rude mainland tourists in hong kong

[diulei]

My friend was in Times Square last Tuesday waiting for the taxi. The queue was a bit long and out of the blue some mainland woman carrying 10 bags of brand names clothes tried to jump the queue. My friend yelled at her to get in line in Cantonese and she responded with "bu ming bai" (I don't understand in mandarin). So she walked up to the woman next to him and asked if she needed to queue up. LOL! she yells at her "If we aren't waiting in line, what do you think we're doing, watching the stock market?". She gave up on her and asked the next person who happens to be a gweilo speaking fluent mandarin. He reminded her that this is Hong Kong. She continued going down the queue until the entire line yelled at her in unison to get in line! Despite all that yelling, she remained intransigent and jumped into a cab anyway. Luckily the sympathetic (to us) driver literally threw her out of the cab, bags and everything, almost breaking her knee. End of it? No. She kept going into different cabs until one drove away (Guess that one guy wanted to end it once in for all).

Anyone else ever have an experience like this before? Is there a reason for it?

[BrandeX]

hehe. ever been to the mainland?

[simonlaing]

Part 1 of 2 silly character limit.

I have had various strange experiences with line jumping.

In Shanghai they have an interesting system with the 112a and B buses which leave from people's square to a western suburb every 5 minutes and it full every five minutes. With traffic most people are on the buses for 30-40 minutes at least.

Here there are two metal guard rail for people to line up who want to have a seat on the bus. The wait is only about 15 minutes. At the front of the line though there is also a bus aid who holds the line (with a metal chain) until everyone who was in line who want a seat can get on. Once all the seats are filled he drops the Chain and lets others not standing in line get on the bus for the standing room space. The buses alternate.

When I was in line the guard just for a minute or two forgot to pull up the chain to prevent people from getting in the side and several people were cutting in to get the seats. The people in line and the bus driver yelled at the line cutters and the Bus aid. He pull one or two people back and grabed the metal chain but could do nothing about hte 4 or 5 people who had already got on the bus.

Once in awhile there was an express bus that skipped a lot of stops, the people in the metal line guides had to move to the side to let the people through. Not all of the people were able to get a seat so had moved up in the line. It seemed to me the system had some flaws but was an interesting idea on giving people who wait priority on seats.

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Part 2 of 2

Story 2.

This was 2001 in Suzhou (Suzhou has changed some since then I think), I was at the train station buying non-same day tickets waiting in the metal guides again to buy some tickets for the national holidays. There were quite a few people there buying tickets. IN the train station there is the left side guide for waiting in line and the the right side is open for people who have bought the tickets to leave. I and my friend Andy were about half way down the line, when a well dressed, uniformed chinese guy with big bags tries to walk down the right side. First the train station guy stops him and says to move to the back of the left side line. He takes out an army card and says (I think as my chinese was still basic at that time) I am army officer I can jump to the front of the line. The train security guard lets him through.

He gets to the front of the right side but waits as their is a fairly big group of migrant workers buying tickets and taking a long time. Some people in the line complain and say "how come you're there, get back in line like everyone else. " At first he tries to ignore the heckling. But it grows as more chinese people join the heckling. The army officer shouts I can do this I am in the army. The hecklers still continue to call him names. He takes out his army card/booklet , See I am in the army, I am a sargent and that gives me the right. At that moment an old guy behind me, takes out his booklet says, "wait a minute sonny I am a vice-general and I am lining up like everyone else, go to the back of the line." (I am not sure the actual titles),

Stunned, embarrassed and unable to contermand a superior officer he picks up his bags and walks to the back of the line. The people in the line beam with smiles and pat the vice-general for his help.

I have also been in the middle of Shouting matches in train station lines where a person in front agrees to buy tickets for another person who just came down the right side. Sometimes we waited 45 mintues to 2 hours to buy tickets so you can see people's frustation at these queue jumpers.

Have fun,

Simon:)

[simonlaing]

Pah, you're nowhere near the silly character limit. Look, it all fits in your first post

Roddy

PS Unless you're still writing (sh)

[cdn_in_bj]

Well of course this happens here all the time, but one time I decided to do something about it...

A good friend of mine came to visit me over the 5/1 holidays with his family (this wasn't intentional, btw, it's just how their travel schedule worked out). One day we were visiting the Forbidden City and after exiting through the north gate found that it was impossible to get a taxi. So we decided to walk for a bit in order to get away from the crowds. Not too far away, I noticed a taxi stand and there was nobody else waiting. I thought, great, we'll wait here and be in a taxi in no time. And sure enough, not a minute had gone by when I spotted a taxi coming our way. I flagged him and as he slowed down beside us, a man rushed past us, opened the door and started to get in the taxi. Now at this point, after having walked around all morning in the heat, my patience had gotten a bit thin so to say (as well as embarrassed by my impending loss of face in front of my friends - just kidding), and I just blurted out in a rather stern voice "打车要排队!". And to my great surprise, the man stopped and looked at me and I just pointed to the taxi stand sign. He then apologized and got out of the cab. His wife, who had been waiting to get in behind him, asked what was the matter and he told her that they should queue up for a taxi. I was so stunned that I didn't even get to thank him, and I actually felt a bit guilty about the whole matter afterwards as I realized that I could've handled it in a more friendly way and gotten the same results.

I guess my personally feeling is that things do seem to be improving here. Either that or it just doesn't bother me as much as when I first got here (with exception of the incident mentioned previously).

[zozzen]

I just blurted out in a rather stern voice "打车要排队!". And to my great surprise, the man stopped and looked at me and I just pointed to the taxi stand sign. He then apologized and got out of the cab. His wife, who had been waiting to get in behind him, asked what was the matter and he told her that they should queue up for a taxi. I was so stunned that I didn't even get to thank him, and I actually felt a bit guilty about the whole matter afterwards as I realized that I could've handled it in a more friendly way and gotten the same results.

