Chinese tourists

corner back 2

We just had a very surreal experience with some Chinese tourists while on holiday in the US. We were wheeling our 14 month old little girl in her stroller and their reaction to her was unbelievable. They were taking photos of her without asking permission and calling over friends to look at her. At first we didnt mind and she was smiling back but then there was a group of older chinese women and their reaction was bordering on hysteria. They wanted their photos taken with her again without asking and at this stage we became a bit unnerved and left. Can anyone explain their reaction. The only thing I could find online was that big eyes are a sign of beauty in China and many people do remark about my daughter's eyes but we have never experienced a reaction like this before.

DoYouEvenLift

Could be that they're mind blown at someone taking decent care of a baby, and even more so a baby girl.

clever user name

It's normal in China. I lived there for 2 years, one of which was in a smallish city. I would random people coming up to asking to have a picture taking with me. Women giving me their baby so that they could take a picture. It's a bit crazy when you first experience it. My guess would be that they were from a smaller city where there are not many foreign people. People from Shanghai, Beijing etc are more used to seeing white people.

Ohhh, and the eyes. I would imagine it was more to do with the colour of your babies eyes. Since they all pretty much have the same eye colour, they are fascinated with people who have blue/green/light brown eyes. I would often hear comments of 'Oh, I want your eyes'.

They mean no harm, they just probably don't know that doing things like that is not normal in the west.

corner back 2

Tilly wrote:

I don't understand how people can join these groups when they're totally made up.

dohouch wrote:

Yanks ( or Yankers ) is an obvious one, but maybe a new term, that has to easily understood by most of the rest of the world.

clever user name wrote:

It's normal in China. I lived there for 2 years, one of which was in a smallish city. I would random people coming up to asking to have a picture taking with me. Women giving me their baby so that they could take a picture. It's a bit crazy when you first experience it. My guess would be that they were from a smaller city where there are not many foreign people. People from Shanghai, Beijing etc are more used to seeing white people.

clever user name wrote:

They mean no harm, they just probably don't know that doing things like that is not normal in the west.

clever user name wrote:

Ohhh, and the eyes. I would imagine it was more to do with the colour of your babies eyes. Since they all pretty much have the same eye colour, they are fascinated with people who have blue/green/light brown eyes. I would often hear comments of 'Oh, I want your eyes'.

Thanks for that she has bright blue eyes. As this happened in the USA I would have thought that the Chinese people we encountered were well travelled and would be a bit more aware of western norms. We are fairly relaxed and I imagine other people might have reacted a lot more negatively and possibly even aggressively.

clever user name

corner back 2 wrote: »

Thanks for that she has bright blue eyes. As this happened in the USA I would have thought that the Chinese people we encountered were well travelled and would be a bit more aware of western norms. We are fairly relaxed and I imagine other people might have reacted a lot more negatively and possibly even aggressively.

Well like I said, I reckon they were from a small town or city. Either that or their first time abroad. The first year I was there I lived in a 'town' with only 1 and half million people. There were 6 foreign people living there, including me. We were like celebrities.

There's no privacy in China. What I mean by that is there is no such thing as "I just want be left alone". Friends and family do everything together. I had random people knocking on my door just to say hello and come in for a cup of tea. Everything knows everything about everyone. Even though they can be quite shy, if you start to talking to them some of the first questions they will ask you is how old you are? Are you married? No!! Why not?

It's kind of hard to explain unless you have been there. Rest assured when I read your post I was not the slightest bit surprised.

Amazing people though, once you get past the little oddities.

df1985

I spent a month in China last September and its the closest thing I can imagine to what it is to be famous, and if that's what fame is, then i don't want it!

As mentioned pictures, staring, pointing etc etc. I was handed babies even in shanghai for photos. Sometimes if I posed for a photo with something famous behind me etc, a chinese person would take a sneaky pic too. I sat eating an ice cream beside a tree one day and they pretended they wanted a picture of the tree....

It was mostly curiousity, no real badness in it. Teenage girls and old women were the worst for it, I was the only westerner on a three day boat trip on the yangtze river and I was the VIP on the boat! All the aul ones were looking after me!

