director of the Tourism
Authority of Thailand in Chiang Mai. The
gap between the city’s high and low tourist
seasons has been narrowed because of the
Chinese influx, he says.
Wisoot says several Chiang Mai
agencies are working to regulate some of
the Chinese behavior, like insisting on
international driving licenses for car
rentals. They have also enlisted movie
stars to deliver messages about proper
conduct
while
lauding
Thailand’s
attractions on Chinese television.
“In the past, we had some of the same
problems with westerners coming to
Chiang Mai, but now we see very little of
this,” he says.
Even on the campus overwhelmed with
Chinese tourists, Chiang Mai University
vice president Rome Chiranukrom calls it
“an opportunity, not a threat, a raid.” He
says the experience has given his students
a “reverse culture shock” that will teach
them to behave appropriately in other
societies.
“We live in a globalized world and need
our students to see the differences with
others — and these came right here for us
to see,” he says.
Rome notes that 60 percent of Chinese
tourists to Thailand are first-time
travellers abroad, coming wide-eyed and
generally speaking no foreign language to
a place where all signs are in Thai or
English.
“We need to learn to communicate and
provide information, and then I believe
that many will listen, understand our
culture, and obey our laws and
regulations,” he says.
Rome himself has just started Mandarin
lessons.
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