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Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the crime rate on South Korea’s Jeju Island had grown exponentially every year since 2002, when visa restrictions were lifted for Mainland Chinese. According to the Joong Ang Daily, by 2013, over 130 crimes had been committed on the island by Chinese tourists. Within two years, the crime rate had doubled. Before you start pointing your fingers at Chinese tourists, ask yourself how serious is jaywalking? Yes, it isn’t safe, and nor is it legal, but should the misdemeanor offense be included with felonies such as murder, robbery, and assault?In 2016, the population of Jeju Island was over 675,000. It was home to 18,000 foreigners and 8,000 illegal Chinese immigrants. Supposedly, a crime wave had hit the island, with 70 percent of all crimes committed by Chinese tourists. Media reports failed to mention that Jeju authorities include jaywalking in their annual crime statistics. According to the Korean Herald, “Among the 347 (crimes), 132 were people nabbed for violating traffic rules, 67 for assault, 50 for robbery, and 32 with intellectual crimes." When you crunch the numbers, that’s not exactly a crime wave.There's always at least one extreme example of a tourist behaving inappropriately. For example, a 51-year old man from Mainland China stabbed a Korean woman to death in a church while she was praying. He told authorities that he killed her because he thought she looked like his ex-wife.Source:Chinese man gets 25 years for murdering Korean woman in Jeju churchAt a luxury safari lodge in Kenya, a male Chinese tour guide stabbed a woman to death and critically wounded her husband in front of their two children after they refused his request to give up their table.Cops: Safari guide kills tourist for picking wrong seatTaiwan News reported that Chinese hotel guests have a reputation for stealing toilet paper holders, TVs, and beds. American tourists are also notorious for stealing or damaging hotel property, but how many have tried to steal a bed? I’m disappointed that I never tried to steal one when I was younger. If I were to do it, I would throw the mattress and bed frame from my the balcony of my room and have a friend waiting below with a truck. I can’t think of a better way.Source:60% of Chinese tourists steal items from Japanese hotel rooms: Fuji Television | Taiwan News(Tangent: I had three friends who thought it would be fun to take LSD at a Sheraton Hotel in Houston, Texas. About an hour after the acid took over, they carried a Coca-Cola vending machine from a lobby area to their 25t- floor suite. Ricky, whose father was a regional VP for Sheraton, was convinced it would make a “kaleidoscopic explosion” when it landed in the parking lot.This was also the explanation that Ricky gave Houston police officers when they arrived at his suite roughly 10 minutes after the vending machine landed on a Volkswagen.)Chinese tourists breaking rules ‘all over the place’ in BoracayBadly behaved Chinese tourists are back in BoracayBeaches, streets, and airport terminals covered with trash are meant to invoke negative sentiment toward Mainland Chinese tourists. The way I see it such images are positive as they indicate that money has been spent, which fuels the local economy. Beaches in Japan have a trash problem, which the country has blamed on their aging population and not Chinese tourists.(Source: Japan deploys robots to tackle beaches strewn with plastic wasteIn 2013, Mainland Chinese tourists made over 80 million trips worldwide. China’s National Tourism Administration published a tourist behavior guide. The 64-page booklet included helpful tips such as “Don’t spit phlegm or gum, throw litter, urinate or defecate wherever you feel like it. Don’t cough, sneeze, or pick your nose or teeth in front of others.”When Wang Yang was a deputy prime minister, he reminded Chinese tourists that they were ambassadors for their country’s image and should, "consciously obey social and public order and social morality, respect the local religions and customs, pay attention to their words and public behavior, especially in the international environment, protect tourism resources, and protect the environment.”In 2010, a Chinese tourist took a photo of “Ding Jinhao was here,” which had been scrawled in Chinese on a wall inside Egypt’s Luxor Temple. The photo was uploaded on Chinese social media and went viral, sparking national outrage, and would later make international headlines. I’ve been suspicious of this story since it first broke because the defacement in question had happened a few years before it gained international attention.Why was “Ding Jinhao was here” singled out when other examples could have been used? During the media hailstorm, Egypt’s ministry of antiquities said the damage was “superficial” and that it would be repaired. The story added to the anti-Chinese tourist narrative that foreign media was fostering. It also provided China the opportunity to apologize to Egypt on the global stage.Source: Chinese schoolboy, 15, exposed as Egypt’s ancient temple graffitiThe hysteria that accompanied the defacement was a marketing campaign for China-Egypt relations and the Luxor Temple. Since when do other countries shame their citizens when they deface another country’s antiquities? I had never heard of the Luxor Temple prior to the story. I also know that I won’t forget it even though I’m without a clear understanding of its historical significance. But the truth is, Americans could care less how their fellow countrymen behave when they travel abroad. For the Americans reading this, did it bother you when two US college students killed an Italian police officer in Rome last year?Source: Egypt sees surging number of Chinese touristsIn June 2018, two Chinese women at a restaurant in Japan were asked to leave because the manager thought they were messy eaters. The women who were kicked out, contacted Chinese media, who first broke the story, which was picked up South China Morning Post.