That happened to me too. When we come to China, we assume ALL people never queue up, and seldom put ourselves in others' shoes to see if they just carelessly didn't notice a queue-up sign.

For avoiding embarassing moment, I always pretend to be very polite to say "mister [madam], please queue up." That works well in almost every case, except one time, a guy in Canton responded "X你老母, 排乜x 野隊."

[owshawng]

The worst plane ride I was ever on was a connecting flight from HK to Sydney. Plane was full of mainlanders. They were yelling, pushing, talking so loud my toddler couldn't sleep. They were even pulling food and drinks off the service carts, they made the bathrooms filthy. Totally disgusting experience.

[zozzen]

The worst plane ride I was ever on was a connecting flight from HK to Sydney. Plane was full of mainlanders. They were yelling, pushing, talking so loud my toddler couldn't sleep. They were even pulling food and drinks off the service carts, they made the bathrooms filthy. Totally disgusting experience.

If you have asian features and speak mandarin, try to say something similar to this next time:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/showpost.php?p=123494&postcount=2

I find it surprised that many disturbing mainland tourists I met are actually very understanding and very willing to make a behavioral change when you tell them what they are doing is "uncivilized", "damaging international image of China". ”都快要奧運，別這樣唄。文明要年年講，月月講，天天講。別讓老外笑話咱們中國人唄。”

[md1101]

oooh great as long as we're bitching about plane rides. Everyone standing up and taking their seatbelts off and grabbing their luggage JUST after touchdown (and in some cases just before!) is SO ANNOYING!

[adrianlondon]

Here are some older threads about this very theme :

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/6260-why-are-mainlanders-hated-so-much

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/6035-queuing-behavior-at-hk-disneyland

[cdn_in_bj]

You're right, taking a negative attitude definitely does not help things.

As for plane rides, yes we've all seen the overhead bin rush. But what I find most annoying is the "space hogging". You know, the spread legs or taking up both arm rests. But I do blame the airlines partly for this - give us more room in economy class, dammit!

On the otherhand, on a few recent domestic flights I've seen 空姐 that don't let bad behaviour get by. They really let the misbehaving passengers have it and I thought that was pretty hot.

On one of my flights home (from China), halfway through the flight one of the crew makes an announcement reminding passengers that it is a federal offence to smoke on the airplane and that the toilets are equipped with smoke detectors. He then goes on to say that violators could face a big fine (I believe it was up to $5000) and that a passenger on this flight was just caught smoking in the toilet.

[owshawng]

Speaking of space hogger. How about the people who have seats in the back, yet stow all their luggage in the over head bins at the front of the plane. I've seen those clowns in action in the US, Australia, and Taiwan. and they are from various nationalities.

[lilongyue]

One of the last times I was I HK I was in a McDonalds, waiting in line, and an old Mainland women starting arguing with the clerk. I looked to see what the problem was and the old woman was holding 100 RMB in her hand yelling at the young femail clerk. The young girl kept her cool and was trying to explain that you can't use RMB in Hong Kong. Finally the old woman's son came and gave her 100 HK dollars. In some absurd face-saving gesture, when the old woman get her change she scrutinized it as if the clerk was trying to rip her off.

[novemberfog]

I have had flights from North America to Tokyo that were then moving on to Beijing after Tokyo, and the flights were quite aweful. The majority of the people on the plane were very nice, but the older generation of Chinese female passengers (50 - 60 years and up) were always rude. Talking in a really high level, knocking into passengers as they walk down the aisle, always fiddling with overhead baggage, always waking up every hour to go to the bathroom (and rather than waking me, just stepping on my feet and using my should as support to push off of), pushing when it is time to get off of the plane, et cetera. I know it must be a cultural thing with older generations because middle age and young people don't do this! The flights that go from Tokyo to Singapore are also not very pleasant for the same reason--50+ year Chinese women who speak even louder in Hakka or Hokkien. I wish I could find out where the middle-age Japanese businesss men sit because they are the best passengers! They fall asleep as soon as the plane takes off and don't wake up until we arrive. I assume it is from working insane hours always. heh heh

However, I am starting to wonder if it is just a trait of women when they turn that age. I notice the same spirit of rudeness here in Japan. At the grocery store, at the bus stop, at the train station...the older women over 50 or 60 years of age always cut in line, cut people off, and happily shout and talk in a voice above normal level (especially in enclosed places like the subway or the bus!). When walking on the streets they walk in the middle and hold everyone up with no regard to anything around them. At 7 AM in the morning while the working people are quietly trying to get to work, a lady pops here head in the door of the bus and shouts, "Excuse me, does this bus stop at the civic center? Excuse me! No?" If she would just bother to read the sign right beside the bus it is clearly written!!!!

[gato]

I am starting to wonder if it is just a trait of women when they turn that age.

Maybe it's related to menopause?

[zozzen]

In a flight there's a front bag in each seat. I was quite surprised when a passenger seated next to me curiously inspected my own books, magazines and my bottle of water without my permission. That happened every time (two times) when I was traveling around Henan.

The first time, I took all my things back and told an middle-aged man not to do it. He didn't speak anything but felt quite embarassed. The second time, I begun to assume that's their way to go so I let it go.

[zozzen]

Maybe it's related to menopause?

Very likely. In a two-hour flight, when the flight was about to fly, an old Hong Kong woman still walked around and tried her best to change so many seats for her friends. She had more than 10 friends traveled with her and she wanted everyone seated next to her!

In another flight, I met an old American women who must be very proud of her family. She made a comprehensive presentation on everything her children achieved, where they worked, where they studied, how they loved her and how she loved them. Next stops.