Also, for the first two weeks I had a big bushy beard like a typical backpacker. Facial hair is non existent in Asia really, they just cant grow them. Had to shave it off as the attention was too much, couldn't eat a meal without a photo taken and when you're hungover and just want to be in peace it gets a bit much!

Depraved

I was at a Burger Machine outlet this morning (in a very non-touristy area of The Philippines) and a 3 year old boy came up to me and tried to climb up on to my lap. His mother didn't seem bothered in the slightest. I'm still getting used to things like this. It's not unusual for strangers to come up and start talking to me and touching my arms (the pale skin is very attractive to them).

As above...personal space & privacy are non existent. I've even had a guest enter my home and then proceed to cook themselves a meal without even asking whilst I was in the C.R (bathroom).

I only spent 2 weeks in China whilst working, and I had similar reactions & behaviour.

DoYouEvenLift

Depraved wrote: »

I was at a Burger Machine outlet this morning (in a very non-touristy area of The Philippines) and a 3 year old boy came up to me and tried to climb up on to my lap. His mother didn't seem bothered in the slightest. I'm still getting used to things like this. It's not unusual for strangers to come up and start talking to me and touching my arms (the pale skin is very attractive to them).

As above...personal space & privacy are non existent. I've even had a guest enter my home and then proceed to cook themselves a meal without even asking whilst I was in the C.R (bathroom).

I only spent 2 weeks in China whilst working, and I had similar reactions & behaviour.

What the fuk. Did they at least share?

blinding

The Chinese seem a bit funny alright.

I'm off to China to feel Famous/ a celebrity.

After a week I will return to look down on my underlings here in a most condescending manner.

This will last until I get the first puck in the Gob.

ToddyDoody

corner back 2 wrote: »

We just had a very surreal experience with some Chinese tourists while on holiday in the US. We were wheeling our 14 month old little girl in her stroller and their reaction to her was unbelievable. They were taking photos of her without asking permission and calling over friends to look at her. At first we didnt mind and she was smiling back but then there was a group of older chinese women and their reaction was bordering on hysteria. They wanted their photos taken with her again without asking and at this stage we became a bit unnerved and left. Can anyone explain their reaction. The only thing I could find online was that big eyes are a sign of beauty in China and many people do remark about my daughter's eyes but we have never experienced a reaction like this before.

They do it with the designer shoes too with a view to manufacturing cheap knock-offs

Señor Fancy Pants

Does your kid have red hair?

Yurt2

I was on a train in rural China (and I'm talking the absolute sticks in West China) . Train ride was about 5 hours to get where I was going. Word got through there was a whitey on the train. About half an hour in there was a queue of auld lads wanting to have a look at me giving me food, drinking shots and buying me beer. Was blotto leaving the train. I had pictures of my family I as a bookmark which got taken and passed around the train. No sense of space or privacy as someone else mentioned. The Chinese in general are fantastic people.

Menas

Yurt! wrote: »

I was on a train in rural China (and I'm talking the absolute sticks in West China) . Train ride was about 5 hours to get where I was going. Word got through there was a whitey on the train. About half an hour in there was a queue of auld lads wanting to have a look at me giving me food, drinking shots and buying me beer. Was blotto leaving the train. I had pictures of my family I as a bookmark which got taken and passed around the train. No sense of space or privacy as someone else mentioned. The Chinese in general are fantastic people.

Something very similar happened to myself. You dont see it so much in Beijing but outside of there people get very interested when a westerner arrives in town.
You are right, they mean no harm by it, just curious is all.

arayess

i've never been to china but what gets me is in dublin - chinese tourist groups eating in jimmy chungs.
like wtf....

worked with a few chinese ladies over the years and they do ask a lot of personal questions moreso than the average punter. No harm intended it's just they like to know stuff.
I know a thai lady and she is similar but not as intrusive.

keith16

There's plenty of Western tourists guilty of the same when they head to Asia.

Links234

Yurt! wrote: »

The Chinese in general are fantastic people.

