The Chinese Hordes Take Over Disneyland
Associated Press (via NineMSN):
The Ming Pao Daily reported Tuesday that visitors from mainland China disregarded the theme park's rules and smoked cigarettes in restaurants and other nonsmoking areas. It ran a photo showing a woman in a Minnie Mouse cap smoking in an open area. The newspaper carried another photograph showing a woman from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong helping a young child loosen his trousers to urinate beside a flower bed.
The Apple Daily had a similar photograph of a child urinating near one of the park's restaurants and another shot of four mainland Chinese women resting on the ground barefoot. A cleaner at the park complained that there were more cigarette butts to pick up Monday compared to pre-opening rehearsal days, when visitors were mostly local Hong Kongers, the report said.
Why settle for one paragraph summaries of Chinese-language reports? You can read the translated articles in full below.
A translation from Apple Daily:
During the various rehearsal days at Disneyland, the visitors were mostly from Hong Kong. When Disneyland was officially opened yesterday, about one-third of the visitors were from mainland China. Many people found that the hygienic conditions were worse than during the rehearsals, and some have complained that the mainland visitors lack public spirit.
According to Disneyland rules, the guests are required to be properly dressed by wearing shoes and shirts. They are also required to behavior properly. Yet, many putonghua-speaking tourists were breaking those rules yesterday.
Our reporter observed that the flower beds in the theme park were the principal victims. Many Chinese spit in the flower beds. There are people who sit on the stone wall, crushing the flowers.
At around 1pm, four female tourists from Shantou were sitting on the ground in the American Main Street under the shade. The four women took off their shoes and displayed their stockinged feet. A Ms. Tang laughed: "We need to rest because we have been walking too much! It is not that we don't want to be on seats, but all the seats are full of people!" Some local and foreign tourists were astonished at their behavior.
At around 3pm, at the restaurant next to the Tomorrow's World ride, a woman wearing a black top and speaking putonghua took off her son's pants and let him urinate into the drain. While the action stunned people, the uniformed Disney employee did not stop her.
Although the theme park has four designated smoking areas, tourists can be seen smoking everywhere yesterday. A Mr. Li from mainland was smoking outside the Space Mountain ride. Our reporter reminded him that this was a no-smoking area, so Mr. Li and continued to smoke on the other side.
It was hot yesterday, and so some mainland Chinese male tourists pulled up their shirts to display their flesh. Some people pulled up their long pants to turn them into shorts just to cool down. Others squat by the roadside to chat. Still others take off their shoes and put their feet on another chair to rest. But the Disney employees did not interfere with their behavior. There was a SUV on exhibit outside Tomorrow's World, and a mainland Chinese male just climbed right inside to get his photograph taken.
A Disneyland cleaner told the reporter that the place was obviously filthier than the rehearsal days before, including when 30,000 people showed up for the Community Chest day. There were cigarette stubs, water bottles, tissue papers and chewing gum everywhere. He said that yesterday, he even saw a mainland tourist about to throw a lit cigarette butt into the garbage can. Fortunately, an employee stopped him in time or else a fire might have been started.
A local tourist named Mr. Chan works in the tourism industry. He said that mainland tourist do not mind their manners and they may affect the image of Disneyland, causing even more negative news for the beleaguered theme park. Ms. Wong from Hong Kong said that Disneyland must have "figured out that they would be invaded by mainland tourists," so she anticipated to see mainlanders spitting and smoking everywhere inside the theme park.
A translation from Ming Pao:
Hong Kong Disneyland was billed as clean, orderly and perfect, but yesterday was the time that they had real customers coming. Among the 16,000 visitors, one third came from mainland China including one tour group of 1,700 from Guangzhou. They brought many scenes of "cultural clashes": a Guangzhou took off his pants in front Sleeping Beauty's castle and urinated and then ran around with his 'little bird' exposed; men smoked in non-smoking areas, took off their shoes and lied down on the benches, or squatted on the ground; some customers brought their own tealeaves and used the free hot water to make tea for themselves.
Yesterday, our reporter observed that the Disney employees seldom went up to stop these "cultural clashes." Instead, they took remedial actions such as picking up garbage as soon as they see it. In the toilets, the cleaning staff cleaned the toilets as frequently as possible in order to maintain the image of cleanliness of the theme park.
Our reporter observed a "classical" scene. Right in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle, the reporter saw our stream of water falling by the road. The reporter turned out and saw a bare-bottomed boy urinating into the flower bed under the direction of his mother. Some of the "fertilizer" fell on the ground. Later, that little boy ran around the plaza while exhibiting his "little bird."
The mother of the boy is Ms. Li. She said that she has been to Hong Kong several times, but this was the first time that she brought the child. As she changed the pants for her son, she said: "It is inconvenient here. I want to find a storage place, but the signs are confusing." She said that her son wanted to take a photograph with a cartoon figure he did not stay in line and therefore other people complained. Her son needed to go, and so she had to let him do it right there and then.
There are many rules in the park. Customers cannot bring their own food, but the visitors ignore it anyway and brought their own food. Mr. Zhang from Guangzhou was especially selective. When he ate at Tomorrow's World's restaurant with female tourists, he took out a small packet of his personal tea leaves and used the free hot water from the restaurant to make his own tea. "My home tea tastes better."
The theme park has designated smoking areas, but most visitors are unaware of that. Instead, visitors smoke in restaurants, open-air sitting areas and next to the garbage bins. At Tomorrow's World's restaurant, the waiters said privately that many visitors smoke but they were afraid to upset them by telling them to stop: "We would ask them -- Shall I help you to put it out, or will you do it yourself?"
When the reporter asked the people smoking in non-smoking areas, including both from Hong Kong and mainland China, they said that they had no idea that smoking was not allowed in open areas. As for moving to the special smoking zones, they felt that it was too much trouble.
It was hot yesterday, but the park lacked shaded areas. In the air-conditioned shops on both sides of American main street, there were tourists 'seated' on the ground. Some people take off their shoes, some stripped down to a singlet, some took off their shoes to lie down on the benches and some even just sat down on the carpet of the exhibition room. A Guangzhou man squatting outside the gift shop said that it was hot inside the theme park. His friends were shopping inside and he was tired, so he squatted on the ground.
Not only do mainland visitors like to sit on the ground, even Thai tourists are like that too. Our reporter found a Thai family in the exhibition hall next to American Main Street. Ms. Udomchokpiti was making baby powder and feeding the small child. She said that they had waited one hour before getting in the park. They are tired. When feeding time came, they could not find any seats. They did not want to do it on the ground outside, so they found an air-conditioned place.
