Chinese tourists in foreign countries

[skylee]

Don't they line up in primary schools in China? I think I spent plenty of time at primary school learning to line up, be polite, be quiet and say thanks etc. And that was decades ago. What do Chinese students learn at primary and middle schools?

[Silent]

 

 

Paris Syndrome

That these people have to be repatriated due to wrong expectations is obviously extreme.  I think however it's hard to make a proper judgement of what to expect in a foreign country with a completely different culture. Also many western people come back home completely desillusioned from a trip to Africa or Asia.

 

 

 

and I was so used to just stepping back for Chinese queue-jumpers in China

Why step back if someone is cutting the line? Just tell them to queue up. 

 

In India I experienced something alike, but the caste system kicked in. I was 1st in line and a woman was cutting the line. I told her to queue up. Then the woman in the counter did the same. The woman cutting the line refused and said she was entitled to cut the line because she wanted a first class ticket. The woman in the counter accepted that excuse and served the line cutting woman first.

[NotChinese]

 

 

So, I kind of see how come she tried that, but why did the iceman sell it to her instead of pointing her to the back of the line? He would have known better.

 

Hmmm, I guess there are a few possibilities.

 

1. Are there any EU countries where queueing isn't as important? (I genuinely don't know). Ice cream guy could have been from there maybe?

2. Ice cream guy didn't see her push in.

3. He saw but didn't really care about anything other than selling ice cream, haha.

4. Maybe he's used to tourists from various cultures using various queueing tactics? 

 

I dunno though. Main thing is that she went straight to the front and, rather hilariously, was successful! 

[Lu]

Why step back if someone is cutting the line? Just tell them to queue up.

Because you can't tell all the people waiting directly in front of the metro doors to queue up. It's simply not practical, there are too many (and life is too short). At that point the tactic that costs me the least stress is just to remind myself that all these people clearly want to be in front very badly, and I don't mind that much, so I grant them the thing that they so clearly want. I still believe this is the best tactic (provided of course that it's not about something you are actually desparate for), but it costs quite a lot of emotional energy to do it every day, so I was very grateful to that Taiwanese official.

 

That India story is depressing.

[Silent]

 

Because you can't tell all the people waiting directly in front of the metro doors to queue up. It's simply not practical, there are too many (and life is too short).

Hope you don't need a local train in Mumbai, with your attitude you might wait for ever... I thought I'm not too bad in adapting myself but the first time I had to leave a couple of trains before getting the hang of it. In Mumbai it's a struggle to get on a local train, however ladies compartments seemed slightly less crowded. One time, long distance train, I just went into the cargo compartment. I had the impression it was not appreciated but I acted as a stupid tourist not understanding the problem and ended up having a comfortable spacious journey

[Flickserve]

I have seen a HK guy push in front of kids in a queue in HK's Ocean Park and get his order. When pointed out to him, he smirked - no apology.

My mandarin teacher says she avoids using mandarin when visiting HK. She will use English.

[Flickserve]

double post

[Flickserve]

Hmmm, I guess there are a few possibilities.

1. Are there any EU countries where queueing isn't as important? (I genuinely don't know). Ice cream guy could have been from there maybe?

2. Ice cream guy didn't see her push in.

3. He saw but didn't really care about anything other than selling ice cream, haha.

4. Maybe he's used to tourists from various cultures using various queueing tactics?

I dunno though. Main thing is that she went straight to the front and, rather hilariously, was successful!

successful and reinforced the Chinese behaviour stereotype!

[Kenny同志]

Don't they line up in primary schools in China? I think I spent plenty of time at primary school learning to line up, be polite, be quiet and say thanks etc. And that was decades ago. What do Chinese students learn at primary and middle schools?

 

Education in this aspect was inadequate when I was in primary school. The younger generation are being better taught, I think.

 

[Guest realmayo]

The immigration queue at HK airport can be fun with HK police/officials managing the queue scolding the mainland visitors for not queuing properly or taking photos, Canto-accented mandarin telling them they are giving a bad impression of China.

