THAILAND: Chinese Tourist Drowns While On Phuket Snorkelling Tour, Mother Watches Helplessly

Chinese tourist mother watches helplessly as daughter drowns on Phuket snorkelling tour

Lu Shanshan, 33, from Tianjin in Sichuan Province, was on a tour booked with Happy Holidays, confirmed Lt Nutnaree Narksingha of the Phuket City Police, who was informed of the death at 4:25pm.

Ms Lu and her mother boarded the tour boat JJ Orca, which departed from Wisit Panwa Pier in Phuket, to enjoy a day trip to Koh Khai Nok, off Phuket’s east coast.

Tour guide Chalit Sae-mee explained to police that Ms Lu entered the water at the beach at Koh Khai Nork wearing a buoyancy vest and a snorkelling mask.

Later, Ms Lu’s mother, who remained on the beach, noticed that her daughter was not moving and raised the alarm.

The boat crew rushed to pull Ms Lu out of the water, but she was already unconscious and unresponsive.

Members of the boat crew performed CPR while they rushed Ms Lu back to Phuket, where on arriving she was sped to the Phuket Provincial Hospital in Rassada.

However, Ms Lu was pronounced dead on arrival.

Ms Lu and her mother landed in Phuket at 5am yesterday (Aug 21) and were due to fly home this Saturday (Aug 25). They were staying at a resort in Karon, Lt Nutnaree noted.

Staff at the Happy Holiday tour company confirmed to police that the company has insurance and that the policy covers compensation of up to B1 million in the event of death.

Police noted in their report that the mother has requested a medical examination of her daughter’s body to confirm the cause of death.


Tourism Observer

CHINA: China Promotes Tibetan tourism

China has unveiled a sparkling new hotel as part of its drive to get tens of millions more tourists to visit Tibet, even as critics say the push is slowly eroding the local culture.

With a presidential suite that costs $1,000 a night and views over the snow-capped mountains of the Himalayas, the luxury Artel hotel is a potent symbol of Chinese plans for the autonomous territory.

Tourism officials are hoping to see visitor numbers increase by nearly 50 per cent in the next four years, said Wang Songping, deputy director of the Tibet Tourism Development Commission.

"Tibet attracted four million Chinese tourists in 2005. We hope we'll get 24 million this year and 35 million by 2020," he said.

Critics say the influx will lead to more of China's dominant Han ethnic group settling in Tibet and eroding native Tibetan ways of life, and argue the majority of economic benefits of mass tourism will not go to locals.

Official figures say that Tibetans currently make up 90 per cent of the local population, but groups opposed to Chinese rule say the real figure is significantly lower.

Beijing says it "peacefully liberated" Tibet in 1951 and insists it has brought development to a previously backward region where serfs were exploited.

But many Tibetans accuse Beijing of repressing their religion, diluting their culture and exploiting natural resources to benefit the Han at the expense of locals and the environment.

The 103-room Artel opened in mid-August in Lulang, a picturesque village situated at 3,700 metres (12,100 feet) in a southeastern forested area in the autonomous region of Tibet.

It is part of a tourist complex built in an old part of town previously occupied mostly by government buildings and restaurants, that now boasts its own shopping street, a lake and an arts centre.

Nicknamed the "Switzerland of the East", the village is seen by authorities as a flagship project for its ambitious plans for Tibet's tourist sector.

Transport links are being developed to cater for the influx, including a motorway opening next year, and a high-speed rail line from the capital Lhasa, expected to open in 2021.

Another high-speed rail line to Chengdu, capital of neighbouring Sichuan province, home to more than 80 million people, should be completed in 2022.

Wang said the number of Chinese tourists, who currently make up 95 percent of visitors to Tibet, has increased by an average of 20 per cent each year since the 2006 opening of the first railway linking Tibet to the rest of China.

But while outside visitors can boost the local economy, mass tourism has down sides, said Tibet expert Francoise Robin.

"Cultural performances shown to visitors are either favourable reinterpretations of Chinese history or Chinese versions of songs or dances," she said.

