BOORISH and uncivilized behaviors by some Chinese tourists going abroad has gotten so serious that the government is taking steps to deal with it, including plans to punish perpetrators.

After reports of some Chinese people doing everything from spitting on the streets to defacing national treasures, the authorities have had enough, fearing for China’s image.

According to the National Tourism Administration, records of uncivilized behaviors of tourists will soon be established in different grades, and related guidelines and administrative penalties will be issued as well, making it legally binding for tourists to behave well and respect local customs and traditions in a foreign land.

“We will firmly punish the uncivilized behaviors, especially those that cast really bad influence,” said Li Jinzao, director of the National Tourism Administration, in a January statement. “Education is crucial, too. We’ll use some typical cases to educate the public.”

The administration will work with airline companies, travel agencies and Customs to blacklist some people, limiting or prohibiting them from traveling abroad. In other cases, they might expose names to the public.

“Just as the credit system adopted by banks and courts, the records of uncivilized behaviors can help curb such ‘damage.’ It’s very necessary,” says Liu Siming, a researcher with the Tourism Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

According to the guidelines, air hostesses and tour guides are eligible to report travelers’ bad behaviors. “But there should be an authoritative third party to deal with the case and at the same time give the right to ‘the accused’ to defend themselves,” Liu says. “That means evidence is very important.”

Mixed blessing

The rules are coming amid fast-improving living standards that have greatly spurred Chinese people’s eagerness to “see the outside world” — America, Europe and other places they might only previously see on television.

According to statistics from the World Tourism Organization, China has for consecutive three years led the world in outbound tourists.

However, it’s been a mixed blessing. While the foreign countries welcome Chinese visitors for their generous spending, they have also been unnerved by their obnoxious behaviors.

The latest case saw a Chinese tourist kicking an ancient bell at Phra That Doi Suthep temple in the northern Thai province of Chiang Mai last week, during the Spring Festival holiday. In the video, the man speaking Mandarin kicks the bell hard to try to make a sound.

Chinese tourists may have been nicknamed “walking wallets,” but the purchasing power doesn’t mitigate the increasing complaints.

Spitting in the street, talking loudly in restaurants and fighting for space to take pictures — such bad manners are damaging China’s ages-old image as “a country of etiquette.”

Although the National Tourism Administration noted early in the week that there’s so far no report of uncivilized behavior for the Chinese New Year and that Chinese tourists’ behavior has improved, it’s become an issue when it comes to overseas trips.

Based on a recent survey conducted by the Xinhua news agency and Tencent among more than 53,000 people, disrespect for local customs, spitting on the street and loud speaking rank as the top three uncivilized behaviors outside China. About 52 percent of people think these behaviors are related to lifestyle and habits, while 42 percent consider them closely associated with educational background.

Christine Liu, a 36-year-old white-collar worker in Shanghai, has just returned from Japan with her family for this past weeklong Chinese New Year holiday.

“The manners of some Chinese really need to be improved,” Liu says. “For example, the guide asked all the members on the bus to throw the garbage into the trash bin in the front before they get off, but still few followed it.”

Liu is quite puzzled why her countrymen didn’t bother themselves for such a simple task.

“I can imagine what the Japanese driver thought when we left,” she says. “Surely this won’t be a good impression of Chinese people.”

However, compared with other notorious behaviors of Chinese tourists, what Liu saw is benign.

In May 2013, a teenage boy from Nanjing in east China’s Jiangsu Province carved graffiti in a temple in Egypt; in December 2014, a female passenger poured a bowl of hot water onto a flight attendant on an AirAsia flight from Bangkok to Nanjing.

Although such extreme cases are not often seen among Chinese tourists, they do cast a bad influence on the image of the nation and its people. CCTV News — usually dedicated to serious news and major events — aired educational clips for five successive days last year to promote polite tourist behavior.

The unusual move was one of many indications of the country’s efforts to change the unfavorable stereotype of Chinese tourists. However, whether the new regulations will change people’s behavior remains an open question.

“In my eyes, the notorious examples of Chinese travelers are not common,” says Irene Hu, a 42-year-old account manager working at a multinational company in Shanghai. “I’m sure the regulation will be effective on some basic behaviors such as not using violence on the airplane, destroying the antiques or spitting on the street. But there are many other behaviors that irritate the local environment and can’t be restricted by such regulation. For example, how do you define loud speaking in public?”

During the past Spring Festival, five Chinese middle-aged women were found eating instant noodles in front of a Gucci store in Florence, Italy.

A long way to go

“Will the new regulation cover such cases? Of course not,” Hu says. “In the eyes of Westerners, today’s Chinese are lavishing money on luxurious items waywardly, but not many Chinese travelers care about the culture and art of the country they visit.”

However, John Wu, a 48-year-old professor at Fudan University, thinks differently, taking the poor behavior into consideration.

“Although the regulation might not cover all the uncivilized behaviors, at least it can work on some,” he says. “In my eyes, it will be a long process to change the mentality of the Chinese tourists, and some simple regulations can’t work in all ways, but they will serve as a good beginning.”

Wu Junyi, a veteran tour guide working at a local travel agency, says Chinese tourists are behaving much better than 10 years ago.

“I’ve seen so many uncivilized cases in group tours,” Wu says. “Even today I still clearly remember one example. I was awakened by a call at 2am, and the angry voice was from one of the members in the group. She blamed me for not having the right food for her, and that caused her constipation. At that moment, I felt so furious yet ridiculous.

“This is a typical example of self-centeredness. Many Chinese tourists consider their own benefits too much while ignoring the interest of others,” she continues.

Peter Zhang, a 46-year-old businessman, says he was amazed at the classification of garbage in Japan when he traveled there, and fears it will most likely fall on deaf ears among the Chinese.

“The tour guide told us that a simple mineral water bottle has three different categories to throw away — the bottle, the cap and the adhesive sheet on the bottle,” he says. “At that time, I thought if every Chinese could throw the empty bottle into the dust bin, it was already a success, not to mention into different ones.”

But some think things are at least improving.

“The Chinese travelers are starting to listen and respect,” Wu, the tour guide, says. “Rome was not built in a day, and I believe time is the best cure.”