You might even say, they're a great bunch of lads?

murpho999

arayess wrote: »

i've never been to china but what gets me is in dublin - chinese tourist groups eating in jimmy chungs.
like wtf....

worked with a few chinese ladies over the years and they do ask a lot of personal questions moreso than the average punter. No harm intended it's just they like to know stuff.
I know a thai lady and she is similar but not as intrusive.

Hardly shocking that Chinese people prefer to eat Chinese food is it?

I'd say they find the dishes weird and poor quality though.

APM

I live in Hong Kong, and despite the mainland Chinese tourists being disgusting spitting everywhere, they have also tried to have photographs taken with me (ginger Irish). We've also spotted them taking pictures on the sly on the train/subway. My fiancé was sitting opposite to me and beside one and saw his screen as he was taking the pictures.

At first it was a bit of fun until one of my colleagues in work told me the story of about his 3 year old blonde daughter, basically they continually wanted to touch her hair wherever they went.

It turns out, they believe not that they will "get luck" from touching her hair but actually they will steal her luck away from her. Not really what you want when you have a 3 year old daughter

Even without that, I don't appreciate Chinese tourists taking my picture so they can later on have a chuckle with their mates.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ant_eidw/18260548510/sizes/m/

APM

murpho999 wrote: »

Hardly shocking that Chinese people prefer to eat Chinese food is it?

I'd say they find the dishes weird and poor quality though.

Except in China, Chinese food is just called "food"

blinding

APM wrote: »

Except in China, Chinese food is just called "food"

Heh hold on a minute…………….:eek: A Yeah your right ! ! !

Rawr

I lived in a rural city in mainland China for a year way back in my youth. A little place with just a million people living there. (Smallish by Chinese standards)

Despite being a city, it was very much off the beaten track, and I was one of only probably 12 - 15 foreigners living there. The experience was surreal to say the very least, with an entire city noticing you immediately. As one poster put it, it was kind of what I imagined be famous would feel like.

Although I like them, the Chinese can be an *interesting* bunch to say the least, and I could go on for many pages on the various quirks that they tend to have.

However I can certainly confirm the OPs experience with the tourist's reaction to their child. Some Chinese seem somewhat interested the appearance of Caucasians but go nuts whenever they encounter a Caucasian child. Especially a baby or toddler. I'm not sure why it is so, but my guess is that this pushes all of their 'cute' buttons at once and they need to react.

Although China is interacting a lot more with the Western World in the last couple of decades you are still probably going to encounter Chinese tourists who have never left their particular corner of China before, and thus they're still going to go nuts for babies such as the OP's

biko

I'm still trying to figure out whether OPs baby is very cute or very ugly.


These are cute
http://s24.postimg.org/et4dyovg5/CFTd_Z9b_W0_AAw_God.jpg

Yurt2

APM wrote: »

I live in Hong Kong, and despite the mainland Chinese tourists being disgusting spitting everywhere, they have also tried to have photographs taken with me (ginger Irish). We've also spotted them taking pictures on the sly on the train/subway. My fiancé was sitting opposite to me and beside one and saw his screen as he was taking the pictures.

At first it was a bit of fun until one of my colleagues in work told me the story of about his 3 year old blonde daughter, basically they continually wanted to touch her hair wherever they went.

It turns out, they believe not that they will "get luck" from touching her hair but actually they will steal her luck away from her. Not really what you want when you have a 3 year old daughter

Even without that, I don't appreciate Chinese tourists taking my picture so they can later on have a chuckle with their mates.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ant_eidw/18260548510/sizes/m/

I see you've embraced the Hong Kong attitude towards mainlanders. Mainlanders are rough and ready but the HK attitude towards them stinks. Their noses firmly in the air thinking they're a higher class of Chinese person.

Interesting how British colonial attitudes of superiority were subsumed by Hong Kongers and projected on to other Chinese people.

HK prosperity is only possible because of the mainland, and the 'locusts' bring hundreds of millions of dollars (probably billions) into the HK economy each year.

seamus

Yurt! wrote: »

I see you've embraced the Hong Kong attitude towards mainlanders. Mainlanders are rough and ready but the HK attitude towards them stinks. Their noses firmly in the air thinking they're a higher class of Chinese person.