[Meng Lelan]

 

The immigration queue at HK airport can be fun with HK police/officials managing the queue scolding the mainland visitors for not queuing properly or taking photos, Canto-accented mandarin telling them they are giving a bad impression of China

 

 

Would love to  have perfect hearing so I could hear this comic dialogue. Maybe someone can caption a vid of this. 

[Kobo-Daishi]

 

Then there's the National Palace Museum, always overrun with shouting Chinese people crowding people out, shoving in front of you while you're looking at something, loud tour guides, etc.

 

 

I have practically stopped going to 故宮 for this reason. I used to love going there. It was super quiet and peaceful - a great environment to learn about art and history. But now it's a madhouse with busloads of people entering the museum all day.

 

 

 

Speaking of museums, I read an article in Friday's Los Angeles Times titled "L.A. museums sign on to 'China Ready' program in bid to draw tourists" on how some of our local museums in the Greater Los Angeles area are getting "China Ready" to lure Chinese tourists. The J. Paul Getty Museum out in Brentwood, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County across from USC, the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino (lot of wealthy Chinese live here and the city is a third Chinese. The museum opened a new Chinese garden a few years back and the foliage are finally maturing so you can see how it should properly look, not like it was first installed.) and the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.

 

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-ca-chinese-arts-tourists-20150419-story.html#page=1

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino,_California

 

I didn't know that Vincent Van Gogh's "Irises" was housed at the Getty.

 

 

 

According to figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce, visits from mainland China to L.A. rose 20% in 2014. The numbers are expected to continue growing by at least 10% annually.

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That explains why museums such as the Getty, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino and the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena have signed on to become "China Ready" after the program began last spring.

 

It involves sending staff members to at least three seminars sponsored by the L.A. tourism board. Once the coursework is done, cultural sites can win certification by launching an informational Web page in Mandarin, issuing Mandarin maps and guidebooks, and accepting China UnionPay, Chinese travelers' favored credit card. Having staffers who speak Chinese is recommended but not required. Providing museum audio tours in Chinese and adding Chinese dishes to menus at food concessions are also desirable but not mandated. At the Getty's cafeteria, visitors can get a menu in Chinese, and it usually will include a Chinese dish.

 

The Getty can't say how many Chinese tourists it draws. The circumstantial evidence includes the 14,000 map-and-guide booklets in Chinese that were plucked from racks at the information booth in the Getty Center's entry pavilion during the first three months of 2015. The Getty estimates it hands out about 100 audio devices daily that provide a guide to collection highlights in Mandarin.

 

Given L.A.'s substantial Chinese American community, including a recent influx of home buyers from the People's Republic, and that many other Chinese speakers from around the world are not from mainland China, the booklets and audio tours are more of a hint than a measure of how many tourists from China are coming through.

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art — which tour operators say is a prominent destination for Chinese group travelers — estimates it had 209,000 visitors from China in fiscal 2013-14. Spokeswoman Elyse Topalian said that the estimate comes partly from visitor surveys and partly from figures reported by four major tour companies that regularly bring Chinese tourists to the Met.

 

 

It'll be interesting to see if the Chinese tourists to these museums will be any politer.

 

Kobo.

[Shelley]

I didn't know that Vincent Van Gogh's "Irises" was housed at the Getty.

 

This is only one of Van Gogh "Irises" there are several versions as are there several versions of his famous "Sunflowers"

I have been to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam and have seen a couple there.

But that one was bought for an undisclosed price recently for the Getty museum.

 

[ChTTay]

In Beijing, I've often seen queue jumpers at the train station ticket booth told to get lost. Then again, for everyone window where the employee says get lost there are 8 who don't. I feel like it's getting better though. There is a western supermarket where I live where the queue one line to two tills... A Chinese guy attempted to go to the "empty till" but then actually asked if it was one line for both then we went to the back of that line.

Slowly slowly getting better. At least for some odd younger generation. The more they travel, the more they'll realise that thing work differently in different places.

