Tourism and tourists

Chinese tourists should not pick their noses in public, pee in pools or steal airplane life jackets, China's image-conscious authorities have warned in a handbook in their latest effort to counter unruly behaviour.

The National Tourism Administration publicised its 64-page Guidebook for Civilised Tourism -- with illustrations to accompany its list of dos and don'ts -- on its website ahead of a "Golden Week" public holiday

As Chinese tourists increasingly travel abroad, they have developed a stereotype of "uncivilised behaviour", which Vice Premier Wang Yang said in May had "damaged the image of the Chinese people".

Several countries, including debt-laden European nations, have eased visa restrictions to attract increasingly affluent Chinese tourists, but reports have also emerged of complaints about etiquette.

A mainland Chinese woman who in February had her son relieve himself in a bottle in a crowded Hong Kong restaurant sparked an outpouring of anger online, with some locals deriding mainlanders as "locusts".

It also urged them not to occupy public toilets for long periods of time or leave footprints on the toilet seat. Nor should they pee in swimming pools.

And after taking a flight they must leave the life jackets underneath their seats, the rulebook said, explaining that "if a dangerous situation arises then someone else will not have a life jacket".

The handbook also dispensed country-specific advice: Chinese visitors to Germany should only snap their fingers to beckon dogs, not humans.

Women in Spain should always wear earrings in public -- or else be considered effectively naked.

And diners in Japan were instructed not to play with their clothes or hair during a meal.

A 33-year-old tourist, also surnamed Zhang, visiting Hong Kong from central Anhui province complained that the guidelines were too many.

http://news.yahoo.com/no-nose-picking-china-chides-unruly-tourists-06531...