"Tibetans themselves end up picking up these distorted versions."

And while some Tibetans were developing responsible tourism initiatives and eco-tourism, such businesses could often not be developed on a large scale, she said.

The influx of tourists is expected to bring in billions of dollars but many are concerned that not everyone will benefit from the windfall.

"Travel agents and other people who work in the tourism industry are mostly Han Chinese", said Robin. "The Tibetans are among the last in line to benefit."

At the Artel hotel, Baima Cicuo, a 17-year-old local trainee who works as a housekeeper, said she was happy in her job at least in front of her boss.

"Before, I depended on my farmer parents. But now I earn 1,000 yuan a month and I learn a lot of things," she said in fluent Mandarin.

The hotel, owned by Poly, a Chinese state-owned group, has invested 280 million yuan ($42 million) in the project, says commercial director Ray Peng.

It currently has 40 employees, 15 of whom are Tibetan.

Its guests are likely to be overwhelmingly Chinese. Less than five percent of visitors to Tibet are foreign tourists, who need to obtain an "entry letter" as well as a Chinese visa when travelling to the region, where they must join an authorised tour group.

Despite the widespread perception that the restrictions are meant to stop the outside world from learning too much about the tensions between ethnic Tibetans and Han, officials insist that is not the case.

"These restrictions are in place because we can't yet provide world class services for tourists", said Bianba Zhaxi, deputy governor of Tibet.

"We will be open to tourists from across the world in a few years," he added.

But Acharya Yeshi Phuntsok, deputy speaker of Tibet's parliament in exile, said the restrictions serve to hide the truth about Tibet from the outside world.

"If foreign tourists and media are able to travel freely in Tibet, without organised tours, and can collect the views of people, then I think tourism can have a good impact.

"Otherwise, nobody will speak and share the problems of the Tibetan people."

CHINA: What Could Be China's Best Tourism Secret? Valley Of Nine Villages

Jiuzhaigou National Park

IS THIS China’s best-kept, and most beautiful, secret?

Lying in the southwest of China in the Northern Sichuan province, hidden in a national park is the Nine Villages Valley (or Jiuzhaigou) home to nine Tibetan villages scattered throughout a natural wonderland.

With scenery you wouldn’t normally associate with China, the spectacular area is made up of blue, green and pink lakes, incredible waterfalls, unique wildlife and humbling mountain valleys.

Covering over 700 square kilometres, the valley is one of China's greatest natural assets, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992 and a World Biosphere Reserve in 1997.

While popular with domestic tourists, Nine Villages Valley is relatively unseen by western tourists due to its remoteness, limited accessibility and the government’s determination to conserve this pristine area. Located in the Min Shan mountain range in Northern Sichuan, the area was first settled in the 1300s by a group of Tibetan pilgrims looking for refuge and was untouched for over six centuries.

A lumberjack accidentally discovered the valley in 1972 and the mountains slowly began to open to tourists as accessibility improved. Snow capped mountains are offset by pristine turquoise, green and pink lakes below and the scenery is often compared to that of the Swiss Alps or Canadian Rockies.

Wendy Wu, founder of Wendy Wu tours that specialise in China and Southeast Asian travel, says the Nine Villages Valley is one of the “crown jewels” of China.

It is a national park made up of mountains, forests, lakes, valleys and waterfalls. It is a combination of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Swiss Alps and the Turkish pools, only more colourful and more stunning.

The BBC Holiday program featured the area in 2007, and the film crew that have filmed countless breathtaking places around the world, all agreed that Nine Villages Valley is the most beautiful place they have ever been.

Wendy Wu’s 23-day Dreams of Nature tour includes a visit to the Nine Villages Valley and other stunning natural landscapes in China including Zhangjiajie — the backdrop and inspiration for the movie Avatar.

The Northern Sichuan Province is also accessibly by direct flights from Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Chengdu, Chongqing and Hangzhou followed by a bus ride to the Nine Villages Valley.

Whether it's the snow in winter, the brightly coloured leaves in Autumn or the tranquil lakes of Summer the Nine Villages Valley is a photographer and nature lovers heaven.