‘Please just go’: thumbs down after Chinese tourists asked to leave Osaka restaurant‘Please just go’: Chinese tourists asked to leave Osaka restaurantGratuityTipping in Mainland China is not customary. European restaurants have made adjustments to safeguard their waitstaff and bartenders from being stiffed by tourists by including gratuity in their bills.A study on the tipping habits of Chinese tourists in the US published in the Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management (Vol. 4 (2), December 2016) found that they usually tipped roughly 6 percent.Excerpt:“Chinese tourists were asked about the total amount of bill (without tip) in their most recent dining experiences and the amount of the tip paid. Among 211 respondents, 93.4% of respondents claimed that they tipped most of the time when dining at restaurants in the United States, and the average tip percentage was 5.30%.”Source: Study on tipping habits among Chinese tourists in the US: (PDF file):https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj8ye3Fu9zpAhWiCjQIHc3TDvkQFjAKegQIBBAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpdfs.semanticscholar.org%2Fdf21%2F748222ccf8baa0ef88fc5dbb8c4c591bfc47.pdf&usg=AOvVaw06w--U0PxSLHHFAlPUKB2dPersonalAt a sports bar in Arcadia, California, I witnessed a Mainland Chinese woman throw a tantrum after she was told that she couldn’t use her coupon for a free order of french fries ($2.39) because it had expired. She demanded to speak with the manager. She accused the establishment of being racist, paid her bill, stiffed her waitress, and drove off in a Lexus SUV. Later that evening, I spoke with the woman who had served the Chinese lady and asked if such behavior was uncommon among local Chinese patrons, and she said, unfortunately, it wasn’t.In 2011, during China’s Autumn Festival holiday, I went on a Mediterranean cruise with my ex-wife Xin and two of her clients, Dong and Zhao, who also brought their spouses. I was the de-facto tour guide for six wealthy Mainland Chinese tourists. The group was usually low maintenance when it came to all things related to food as each couple packed a suitcase with instant noodles and a portable water heater.In the US, bars and restaurants will swipe a guest’s credit card beforehand to ensure they have money to cover their bill or to make sure they’ll pay it. When this is done, and you check your credit card, it looks like it has been charged twice. This practice is unheard of in China. While we were having dinner, Xin and Dong received credit card alerts on their smartphones. When they noticed that the charges for the purchases they had made earlier that day were appearing twice on their credit cards, they went into a state of shock. They were convinced that the ship was ripping them off.When Xin and Dong finished eating, they rushed to their cabins intent on resolving this non-issue. The first thing Xin did was call the front reception desk. After holding for a minute, her call was answered and she immediately shouted, “I need to speak with the captain!” The cruise ship had roughly 3,000 passengers. As a quick aside, if you never go on a commercial cruise, you’ll be fine. It’s a travel experience designed for those who prefer to see the world the same way they visit a zoo.When security personnel arrived at our cabin, they asked Xin why she wanted to speak with the captain. After she explained her concerns about her credit card being charged twice for each purchase, the look on their faces was priceless. It was a first for them. I went outside on the deck to smoke a few cigarettes and get some peace and quiet. Life is too short to spend it with someone who thinks you’re an idiot.The ship’s casino made the cruise more difficult to endure. It was how I imagined a Chuck E Cheese’s would be if it offered a gambling room for parents who didn’t want to spend time with their children while they celebrated their birthdays. The way Xin and Dong played roulette, the last thing you would have thought was that they were multi-millionaires. When they won $5, they would get excited as if it meant they would be able to eat the next day. When I was up $100, they marveled at the accomplishment as if I had special powers that allowed me to see into the future.Before our cruise departed, we spent two days in Barcelona, Spain. During our first night, Dong’s husband, Pang, announced he was in the mood for fish. Xin asked me to find a seafood restaurant with a nice view.While we were seated at our table trying, Xin and her clients spent 15 minutes trying to decide what they wanted to eat. The problem was that they didn’t trust the photos of the fish featured in the menu. Seafood restaurants in China showcase their fish so guests can select which one they want to eat. This method isn’t foolproof. How would one know if the fish they selected is the same one they’re eating? It wouldn’t be difficult for a chef to prepare a lesser quality fish while out of view from the customer who ordered it, and then return the fish to the same tank so a different guest could choose it.Xin asked me to ask our waiter if he could bring the uncooked fish to our table so they could look at them and make their selections.