Chinese tourist blacklisted by officials for standing on Red Army statue for photo
Man placed on database of badly behaved travellers for climbing statue at Shaanxi province memorial park to take picture, which went viral on mainland social media
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 05 May, 2015, 10:33am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 05 May, 2015, 10:33am
Andrea Chen
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The picture of a Chinese tourist standing on the top of the statue at memorial park in Shaanxi province in April was widely circulated on mainland social media. Photo: Thepaper.cn
A Chinese tourist has been blacklisted by the mainland tourism authority for 10 years after he was found to have climbed onto the top of a statue of a Red Army soldier to pose for a photograph, the news website Thepaper.cn reports.
A picture of him standing on the top of the statue when visiting a memorial park in Wuqi county, in the northwest province of Shaanxi on April 24, was widely circulated on mainland social media.
The man is the second person in China to be included in the database of badly behaved travellers. Earlier an airline passenger was reported to have been blacklisted after throwing hot water and noodles at a Thai flight attendant.
The database, which is shared by tour agencies, was introduced by the tourism authority in early April as a result of unruly behaviour by some mainland tourists that has made headlines around the world. The authorities have not given details about what specific penalties blacklisted tourists would face.
The memorial park would also be ineligible to apply to be recognised as one of China’s A-rated scenic attractions – the lowest of five rankings awarded by the China National Tourism Administration – for the next two years as a punishment for its negligence, the report said.