Interesting how British colonial attitudes of superiority were subsumed by Hong Kongers and projected on to other Chinese people.

HK prosperity is only possible because of the mainland, and the 'locusts' bring hundreds of millions of dollars (probably billions) into the HK economy each year.

To be fair, Chinese tourists have been building a bad reputation worldwide for being dirty and disrespectful. Like not understanding the concept of queueing and just rushing things all at once, or carving their initials into 3,500-year-old artifacts.
That's not to say that everyone else is perfect, but it's a bit much to make some hipsterish proclamations about old colonialism, when even the Chinese government themselves have admitted an issue with their tourists' conduct overseas.

I've a friend who spent two years living in China, probably a "small" town of million like others have mentioned. One of the only foreigners around, 6'2" beanpole, Irish white and bright red hair & beard. Found himself being followed in the streets most days by groups of schoolchildren.
Was celebrated like a rock star at the local pub for being able to drink 6 pints in a single sitting. Even the barflies couldn't match him. He also managed to drink it dry of Guinness one week (they must have only got stock in every few weeks or something). We've always found this funny because at home he's notorious for getting pissed on the fumes and heading home locked after 4 pints.

Alun

df1985 wrote: »

Also, for the first two weeks I had a big bushy beard like a typical backpacker. Facial hair is non existent in Asia really, they just cant grow them. Had to shave it off as the attention was too much, couldn't eat a meal without a photo taken and when you're hungover and just want to be in peace it gets a bit much!

That reminds me of when I was in China back in the 80's, and my wife and I took a rickshaw ride in Beijing. The driver was fascinated by my hairy legs as I had shorts on, and at the end of the trip wanted to stroke them :eek: If that wasn't bad enough he then called over all his fellow rickshaw drivers as well. Time to beat a hasty retreat!!

We were also constantly surrounded by Chinese kids if we stood still for more than 10 seconds all wanting to try out their English.

biko

People seem to confuse how we treat foreigners with how others do.

First of all - we see immigrants of various shapes and colours every day.
In places like China and Japan they don't. Seeing white foreigners there is a big deal as the population is 99.99% homogeneous.

Secondly - just because it's impolite to stare in your culture doesn't mean it's impolite in another. I have found Asians and Arabs to stop and stare when they see me, and I'm not even blonde. Just take it on the chin and move on.

silverfeather

Bull**** post is bull****. I have found Chinese people to be super polite and very friendly. Go home OP.

Yurt2

seamus wrote: »

To be fair, Chinese tourists have been building a bad reputation worldwide for being dirty and disrespectful. Like not understanding the concept of queueing and just rushing things all at once, or carving their initials into 3,500-year-old artifacts.
That's not to say that everyone else is perfect, but it's a bit much to make some hipsterish proclamations about old colonialism, when even the Chinese government themselves have admitted an issue with their tourists' conduct overseas.

I've a friend who spent two years living in China, probably a "small" town of million like others have mentioned. One of the only foreigners around, 6'2" beanpole, Irish white and bright red hair & beard. Found himself being followed in the streets most days by groups of schoolchildren.
Was celebrated like a rock star at the local pub for being able to drink 6 pints in a single sitting. Even the barflies couldn't match him. He also managed to drink it dry of Guinness one week (they must have only got stock in every few weeks or something). We've always found this funny because at home he's notorious for getting pissed on the fumes and heading home locked after 4 pints.

Hipsterish?? Again, Chinese can come across as rough around the edges, but it's rich of Chinese people only a couple of generations removed from the mainland themselves to have an outright xenophobic and 'us and them' attitude towards people from the PRC. If they have a problem with the CCP let them say so, but the prevailing disposition is that the mainlanders coming to shop in HK are 'locusts'. It's sucky to be contemptuous towards fellow countrymen and women because of a haughty post colonial attitude. And that haughtiness and superiority complex is evident all over HK media as well as on the streets and is very observable if you've been there.

*Rides off on fixie bike with 'hipster opinion'*

silverfeather

How many non Irish close friends do you have OP??? Seriously?

one day man

Sounds like a great laugh. Must go there for the attention and maybe charge a few coins for my freakish blessing.

Rawr

Yurt! wrote: »

Hipsterish?? Again, Chinese can come across as rough around the edges, but it's rich of Chinese people only a couple of generations removed from the mainland themselves to have an outright xenophobic and 'us and them' attitude towards people from the PRC. If they have a problem with the CCP let them say so, but the prevailing disposition is that the mainlanders coming to shop in HK are 'locusts'. It's sucky to be contemptuous towards fellow countrymen and women because of a haughty post colonial attitude. And that haughtiness and superiority complex is evident all over HK media as well as on the streets and is very observable if you've been there.

*Rides off on fixie bike with 'hipster opinion'*

Perception may be that you don't get away with 'dissing' the old CCP in China Could be easier (or safer) to just complain about mainlander habits.

They are essentially in the same country, so it would be nice if they got on. They could learn a lot from each other. Mainlanders could learn the manners that the HK folk got off the British, and HK could learn to lower the damn price of everything and make it more like mainland prices. That city is expensive as hell!

_Brian

corner back 2 wrote: »

We just had a very surreal experience with some Chinese tourists while on holiday in the US. We were wheeling our 14 month old little girl in her stroller and their reaction to her was unbelievable. They were taking photos of her without asking permission and calling over friends to look at her. At first we didnt mind and she was smiling back but then there was a group of older chinese women and their reaction was bordering on hysteria. They wanted their photos taken with her again without asking and at this stage we became a bit unnerved and left. Can anyone explain their reaction. The only thing I could find online was that big eyes are a sign of beauty in China and many people do remark about my daughter's eyes but we have never experienced a reaction like this before.

Just a cultural difference..
As another poster said this isnt unusual at all in China.

When Irish people "people watch" we do it in a sort of sly way, staying back and sneaking a look, whispering to each other. The Chinese on the other hand just walk up to whomever they want to watch and stand there and stare, they will talk amongst themselves, point at what your doing and then walk off when their curiosity is satisfied.
I stopped one day and took off my rucksack to fix some stuff and get a drink for one of our kids. When I looked up there were maybe 15-20 people in a ring around looking at what I was doing and chatting amongst themselves, then they just wandered off, bit intimidating at first but it means nothing..

whisky_galore

silverfeather wrote: »

Bull**** post is bull****. I have found Chinese people to be super polite and very friendly. Go home OP.

Go out in the sticks in China as a westerner and you'll find being an object of extreme curiousity is par for the course. Dunno if you'd find that charming or annoying.

whisky_galore

murpho999 wrote: »

Hardly shocking that Chinese people prefer to eat Chinese food is it?

I'd say they find the dishes weird and poor quality though.

Like Americans' interpretations of 'Irish' food to us.

snotboogie

seamus wrote: »

To be fair, Chinese tourists have been building a bad reputation worldwide for being dirty and disrespectful. Like not understanding the concept of queueing and just rushing things all at once, or carving their initials into 3,500-year-old artifacts.
That's not to say that everyone else is perfect, but it's a bit much to make some hipsterish proclamations about old colonialism, when even the Chinese government themselves have admitted an issue with their tourists' conduct overseas.

I've a friend who spent two years living in China, probably a "small" town of million like others have mentioned. One of the only foreigners around, 6'2" beanpole, Irish white and bright red hair & beard. Found himself being followed in the streets most days by groups of schoolchildren.
Was celebrated like a rock star at the local pub for being able to drink 6 pints in a single sitting. Even the barflies couldn't match him. He also managed to drink it dry of Guinness one week (they must have only got stock in every few weeks or something). We've always found this funny because at home he's notorious for getting pissed on the fumes and heading home locked after 4 pints.