“Are you fucking serious?” I asked.Xin detested the “f” word. I could have hit a pedestrian with a car, and she wouldn’t have been nearly as bothered.“Tell the waiter,” she snapped.The restaurant was crowded. Our waiter wasn’t happy, but he obliged the request. Ten minutes later, three waiters, each one carrying a large tray with fish, approached our table.Everyone in the restaurant stopped eating and looked at our table. I could feel people staring at us. I desperately craved a shot of whiskey.I ordered a dozen oysters and a rare steak. I also had six glasses of red wine and two whiskeys (neat).The fish they ordered was good, but to be honest, everything tasted the same. Our bill was roughly $1,000. Fortunately, a 20 percent gratuity had been included. Had it not, Xin would have given our waiter $7. As she once quipped, “Waiters don’t do anything but carry plates.”I dined with this same group at restaurants in France, Italy, Spain, Maldives, and Sicily, and not once did I hear them say “thank you” to a restaurant employee. Collectively, they were horrible tippers.Xin would get furious when I tipped the standard amount. I could never understand why she would get bent out of shape over 10 Euros. Is this what it means to be wealthy? She would spend upwards of $30,000 on luxury items in one shopping spree. When we were in San Francisco, she spent $450 on a round trip taxi ride to an outlet mall. Our cab driver said it was the largest cab fare of his career. When he dropped us off at our hotel, he insisted that I take a picture of him and Xin.During the last two years of our marriage, Xin and I rarely ate together when we traveled. It was a preferable arrangement as I would often meet people seated next to me when I dined alone. I like to talk with strangers. I have this recurring nightmare that one day this will be against the law.While visiting Paris, me, Xin, and her son, Sebastian, ate at one of those standard French restaurants. Xin and Sebastian didn’t like French, Italian, Indian, German, or Mexican food. In France, Sebastian’s taste buds never ventured beyond fries and escargot. Xin would usually order a bowl of French onion soup. When they finished eating, they would leave me alone to finish my meal and go back to our hotel room.Sebastian was forced to entertain himself because his mother didn’t allow him to bring his iPad. Out of boredom, Sebastian stuck a piece of sourdough bread on the end of his fork and held it over the candle that was in the middle of our table as if he was roasting a marshmallow over a campfire. Strictly for cosmetic purposes, I told him he shouldn’t do that as it wasn’t safe nor was it considerate to our fellow diners. My words proved futile, as I knew they would before they left my mouth. Unsurprisingly, his mother wasn’t concerned, at least not enough to make him stop. She appeared to be interested in learning more about how bread burns when it is held over an open flame.The waiter hurriedly walked to our table and extinguished the bread by taking the fork out of Sebastian’s hand and dropping it in a glass of water. If I had done the same, Xin would have called the police and had me arrested for assault. Sebastian apologized, but he wasn’t sorry. As he often reminded me, those who weren’t as wealthy as his mommy were slaves.The relationship Chinese tourists have had with the Louvre Museum in Paris has been a troubled one. By 2018, almost ten percent of the Louvre museum’s annual visitors were from Mainland China, and yet Mandarin or Cantonese audio guides were unavailable. Are you familiar with the expression “read between the lines”?In 2013, Chinese gangs were caught selling counterfeit Louvre tickets to Chinese tourists.Source: Paris’s Louvre falls victim to Chinese fake ticket scamParis’s Louvre falls victim to Chinese fake ticket scamThe biggest story was in 2015 when supposedly Mainland Chinese tourists were defecating outside the museum. Chinese signs were placed around the museum that said defecating in public was prohibited. But where was the evidence? I visited the Louvre in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2017, and did not see a Chinese tourist, or any tourists, relieving themselves on museum grounds.I found one video on YouTube that captures a man using the bathroom outside while standing across the street from the Louvre, but his ethnicity is not revealed.The supposed uptick in feces could have been the result of a city ignoring its homeless population.In the UK, The Sun ran a story about a Chinese woman defecating in public in Monterey Park, Los Angeles County. In an example of one Chinese person shaming another, the story had first appeared on the website 洛杉矶华人资讯网 - 洛杉矶本地的华人信息分享交流平台, a Chinese-run business and social platform based in Los Angeles.Source:Un-bowel-ievable! Woman caught pooing on grass verge outside gated house (2015)Un-bowel-ievable! Woman caught pooing on grass verge outside gated houseWhen I was in Milan, Dong and her husband asked me to go shopping with them. We were at a Gucci store where Dong took photos of a few clothing items so she could show them to one of her