Think about visiting the Nine Villages Valley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CAMBODIA: Three Chinese Passengers Thrown Off Aircraft After Scuffle

Three Chinese air passengers were thrown off a flight in Cambodia after a scuffle broke out on board before the plane took off.

The argument started after a man told a woman in front of him that her seat was tipped back too far and he inadvertently touched her hair.

The pair began to quarrel and their friends and relatives joined in, the report said.

The two sides began to scold and jostle each other and efforts to calm them by flight attendants, their tourist guide and other passengers failed.

The captain asked immigration officers to escort the pair and the man’s wife off the plane, which was due to fly from Siem Reap to Chengdu in Sichuan province on Monday night.

The captain said the trio, whose full names were not given in the report, were jeopardising the safety of the flight and had to leave before take-off, despite pleas from other passengers and the tourist guide.

One passenger was quoted as saying that the man and wife involved in the dispute were in their 60s and it was surprising they had got so angry.

The flight took off more than an hour behind schedule.

The trio were due to return home on two later, separate flights.

The media in China regularly reports on the bad behaviour of some Chinese tourists overseas and the country’s tourism authorities compile a blacklist of travellers deemed to have acted particularly badly.

CHINA: More Chinese Tourists Blacklisted For Mis Behaving And Causing Shame To China

Five more badly behaved tourists have been put on national blacklist by the authorities in China.

They include three people who got into a row over a seat that was tipped back on an airliner and man who attacked a convenience store worker in Japan.

Sixteen Chinese tourist have been put on the blacklist so far this year, the China Tourism Administration said on its website.

The three latest cases took place between August and October, it added.

A man from Shanghai, Rong Jiaxin, beat up a convenience store clerk who stopped his wife tearing apart food wrappers before paying for items at a store in Sapporo in September, the statement said.

Rong thought staff were humiliating his wife and punched a clerk on the nose.

Police later detained the couple.

Three people from Sichuan province in southwest China were put on the blacklist after they were involved in a scuffle on an airliner flying from Siem Reap to Chengdu in October.

A woman reclined her seat after boarding the plane and got involved in a row with another couple.

They were later forced to leave the plane and the flight was delayed for more than an hour.

The third incident involved a man, Huang Jiankui, from Hunan Province, the tourism authority said.

He quarrelled with a tour guide and hit them on the head with a teacup after refusing to buy a ticket for his child during a one-day tour of a mountainous resort in Sichuan province in August.

His child was taller than 1.2 metres and children under that height did not have to buy a ticket.

Twelve of the 16 Chinese tourists blacklisted so far this year were involved in incidents related to air travel, the tourism authority said.

These varied from opening emergency doors on aircraft to throwing hot water over flight attendants.

Tourists remain on the blacklist for one to three years and it is circulated to organisations including travel companies and airlines.

The media in China regularly reports on incidents of Chinese tourists behaving badly at home and abroad.

State media have said the behaviour of some Chinese tourists was damaging the country’s reputation overseas.

CHINA: Drunken Proffesseor Caues Trouble On United Airlines, Gets Sacked By University

He was dragged off the plane kicking and screaming after getting drunk and attempting to force his way into the first-class cabin.

For his embarrassing antics, the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, Sichuan province, has terminated its relationship with Mr. Lu Yong.

In a statement posted on its official Weibo account on Tuesday (December 8), the university confirmed that Lu had been teaching there as a guest professor since August. He was also the director of its Internet Finance Research Centre.

The university said that it “values the virtues and ethical conduct” of its teachers and does not tolerate unlawful behavior.

“It is our belief that professors should be morally respectable so as to teach their students,” it added.

Lu is also said to be an associate professor of information sciences and technology at the Pennsylvania State University, according to his online resume. He graduated from Southwest in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in economics.

In a video posted online on December 6, police officers can be seen attempting to evict Lu from the New York-bound United Airlines plane just prior to its take-off from Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport.

The police were called in after Lu allegedly got drunk on champagne and ran around the plane before trying to wrangle a seat upgrade. Failing to get what he had asked for, he threw a tantrum.

