Originally Posted by
exbayern
As did I...
And as I posted here
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trav...survey-14.html the Chinese in Paris tend to travel in groups, with little interaction with locals. My friend of Chinese descent did have a few tussles over high end bags, but laughed off the behaviour of her 'family members'. In contrast, most of the really bad behaviour I see and inappropriate dress comes from North Americans.
Stereotypes die hard, but is interesting to note that anti-"American" sentiment has been extended to include our neighbors to the north, who were formally believed to be too innocuous to matter.
For example, the perception that Germans are all the direct descendants of the Nazi high command and evil is alive and well. I first encountered it more than years ago, and this year was startled to see that anti-German bias is still alive and well in Rome.
Originally Posted by
exbayern
Look at the last few pages of the tipping thread (or many other threads on FT) as an example of the type of behaviour which can make one a badly behaved tourist. Any time I read someone posting 'I paid XXX for my trip, therefore they should do YYY!' or 'I am the customer; they should do what I want!' I cringe. A few missing pieces of cutlery don't bother me in the same way.
(Underlining mine)
I think most people can understand that the bigger concern is not so much 30 sets of cutlery but rather an understanding of what is a "souvenir" and what is not. If one eats in a sit-down restaurant, it is generally understood that the cutlery, tableware, cruets, etc. are not there for the taking. I wonder if those same folks would take home tableware from a restaurant in their homeland? Or does this behavior reflect a greater cultural difference, arising from the historic Chinese contempt from those "beyond the wall" mixed with half a century of communism with a recent dose of a market economy creating a confusion over the difference between "mine" and "yours?"
Originally Posted by
exbayern
Be careful; the US doesn't have the edge anymore. Companies such as McArthur Glen and Chic Outlet Shops have a string of high end outlet malls across Europe, with brands appealing to Japanese and Chinese tastes. Deutsche Welle actually had a program on the very subject of Chinese tourists starting to discover corners of Germany (which has a number of such high end outlet malls)
But you don't have Disneyland.
Even Nikhita Khrushchev wanted to go there!