friends in Zhejiang Province to see if she needed anything. The store’s manager informed Dong that photography was prohibited because the clothes were new and unavailable online. The manager instructed Dong to delete the photos from her phone, and that’s when Pang stepped in, and a shouting match ensued.Pang was 6’3, slender, and in good shape for a man in his mid-50’s. He exercised every day. It also helped that he didn’t smoke or drink much. He wasn’t without his vices, which were sex-related. He would often say vile and sexually inappropriate things when we had dinner together. When talked about sex, Xin would refuse to tell me what he said. I couldn’t understand him, but judging Xin’s reactions, it was always lewd.Dong was holding roughly $5,000 worth of clothes that she was ready to purchase, but instead threw them on the floor. Pang was prepared to fight the manager.When the commotion began, I was sitting in a chair on the other side of the store. I hurried over and stood between Pang and the manager. Had the two of them fought, the manager would have lost.Xin and I vacationed in Honolulu twice, and both trips were not enjoyable. By then, our marriage had hit a point where it was over, but neither of us was ready to hit the eject button.She would spend the day shopping and afterward visit an indoor shooting range located above a few luxury stores. I usually hung out at the hotel bar and talked with strangers about China. A professor from Brigham Young University (BYU) asked me what the “hotel hooker scene” was like in Shanghai. I thought this was an odd question to ask a stranger. I told him I didn’t have any information on the topic. He asked me for my email, and I said I didn’t have one.When Xin would ask me to join her at the indoor shooting range, I couldn’t help but think of Ernest Hemingway's short story, “The Short and Happy Life of Francis McComber.” I imagined that while where we were shooting .44s, she would “accidentally” discharge the firearm as it was pointed at my head and not the target. Later that same night, as the ink on my death certificate had yet to dry, Xin and her new gun instructor boyfriend would be celebrating at her hotel, enjoying cocaine and champagne while laughing at the photos that they had taken of my dead body with their iPhones.During our second Hawaii visit, Xin purchased $30,000 worth of luxury handbags. She packed them in the same suitcase and then checked the bag on the return flight to Beijing. She had trust issues, but they were inconsistent. I suggested that she carry the bag with her given the value of the goods inside, but she was confident it wouldn’t get lost or stolen.(Off-topic: I had a friend from Seoul who moved to Boston after he was accepted to MIT’s doctoral program. He was off-the-rails smart, but only when it came to Applied Mathematics. He packed $40,000 in one suitcase and checked the bag.When he and his family arrived a Logan Airport, the suitcase that contained the money was missing. His wife had a borderline nervous breakdown and threatened him with divorce. She refused to leave the airport and checked in at a nearby 4-star hotel so she could harass the airline’s baggage claim department until they found their lost luggage.Three weeks later, the airline notified them that they had found their missing suitcase. Apparently, the bag had arrived on the luggage carousel at Logan Airport where it had been mistakenly claimed who by someone who was in a hurry and failed to notice that they had taken the wrong suitcase. The bag was found in the trunk of an Avis rent-a-car in Washington D.C. When the suitcase arrived at my friend’s apartment, his wife was there waiting to receive it. She quickly opened it and to everyone’s surprise, their money was still inside.)A few times when I traveled by plane in China, I witnessed Chinese passengers arguing during mid-flight. It doesn’t require an enlightened or experienced traveler to understand that engaging in a shouting match 35,000 feet above sea level is a bad idea. Given the nature of the arguments, the people involved acted as if they weren’t on a plane. As a general rule, when flying, one should remain seated and quiet throughout the flight. If your plane does not crash and you arrive at your destination unharmed, then given the alternative, it was a fantastic flight.The 500 Euro note, aka “The Bin Laden,” was discontinued a few years ago.Xin had several Saran-wrapped packs that she kept in a safe at her home in Beijing. She would break them out when we traveled to Europe. It was understood that I was responsible for changing the bills into smaller denominations. Xin wasn’t sure if the Euro notes were counterfeit, so she thought if an American changed them, nobody would question their authenticity.When Xin and I lived in Arcadia, we did our weekly grocery shopping at a neighborhood Chinese supermarket. She would usually pick up the latest issue of the National Enquirer. Throughout the week, she would ask me what my thoughts were on the fate of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s marriage, or why Bruce Jenner wanted to surgically remove his “little brother” and sell it for $5 million to a Chinese clone laboratory.I had a subscription to the New Yorker. I remember one day when I received the latest issue, I asked Xin if she was familiar with the magazine. When I handed it to her, she looked at it for a minute and said, “This is what people without money like to read.”終