He's right though, Hong Kong is one of the most racist cities in the world and locals have an appalling attitude towards mainlanders. What's even worse is watching idiot westerners join in. The recent protests in Hong Kong were a great example of the local contempt to mainlanders rather than the CCP, who were causing the issue in the first place. Their big viral video was an attractive student pleading to the "international community" to support them, when the only support that would actually help them would be across the border in Shenzhen. Getting or even appealing to get the Chinese population on side would have scared the **** out of Xi Jinping and the party but they were too proud to ask for mainlanders help, instead they continued to view the Chinese people and the CCP as the same thing and allowed Xi to sit on his ass and do nothing while he watched the protests peter out to nothing without really conceding anything.

folamh

corner back 2 wrote: »

We just had a very surreal experience with some Chinese tourists while on holiday in the US. We were wheeling our 14 month old little girl in her stroller and their reaction to her was unbelievable. They were taking photos of her without asking permission and calling over friends to look at her. At first we didnt mind and she was smiling back but then there was a group of older chinese women and their reaction was bordering on hysteria. They wanted their photos taken with her again without asking and at this stage we became a bit unnerved and left. Can anyone explain their reaction. The only thing I could find online was that big eyes are a sign of beauty in China and many people do remark about my daughter's eyes but we have never experienced a reaction like this before.

I have a couple of friends who have lived in China and they've all experienced this, especially from rural folk. One of my friends was walking by a schoolyard and all the kids ran to the fence all excited to see her and asked to touch her long red hair lmao. Another friend who was teaching in a city said that people would always stare and point at her in the street, and on two occasions people asked if they could take a picture with her.

The_B_Man

Alun wrote: »

That reminds me of when I was in China back in the 80's, and my wife and I took a rickshaw ride in Beijing. The driver was fascinated by my hairy legs as I had shorts on, and at the end of the trip wanted to stroke them :eek: If that wasn't bad enough he then called over all his fellow rickshaw drivers as well. Time to beat a hasty retreat!!

That actually reminded me of a Korean friend of mine a few years ago. After a few pints, he admitted he was fascinated by my hairy legs and wanted to stroke them. Me, being a good few pints in, allowed him to have a stroke and he was only delighted with himself.

Wacker The Attacker

Maybe they were going to put her in a trio

Egginacup

Yurt! wrote: »

I was on a train in rural China (and I'm talking the absolute sticks in West China) . Train ride was about 5 hours to get where I was going. Word got through there was a whitey on the train. About half an hour in there was a queue of auld lads wanting to have a look at me giving me food, drinking shots and buying me beer. Was blotto leaving the train. I had pictures of my family I as a bookmark which got taken and passed around the train. No sense of space or privacy as someone else mentioned. The Chinese in general are fantastic people.

You see that sounds like heaven to me. As a Leo I like to be made a fuss over. And I like free beer too.

suicide_circus

So it's kosher for chinese school girls to follow me around and take photos but not vice versa?

Ayls

I agree with others who have been to China. When I was there I always had a "bodyguard" with me, not because it was dangerous but because I would be mobbed (which did get quite unsettling) He was in plain clothes but a former bodyguard to government officials and I don't know how but they all knew this and would keep a certain distance from me but on the occasion he left my side (to collect car) I was literally swamped in, within a very short time the street became blocked and traffic stopped with drivers getting out to join in the crowd. It was quite surreal, to bring a town to a stand still. I never felt they meant any harm but in some rural places you have to remember they haven't even seen images of westerners on TV or media so I must have been quite surreal to them. One old man did make me laugh he was literally looking at me then back up at the sky then back at me again lol His eyes popping out of his head !

Supercell

OP be thankful they aren't relatives or they would have grabbed the child (screaming or not) and passed it amongst the villagers to have closeup look!
I remember when visiting my wife's hometown village a couple of years ago that my then 1 year old son kept falling asleep in his pram all the time, I realised afterwards that he must have figured it was the only way to shut all the crowds of people around him staring and trying to grab him for a cuddle. He got used to it after a few days and actually seemed to enjoy the attention but in the beginning it was quite a culture shock to say the least for both of us!
I stared at them too, stuff like hanging the washing off the power lines seemed perfectly natural behaviour there

arayess

murpho999 wrote: »

Hardly shocking that Chinese people prefer to eat Chinese food is it?

I'd say they find the dishes weird and poor quality though.

I've never been to china but I do know one thing , jimmy chungs isn't chinese food.

