No peeing in the pool, nose picking or stealing life jackets from the plane: China issues 'civilised' travel guidebook for tourists heading abroad
- Occupying public toilets for long periods of time and leaving footprints on the seat are discouraged
- Drinking soup straight from the bowl and slurping is not appreciated
- Asking Britons whether they have eaten is deemed impolite
- Rules outlined in 64-page Guidelines On Civilised Travel Abroad
Beijing has issued a handy 64-page rulebook aimed at curbing the unruly behaviour of Chinese tourists abroad who have developed an ‘uncivilised’ stereotype.
In an effort to smooth out international relations, Guidelines On Civilised Travel Abroad advises travellers to keep nose-hair neatly trimmed, avoid using fingers to pick their teeth and refrain from peeing in the swimming pool.
China's Vice Premier Wang Yang said in May that the tourism louts had 'damaged the image of the Chinese people'.
Peeing in the pool is not optional, China's new guidebook for tourists warns. (Swimmers head for the water in southwestern China in this 2012 photo)
In the book, which also comes with helpful illustrations, tourists are urged not to occupy public toilets for long periods or leave footprints on the seat.
Life jackets should be left underneath the seat in aircraft, the rulebook states, because ‘if a dangerous situation arises then someone else will not have a life jacket’.
Nose picking in public is frowned upon.
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 they could be considered effectively naked.
Customers enjoying food at a Chinese restaurant in Dublin, Ireland. Slurping is not encouraged (file photo).
Diners in Japan should not play with their clothes or hair during a meal.
Tourists are reminded that all air-conditioned places in Hong Kong and Macau are no-smoking areas, and mainlanders should not try to get refunds for food.
THE ETIQUETTE MANIFESTO
Don’t...
- Give a handkerchief in Italy as a gift because it is deemed inauspicious
- Ask Britons whether they have eaten.
- Touch people's belongings in Nepal with a foot
- Ask for pork in Islamic countries
- Call Africans 'Negros' or 'black'
- Use the left hand to touch other people in India
- Eat a whole piece of bread in one mouthful or slurp noodles noisily inside an aircraft
Do...
- Use shower curtains in a hotel
- Keep quiet when waiting to board a plane
- Keep mobile phones turned off until the aircraft has come to a complete stop
- Be punctual if taking part in a tour group
- Arrive at a banquet hall 15 minutes early and adhere to a formal dress code
Source: Guidelines on Civilised Travel Abroad, released by China National Tourism Administration
A 33-year-old tourist visiting Hong Kong from central Anhui province complained that the guidelines were too many and too specific.
'You cannot possibly look through all of the rules before you go travelling.
'Also the rules are different in different places,' he told the South China Morning Post. 'I think it's not very feasible.'
But one tourist from Guizhou said the new rules provided tourists and locals with a better environment.
While several countries have eased visa restrictions to attract affluent Chinese tourists, complaints about etiquette have made international headlines lately.
Luxury French fashion Zadig & Voltaire sparked a huge controversy last year by claiming its new 40-room boutique hotel, due to open in 2014, will not be open to Chinese tourists.
In February, a mainland Chinese man reportedly relieved himself in a bottle in a crowded Hong Kong restaurant, sparking anger online and prompting some locals to deride mainlanders as 'locusts'.
Chinese tourists in North Korea have been accused of insensitive behaviour, such as throwing sweets at children ‘like they’re feeding ducks’.
And in May a 15-year-old from Nanjing sparked an outcry after he carved his name into an ancient relief at a temple in Luxor, Egypt.
China's list of dos and don'ts comes at the launch of ‘Golden Week’, a public holiday that began on October 1
Despite the rulebook, some mainland tourists appear to have retained their own set of standards, however.
Outside Golden Bauhinia Square, one of Hong Kong’s main tour group hotspots, a mother could be seen helping her son urinate into a plastic bag, the Post reported today.
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