Friday, April 23, 2010

Chinese Tourists

My friend posted a video of what happened recently on Kinmen, where a group of Chinese tourists got into scuffles with the Taiwan police. It really is a sham that they can come to Taiwan and act like they are entitled to whatever they feel like they want or need, all at the cost of Taiwanese citizens.

Look at this YouTube video:



No one likes to wait at an airport, for whatever reason. But look at all those travelers stuck around the world, especially in Europe, due to the volcanic ash hovering in the atmosphere. It's been more than a week since the delays and grounding of flights have occurred, and while the travelers are certainly angry and frustrated, they don't have the problem of acting out on it.
Dozens of angry Chinese tourists clashed with police Friday at two airports in Taiwan after bad weather caused repeated delays of their flights, police said.

About 30 mainland tourists were involved in a brawl at the airport on Kinmen island, which had been shut for three days due to heavy fog, said an airport police officer.

While this kind of immature and disrespectful attitude is sort of expected from these Chinese tourists, it's also frustrating to see that the Taiwan government (police) did nothing basically. If it was in almost any other airport, the people that got into fights with police would likely have been detained. Instead, look who are the ones getting pushed around like little school-boys:



Unbelievable. The TaipeiTimes has more coverage on this here. The clincher?
A group of Chinese tourists were caught on television slapping a female Taiwanese tour guide on Thursday after she informed the tourists that their flight had been canceled.

Bureau officials said they had sent their regards to the tour guide, adding that it had also reported the names of the Chinese tourists involved in the incident to China’s Cross-Strait Tourism Association and asked the association to demand that the tourists not slap people again.
Yes. Slap a tourist agent in a different country, and all you get served with us a verbal "asking" to not do so in the future.

The more you think about this, the more it will anger you. Why? Think about what if those Chinese tourists weren't Chinese tourists, but instead... say pan-green Taiwanese being angry (but likely not acting out like the Chinese did). Do you believe that this hypothetical situation of pan-green Taiwanese being the angry ones, would have received similar treatment by the police? A simple verbal slap on the wrist for slapping and basically pushing around police? Or would they have been swiftly shut-down? That is something to ponder.

No comments: