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China steps up Games good behaviour crusade
BEIJING: China’s domestic travellers moving about he country during the May Day holidays – some 150 million of them – have been given a taste of what life will be like in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Games.
According to the Xinhua news agency, Chinese travelers are finding that this year’s itinerary involves “as much etiquette education as sightseeing, delicious food and shopping”.
Luan Hong, a tourist from China’s Fujian province, said, “On our first day in Beijing, we were repeatedly told by the tour guide not to litter and spit and given pamphlets about what to do and what not to do.”
Posters telling travellers how to behave appear in almost every train station, bus stop, hotel and scenic spot. “We are treated like little kids,” Luan said.
Officials are anxious to correct the embarrassing habits of Chinese travellers ahead of next year’s Games.
The China National Tourism Administration has issued a circular, making travel agencies and tour guides responsible for correcting tourists’ bad behavior during the holidays.
Jumping the line, spitting, littering and clearing one’s throat loudly in public are some of the frequently observed practices among Chinese travelers, according to a guideline prepared and released last year by the Spiritual Civilization Steering Committee (SCSC) of the Chinese Communist Party, the official etiquette watchdog.
“We are supposed to remind people constantly throughout the tour, and also lead an etiquette discussion at the end of the tour,” said Huang Xiaohui, a tour guide with a Beijing-based travel agency.
“The Olympics are coming, and we don’t want to get disgraced,” Huang said.
Beijing expects to receive 550,000 foreign tourists during the Olympics and an estimated two million domestic tourists will also visit the capital city.
Ian Jarrett
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