Tales from the Dragon

[a447]

Special Agent Arsenal.

I'm surprised that the sight of a "gweilo" (farang) directing traffic in China would have in itself caused a massive traffic jam.

Then again, you are wearing a large "mask" so maybe they thought you were one of them! Lol

[arsenal]

Some boys.

[arsenal]

goji sent me a nice pm and I sent him an even nicer reply. So nice in fact that I've decided to put it here.

There's good and bad like everywhere. Overall I think life is much easier here than most other places and until recently I could do door to door to Pattaya in about 9 hours.

There is no denying Chinese behaviour is often grotesque but then people's who have no pride in their country rarely have pride in themselves.

The Chinese tour groups are as detested by the 'normal' Chinese as they are by everyone else. They are a breed apart...basically Mao's children whose intellectual capacity was retarded by the political system.

An analogy would be a playground full of three year olds all doing just what They want to do with zero thought for anyone else....which can be annoying.

But...They don't want to go into Richmond Park with machetes and rob people of their bikes, the latest horror crime I've read about from UK.

There is a strange mindset here. People put bars on their 8th floor apt windows cos apparently someone broke into one somewhere in China. Yet a shopkeeper will leave the shop open and unatended while he goes off for lunch.

So. I dunno. I don't understand them any more now than when I first got here.

Hahaha.

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[a447]

Like many others I have had some bad experiences with Chinese tour groups whilst travelling.

For example, I'll be standing in front of a painting when I'm suddenly bundled out of the way by a large group who force their way in. What makes me especially angry is that many are not even looking at the painting - they are all chatting away together or are playing on their phones.

And the spitting in public is a total turn-off.

But having said that, I found that the Chinese people I met in China itself were very polite and helpful.

Tour groups bond together in weird ways and it is that bonding which sees them supporting bad behaviour from members of the group.

[goji]

Like many others I have had some bad experiences with Chinese tour groups whilst travelling.

For example, I'll be standing in front of a painting when I'm suddenly bundled out of the way by a large group who force their way in.

On the subject of bundling people out of the way.....

I remember standing at the front of a short queue to by lunch on a day out in London, with the system clearly being one queue feeding 2 tills.
A Chinese tourist decides to jump the queue and go directly to one till as it frees up.
I spot this happening and make a move, intending to beat him to the spot, but we both arrive there at the same time and with more momentum, I literally knock him out of the way. [This won't win "post of the day", but I can assure you it was very satisfying at the time]

The Chinese student community are far better behaved.

[Nirish guy]

Like many others I have had some bad experiences with Chinese tour groups whilst travelling..

Dont even start me on the run in's I've had with the buggers at various breakfast bars in Hotels. Punches were almost thrown they were that rude and pushy, not to metion them grabbiing newly delivered plates of fresh bacon etc, all by the handful ( and I mean quite literally with their hands)

The worst being that after them getting my blood boiling enough for me to explode they then look at me with a "WHATTTTTT???? what are you getting so annoyed about" as they head back to their already overflowing table thats already coming down with a ton of wasted food, while I'm left standing there with steam coming out of my ears ready to kill dead things!

Like Goji i too have had many "pushing" incidents and thankfully they do tend to get the message after a while ( until the next time at least) - or so I like to tell myself anyway.

[a447]

plates of fresh bacon

You should see them when the prawns arrive at the buffet!

OMG!!

Yet I never saw any of that behaviour in China itself. What's going on?

I went to the breakfast buffet every morning at the hotels in Beijing and Shanghai and everyone's behaviour was impeccable.

[Brad the Impala]

Yet I never saw any of that behaviour in China itself. What's going on?

Perhaps it's because outside China they perceive themselves as only competing with their version of "the great unwashed masses". Be they thai or farang they are still inferior to them, because the mainland Chinese are after all the master race, at least that's what the tour group mentality is.

[arsenal]

Many famines over the last 150 years have left this nation psychologically scarred with regards to food. That's in addition to the other psychological scars they have and a total lack.of empathy. If they have a complex it's one of inferiority to the west, Japan etc. Like a447, I've been to countless hotel buffets in China and never noticed anything especially noteworthy behaviour wise except by me when I've got bacon, eggs, hash browns, salad, fresh fruit and a croissant on the same plate and have a bowl of sweet cereal as a 'dessert'.

There is a fantastic western restaurant I go to several times a week. The food is superb and the behaviour is as you would expect in a western establishment of similar standing. The Chinese habit of buying food for the table remains and so they tend to order way more than they can eat...I'm occasionally gladdened to see it taken away in a doggy bag.


The bacon behaviour described by NIrish can be witnessed in the supermarkets as they pick.up and manhandle several pieces of meat before deciding which one to buy. Fresh or frozen pre packaged meat is the answer to this.

My hotel in Pattaya did, for a while 'welcome' the tour groups but they were placed on separate floors and never bothered me. But after not that long the hotel let them go as did so many other businesses in Pattaya, the cost was just too high and the staff began to suffer and feel mentally violated.

[a447]

The Chinese habit of buying food for the table remains and so they tend to order way more than they can eat...I'm occasionally gladdened to see it taken away in a doggy bag.

There's a buffet restaurant in Pattaya Central Festival which charges for any food left on the plate. And I recently went to a Japanese bbq wagyuu all-you-can-eat restaurant here in Perth which does the same.

Maybe that's the solution.