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NATIONALIST ANGST OVER the apparently poor reputation of Chinese tourists abroad is leading to official action.

Xinhua News Agency report that for five consecutive days since last Wednesday, Xinwen Lianbo, a flagship news programme on the state-run China Central Television (CCTV), has aired videos aimed at making Chinese tourists more polite.

It’s a pretty bold move — as Xinhua notes, Xinwen Lianbo is usually dedicated to political news and major events — but it shows just how concerned the Chinese establishment is about the reputation of its tourists abroad.

Things are so serious that in October last year, a new law made it legally binding for Chinese tourists to respect local customs and traditions, and unruly holiday makers will risk penalties, according to Xinhua.

Are Chinese tourists really so bad? Unfortunately within recent memory there have been a few unsavory incidents that have appeared online, including an image of tourists playing with a dying dolphin, and reports that signs, written only in Chinese, outside the Louvre Museum warn against defecating in public.

For example, a Chinese teenager scrawled his name on the 3,500-years-ago old Luxor Temple in Egypt:

(Image Credit: Imgur)

Or the Chinese tourists photographed with their feet in the water at a fountain by the Louvre in Paris:

What do you think?

- Adam Taylor

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