Three police officers were assaulted by Lu–one suffered bruises on his chest after being pushed and kick, while the other two were bitten.

CHINA: Chinese Tourists Flock Palau Out Numbering Japanese Tourists

A Chinese tourist walks on a beach on the Rock Islands of Palau

Chinese tourists are flocking to the remote Palau islands as China’s growing number of rich seek new frontiers abroad, but not everyone in the Micronesian paradise is happy about it.

Strapped into life-jackets and screaming with excitement, groups of boisterous Chinese thrill-seekers tear around Palau’s “Milky Way” lagoon on a flotilla of speedboats, a spectacle unfamiliar to residents just a few months ago.

Inhabitants of the archipelago, part of the larger island group of Micronesia, are baffled as to why Chinese travelers represented almost 62 percent of all visitors in February, up from 16 percent in January 2014.

Japanese visitors were traditionally the largest contingent, followed by Taiwanese and Koreans.

For businessman Du Chuang from China’s Sichuan Province, it is because his increasingly wealthy countrymen are becoming more adventurous, smashing the stereotype of the herded package tour. Du first started to travel by visiting Hainan, the Chinese island in the South China Sea currently witnessing a massive development of hotel resorts. He then ventured to Thailand before branching out to the Maldives.

“The corals here are more beautiful than Sanya (on Hainan),” Du, 46, said, scrolling through photos on his phone of a $1,400 helicopter trip over Palau’s Seventy Islands that he took his family on. “Palau is small and magnificent.”

Hoteliers are catching on, with establishments focused on Chinese clientele booked out months in advance.

On a beach Chinese women wearing full body suits to protect themselves from the sun posed for selfies with husbands and boyfriends in sleeveless vests, to send to their friends back home in China’s gray mega-cities.

Jia Yixin, a 30-year-old from Shanghai, didn’t think twice about paying $1,133 for a six-day trip to Palau that she found online. “It is like paradise here,” she beamed. “In Shanghai the air is polluted but here people respect the environment.”

Ironically, it is the potential environmental impact of the Chinese invasion that is at the forefront of the minds of many of Palau’s 18,000 population.

Palau welcomed just shy of 141,000 visitors last year, up 34 percent on 2013, largely on the back of the Chinese visitors. But last month, mainland Chinese visitors leaped more than 500 percent year-on-year to 10,955, over half Palau’s total population.Tourism accounts for close to 85 percent of Palau’s GDP, and while profits are up, some are worried the long-term damage may be too great.

“This is a very sudden influx, so we are trying to understand the situation” said Nanae Singeo, managing director of the Palau Visitors Authority. “We have never experienced this much tourism before and the magnitude is really giving us a lot of pressure. We are a very tiny country with scarce resources so this sudden increase is an unknown challenge for us.”

Palau has long catered for a particular type of visitor, with up to 70 percent of tourists coming for world-famous diving in stunning blue waters with pristine corals. But the majority of the new wave of Chinese tourists seem more interested, for now at least, in lounging on the beach.

“We are not seeing a growth rate to match the number of visitors,” said Singeo. “Tourists are up 34 percent so technically we should see economic benefits at the rate of 30 percent or more, but that’s not the case.”

On the streets of Koror, some accused Chinese people of being noisy and disrespectful toward the environment.

In one recent example, a Chinese tour operator caused outrage in Palau with leaflets including photos of grinning Chinese tourists holding up turtles they had removed from the water, in one case by the flippers. Residents have also accused Chinese tourists of being responsible for the deaths of some of the wildlife in the natural wonder “Jellyfish Lake.”

The Palau government is exploring ways to try to stem the tide of Chinese tourists to the western Pacific Ocean archipelago and last week said the number of charter flights from China would be halved.

President Tommy Remengesau said the move was made to prevent tourism from becoming too reliant on one market. “Do we want to control growth or do we want growth to control us?” he asked reporters.

But the number of hotels, restaurants and guides in Palau now catering for a Chinese market would suggest that citizens of the world’s second-largest economy are likely to keep coming.