Of course, for now, we will all see bad Chinese tourist behaviour. Didn't the government publish some guidelines how to be a good tourist abroad? They should push that as much as they did the "anti-spitting" campaign and things should improve a bit quicker.

[studychinese]

It's funny how Chinese people explain this phenomenon. Most that have an opinion explained to me that China has a high population and thus people have to be aggressive to get what they want. In a utilitarian sense this doesn't make any sense.

An example - in a Chaoyang train station I noticed people struggling to get in and out of the station on the stairs, with no concern to make one side going down and one side going up. In their struggle to get ahead it actually takes a lot longer to get through and if they behaved. Instead of getting ahead from bad behavior they are suffering for it.

I've got a feeling that the sense of community in China is a lot lower than places like Japan or Korea. Not feeling like a part of a community, being shamed in front of the community doesn't really matter.

How can this change? Well a century of British colonial rule softened the people of HK. That is out the question. Perhaps the Singaporean model would help. Absolute zero tolerance for infractions of social harmony, enforced by police (this presumes that the Chinese government can ensure that police are not too corrupt).

[liuzhou]

 

They should push that as much as they did the "anti-spitting" campaign and things should improve a bit quicker.

 

The anti-spitting campaign worked?

They have been pushing that since Mao was around. I don't think the message has reached my neighbours.

[ChTTay]

 

The anti-spitting campaign worked?

They have been pushing that since Mao was around. I don't think the message has reached my neighbours.

 

Definitely, the phlegmy sidewalks of old are no more. I see a lot of people finding a bin or a grassy/soil area to spit in/on these days but, honestly, It's not that much now. Certainly doesn't seem to be a habit the younger generation have picked up.

 

I remember sitting in first class on the fast train between BJ and SH and the guy next to me just spat on the floor the whole way. I can't remember the last time anyone spat on the subway here in Beijing. I think i've seen the odd guy spit on the steps at the stations but mostly it's phlegm free!

 

Happy days

[Touchstone57]

The anti-spitting campaign worked?

They have been pushing that since Mao was around. I don't think the message has reached my neighbours.

 

 

There was a fair amount of famine, illiteracy and general chaos then, so you can probably excuse some older people if they forgot to read the pamphlets they received.  

 

I think the Chinese government is well aware of the bad reputation of Chinese tourists abroad and has made a quite a bit of effort to curb. I was told recently that there was some type of point system, and it would go down on someone's record if they behaved badly abroad (sort of like getting points on your driving license?), and that tourist agencies where responsible for this aspect. Anyone heard of this?

 

It is slowly getting better, but it will take a generation or two (how is that measured?) for the bad habits to die. I feel that people hardly notice me these days for being a foreigner, and I don't get so much pointing and name calling as I did before. Take Singapore as an example of a country that was transformed from a third world to a first world country in a number of decades. For anyone who has been there, you can see a concerted effort by the government to transform peoples habits. Chinese perhaps has further to go before they reach that level. 

[geraldc]

Singapore has its own issues with mainland immigrants.

To be honest a lot of the issues aren't cultural, but the fact the people doing the offending behaviour, bullying staff, fouling the toilets, spoiling flights, etc are just absolute a holes. Percentage wise China has its fair share of selfish bastards, but now they are all hitting the world's tourist attractions at the same time, and grabbing the headlines. They are used to throwing their weight around their little pond, and just carry on when overseas.

[prateeksha]

Off topic, but wrt Silent's line-cutting anecdote, I think the term "Indian caste-system" is thrown around rather freely. You perhaps don't know this, but there are more than several backward caste people (officially labeled as Scheduled Castes/Scheduled tribes/Other Backward Classes) who after nearly 65 years of positive discrimination policies wear the best of brands, own city apartments, have sold their farmland and drive Audis and BMWs - basically a life as "luxurious" as any high-caste person's is assumed to be. So unless someone explicitly said that they deserve the first place in queue because of their "high birth", please assume that it's yet another case of typical developing nation richer-than-thou douchebaggery.