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Mainland tourist pleads ignorance in Taiwan graffiti episodePosted by Eric Mu on Friday, April 3, 2009 at 5:56 PM
 Beijing Times April 3, 2009 A mainland Chinese tourist who carved his name on a rock during a visit to a geology park in Taiwan has stoked a new round of debate over the poor image of Chinese tourists traveling abroad (or in this case, to a "breakaway province.") The story, which hit the mainland media on March 31 and drew its information from a Taiwan TV program, reported that rocks "at the famed Wild Willow Geology Park were covered in carved simplified Chinese characters left by the mainland Chinese tourists," after their visit. One of the inscriptions reads "Zhao Genda from Changzhou, China." Although public opinion generally tended to criticize Zhao for shaming the mainland in front of Taiwan, other people voiced their suspicion that the inscription was cooked up by pro-independence activists to sabotage cross-straits relationship. Today's Beijing Times ran a article confirming the identity of "Zhao Changda" (赵根大), a 63-year-old retiree living in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. Zhao said, "I am not very educated, and I did not foresee the serious consequences of my actions. Now I feel very sorry and wish to give my apology through the media." According to the island's law, such unruly behavior is subject to a fine of NT$3,000 - 15,000. The newspaper has been following the story of kidney patients who formed a dialysis cooperative in Tongzhou. Today's front-page photo shows law enforcement officers carrying off the dialysis machine away after health authorities determined the group to be illegal. Links and Sources
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Comments on Mainland tourist pleads ignorance in Taiwan graffiti episode
on behalf of all Changzhou residents, I'm sorry we're so ill mannered. It won't happen again.
Changzhou residents won't be traveling to Taiwan? You won't hear complaints from me!
Actually, the PRC is the breakaway province...
Every country and every province of a country is sure to have some people who behave poorly. That's not a reason to hate the entire country.
Now if Chinese tourists behave badly more often than those from other countries - then it's appropriate to ask China to educate their tourists when issuing them visas.
As much as I'm in favor of Taiwanese independence - that's no reason to malign all Chinese as bad people - they are not. For those Chinese who think Taiwan should belong to China: don't you think you should act in such a manner to the Taiwanese that they would want to be part of China, rather than trying to force them?
I may want my brother to live in our family home, but I wouldn't point a gun at him and force him to live there. Or do you seriously believe your country to be so weak that it would fall apart just because Taiwan doesn't want to be part of it? You should have more pride of your own country, then to believe that.