4 named in campaign to halt bad behavior

A passenger who threatened to detonate a bomb on an aircraft and another who threw hot water at a flight attendant are among the first to be named and shamed under an initiative aimed at stamping out misbehavior by Chinese tourists.

The resulting brawl on a flight from Bangkok to Nanjing last December forced the captain to turn the plane around and return to Thailand.

A passenger surnamed Wang claimed he had a bomb, while the water was thrown by a tourist surnamed Zhang, the country's top tourism authority said on Thursday.

Two other unruly tourists have been identified by the China National Tourism Administration.

An online poll conducted by Sina.com.cn found that 92 percent of Chinese netizens believed the Bangkok flight incident was "humiliating" for the country.

The administration said afterward that it would explore the use of records of misbehavior by tourists to identify possible offenders in advance, and a system aimed at achieving this was announced last month.

The administration said the types of misbehavior it was targeting including disorderly conduct on public transportation, damaging public facilities or historical relics, ignoring social customs at tourism destinations and becoming involved in gambling or prostitution.

Records will be kept by provincial and national tourism authorities for a number of years, with the length of time depending on the seriousness of the case. Tourists have a right to appeal.

The campaign is intended to tackle misbehavior at home and abroad. Another case involved tourist Li Wenchun from Shaanxi province, who sat on top of a Red Army statue while having his photo taken last month. He will remain on the blacklist for 10 years. It remains unclear how the "blacklist" status will affect offenders.

Yu Yibo, 28, an engineer from Beijing, said he has witnessed "uncivilized" behavior during trips, and this has affected his travel experiences.

"I don't think posting names on the tourism authority's website will help, as no one will check the list frequently," added Yu.

Contact the writers at suzhou@chinadaily.com.cn and wangyanfei@chinadaily.com.cn