Model's rant about Chinese tourists' 'bad manners' goes viral

A Thai model's video rant about Chinese tourists having no manners has gone viral.

Duangjai Phichitamphon was waiting in line at a South Korean airport when, she says, a swarm of Chinese tourists completely disregarded the orderly queue she was standing in.

She was waiting in line at a tax refund booth at Jeju Airport in South Korea, when, she said, Chinese tourists pushed her, pulled her hair and stepped on her feet.

She made a video rant about the incident on 12 March, which has now been viewed thousands of times.

In the video, the model moans: "Everywhere they (the Chinese) go in the world makes people disgusted by their manners. Didn't their parents teach them any manners?"

Some online users have been sympathetic to her views, while others have called it racist.

According to the BBC, on Youku, a site similar to YouTube, one user wrote: "Racist, racist, racist. It is disgusting that anyone can make generalisations like this. That this woman can use a small example to judge millions of other people".

But on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo, one user said: "Our people have done it wrong, I am very sorry and ashamed ... it's inarguable that we should admit our wrong and make it right."

Chinese tourists have, rightly or wrongly, regularly received a negative reputation as travellers.

According to the Seattle Times, there is a recognition within China itself that travel etiquette abroad is lacking.

In 2013, the China National Tourism Administration published a 64-page Guidebook for Civilised Tourism, offering advice on everything from queues to bathrooms.

The administration said that 100 million Chinese people travelled abroad in 2014, with Thailand a favoured destination.

In February, a Chinese tourist was caught drying off her underwear on chairs in Bangkok's Chiang Mai airport.

Earlier this week, a Chinese tourist was fined for apparently washing her feet in the sink of a public restroom in a national park.

And, according to the BBC, a Chinese tourist was accused of using a canal as a toilet in the old city area in Chiang Mai last year.