So it does look odd that they'd go abroad and eat some bastard version of their own cuisine.

ScumLord

Something like this happened to me in Galway. I was standing outside Zhivagos smoking a fag waiting for a friend to come out of the shop. This one came over and stood beside me and the friend started taking pictures. I thought they wanted pictures of zhivagos so I stepped out of the way and she shuffled over to me again.

clever user name wrote: »

There's no privacy in China. What I mean by that is there is no such thing as "I just want be left alone". Friends and family do everything together. I had random people knocking on my door just to say hello and come in for a cup of tea. Everything knows everything about everyone. Even though they can be quite shy, if you start to talking to them some of the first questions they will ask you is how old you are? Are you married? No!! Why not?

Sounds pretty familiar. They should do an exchange with the wesht of Ireland.

seamus wrote: »

I've a friend who spent two years living in China, probably a "small" town of million like others have mentioned. One of the only foreigners around, 6'2" beanpole, Irish white and bright red hair & beard. Found himself being followed in the streets most days by groups of schoolchildren.

That would just freak me out.

Adyx

ScumLord wrote: »

Something like this happened to me in Galway. I was standing outside Zhivagos smoking a fag waiting for a friend to come out of the shop. This one came over and stood beside me and the friend started taking pictures. I thought they wanted pictures of zhivagos so I stepped out of the way and she shuffled over to me again.

Galway people are pretty weird like that.

Lollipops23

My folks visited me here a few months back (Ontario) and I had to explain to my Ma that Eskimo is a derogatory term here. Took her a while to catch on, but she still lost her freakin mind every time she spotted a Native person in public. Thankfully she'd calmed down by the time she saw a Native couple with their baby in a coffee shop or I'm certain she'd have made as big a fuss as the Chinese did over OP's daughter.

Nodin

suicide_circus wrote: »

So it's kosher for chinese school girls to follow me around and take photos but not vice versa?

....you weren't listening to the Judge at all, were ye?

Egginacup

murpho999 wrote: »

Hardly shocking that Chinese people prefer to eat Chinese food is it?

I'd say they find the dishes weird and poor quality though.

Actually the gear you'd get in a Western Chinese restaurant is nothing like what they're used to but a lot of the places have the "real" menu for Chinese people. No fucking chicken balls in flourescent goop on that menu.

Nodin

Egginacup wrote: »

Actually the gear you'd get in a Western Chinese restaurant is nothing like what they're used to but a lot of the places have the "real" menu for Chinese people. No fucking chicken balls in flourescent goop on that menu.

Chicken feet. What the jaysus is there to eat on chicken feet I've no idea, but its a "favourite" by all accounts.

partyguinness

Digressing slightly, my wife and I went to Cambodia on our Honeymoon. Now she is milk bottle white.

The locals and Japanese tourists just stared at her constantly. I mean they would just blatantly stare. Our Cambodian tour guide said that they were looking and talking about her pale skin.

Pale skin is a big thing in Asia- you will see ads for skin whitening products.

Back in Cambodia as we sweated and melted around the jungle ruins, Japanese tourists were covered from head to toe and carried umbrellas- so they would not catch the sun.

By all accounts, having a tan/colouring is a sign of poverty i.e. you work outdoors in the fields.

Think about it- Japanese people are dark but they purposefully stay out of the sun to stay as white as can be and you very very rarely see a tanned/dark Japanese women.

Magico Gonzalez

I read somewhere, a NY Times travel article about Chinese tourism I think, that the Chinese have a network of restaurants catering to the Chinese expat community and Chinese tourists in the major cities (in terms of their expat pop. and tourism), they are usually in basements or hidden from site, the ones they referred to (somewhere in Europe i'm sure) were basements with no windows, nothing in the local language all in Chinese. Food was 100% authentic. The tour guides ushered them in, sat them down and got them fed up then wheeled them out to continue with the tour. Like a school dinner almost.

According to this article they predominantly spent money on luxury goods and very little on traditional tourism (restaurants, pubs, tours etc) as they were catered for by Chinese expats (food and drink) and their own tour company for travel guides. Likely local companies hire them buses and coaches I guess.