www.nytimes.com
Open in
urlscan Pro
151.101.65.164
Public Scan
URL:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/09/world/asia/hong-kong-china-tourists.html
Submission: On May 11 via manual from US — Scanned from US
Submission: On May 11 via manual from US — Scanned from US
Form analysis 1 forms found in the DOM
POST https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/09/world/asia/hong-kong-china-tourists.html&apn=com.nytimes.android&amv=9837&ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&isi=284862083
<form method="post" action="https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/09/world/asia/hong-kong-china-tourists.html&apn=com.nytimes.android&amv=9837&ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&isi=284862083"
data-testid="MagicLinkForm" style="visibility: hidden;"><input name="client_id" type="hidden" value="web.fwk.vi"><input name="redirect_uri" type="hidden"
value="https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/09/world/asia/hong-kong-china-tourists.html&apn=com.nytimes.android&amv=9837&ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&isi=284862083"><input name="response_type" type="hidden"
value="code"><input name="state" type="hidden" value="no-state"><input name="scope" type="hidden" value="default"></form>Text Content
Skip to content Sections SEARCH Asia Pacific SUBSCRIBE FOR $1/WEEKLog in Thursday, May 11, 2023 Today’s Paper SUBSCRIBE FOR $1/WEEK Asia Pacific|Hong Kong Wants More Tourists, but Mostly ‘Good Quality’ Ones, Please https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/09/world/asia/hong-kong-china-tourists.html * Give this article * * Advertisement Continue reading the main story Supported by Continue reading the main story Hong Kong Dispatch HONG KONG WANTS MORE TOURISTS, BUT MOSTLY ‘GOOD QUALITY’ ONES, PLEASE The return of budget tour groups from mainland China is sparking frustrations — and a dose of snobbery — in a city starved for business. * Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. Give this article * * * Read in app Mainland Chinese tourists at the Golden Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai district in Hong Kong, last month.Credit...Anthony Kwan for The New York Times By David Pierson and Olivia Wang David Pierson and Olivia Wang followed budget tour groups from mainland China around Hong Kong to report this article. Published May 9, 2023Updated May 10, 2023 阅读简体中文版閱讀繁體中文版 One by one the tour buses descended on the blue collar neighborhood in Hong Kong known as To Kwa Wan — literally translated as Potato Bay — unloading throngs of travelers from mainland China outside large restaurants where a quick lunch awaited them inside. Outfitted in white, red and orange ball caps to denote which tour they belonged to, the visitors crowded the sidewalks, smoked cigarettes under a “No Smoking” sign and bumped into the glass storefront of a real estate office where Nicky Lam, a property agent, was rolling her eyes. “They’re very loud,” Ms. Lam said, complaining that some of the tourists used her office bathroom and water cooler without asking. “One tourist came in and asked for restaurant recommendations,” she added. “I stared at him and said, ‘This is a real estate office.’” Advertisement Continue reading the main story The return of budget mainland tour groups in recent months for the first time since China’s borders were closed by the pandemic in early 2020 has revived old tensions in a city transformed by Beijing’s political crackdown. Before the pandemic, an influx of mainlanders and their wealth into Hong Kong sent prices and rents soaring, fueling frustrations among the city’s residents that sometimes spilled over into outright bigotry. In the nearly three years since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law over Hong Kong to assert its political dominance, criticism of the mainland has often been muted. Now, the public response to the budget tourists — arriving on packages that cost as little as $175 for a two-day visit — has been less than welcoming, and at times, downright rude. Image A guide leading a group of mainland tourists outside of an eatery in the To Kwa Wan neighborhood. Credit...Anthony Kwan for The New York Times Local residents also say the tourists — who tend to travel in groups of two dozen or more — are too noisy, are snarling traffic and are blighting public spaces by squatting and dining on boxed lunches outdoors. One group offended local sensibilities by slurping cup noodles outside a public toilet in Repulse Bay, a beach redoubt of multimillion-dollar homes. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Even some members of Hong Kong’s legislature, which is fully stacked with pro-Beijing lawmakers, have lost patience. MORE ON CHINA * An Awkward Dance: China’s foreign minister set out on a three-nation trip to persuade European leaders that they can do business with Beijing despite its close ties to Russia. * Hong Kong: The return of budget tour groups from mainland China has revived old tensions and sparked frustrations in a city transformed by Beijing’s political crackdown. * Rift With Canada: Beijing ordered a Canadian diplomat in Shanghai to leave in a tit-for-tat move after Ottawa expelled a Chinese envoy accused of gathering information on a Canadian lawmaker. * Foreign Businesses: New security measures and unannounced visits by investigators to the Chinese offices of foreign firms have sent a shiver of worry that economic pragmatism could be giving way to a heightened focus on state control. “Can we have some good quality tour groups?” Kitson Yang asked his colleagues during a recent legislative session while holding up printed pictures of the tourists deluging parts of the city. Image Tourists waiting for a bus outside an eatery in To Kwa Wan. A surge in mainland Chinese visitors on budget tours has sparked complaints from local residents.Credit...Anthony Kwan for The New York Times Before the pandemic and the 2019 pro-democracy protests, mainland visitors powered Hong Kong tourism, comprising nearly 80 percent of all arrivals in 2018. After the city imposed some of the strictest pandemic measures in the world, restaurants, hotels and shops in Hong Kong were starved for business. The arrival of the budget tours coincides with the government’s push to revive tourism in the city of 7.5 million residents. Largely because of a lack of flights, though, high-spending tourists have stayed away,. Budget mainland tourists don’t face that problem because they travel by bus or boat. But local business owners have complained about their spending habits, which typically amount to a few minor purchases in local pharmacies — akin to visiting New York and coming away with a tube of Neosporin from Walgreens. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “Budget tourists are mainly older people. They don’t spend much,” William Chong, the operator of a pharmacy in Kowloon, said recently after emerging from a six-minute burst of activity in his store — the amount of time tour guides allot each group for shopping in any one store. In the pharmacy, the visitors swept up ointments and instant coffee, but left high-value goods like ginseng untouched. Image A pharmacy in the Tsim Sha Tsui district.Credit...Anthony Kwan for The New York Times On online anti-government forums, the tour groups are providing fodder for ridicule, harking back to the days when some local residents would openly use the slur “locusts” to refer to mainlanders who traveled to Hong Kong to buy cheaper powdered baby formula, medicine and cosmetics to resell in China. The taunting works both ways. Mainland users of Douyin, the domestic Chinese version of TikTok, have been making hidden camera-style videos mocking Hong Kongers’ poor command of Mandarin, in the predominantly Cantonese-speaking city. Others have posted videos of instances they felt slighted by restaurant staff for using Mandarin. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Miu Wang, a tour guide, was recently on the second deck of a white-and-pink car ferry in Victoria Harbor that had been converted into a floating restaurant. She watched over dozens of mainlanders tucking into a modest spread that included egg drop soup, stir fried lettuce and a braised chicken and potato dish that was mostly potato. Image A converted car ferry in the Victoria Harbour in April. Tourists board the ferry, styled after a New Orleans riverboat, and are treated to an inexpensive meal and a 45-minute excursion around Hong Kong’s picturesque Victoria Harbor.Credit...Anthony Kwan for The New York Times A 20-year veteran of the business, she said Hong Kongers were snobs. “I need to take care of dozens of visitors at once, “Ms. Wang said about complaints that the tourists exhibit boorish behavior. “I can’t control each of them.” The city’s tourism minister, Kevin Yeung, has urged residents to be more accommodating, even while calling for stricter oversight of visitors. “Tourists will make the street crowded, but it is a signal of economic growth,” Mr. Yeung said in a recent television interview. “Hong Kong people have been known to be welcoming. It is the time to show this spirit again.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story To deal with the increased crowds, traffic police now direct buses in neighborhoods like To Kwa Wan. Crowd control barriers on sidewalks funnel tourists toward restaurants. Image Mainland tourists lining up to board a bus in To Kwa Wan.Credit...Anthony Kwan for The New York Times “I wanted to travel here the last three years but I couldn’t because of the pandemic,” said Zhang Zhanbin, 43, from Hebei Province in China’s north, who was visiting Hong Kong for the first time on a four-day tour that cost about $400. Mr. Zhang, a mustachioed rubber factory worker, said he could care less about the complaints because Hong Kong was back in Chinese hands, and not a British colony. “I’m not too worried about Hong Kong people discriminating against us.” he said. “After all, Hong Kong has been returned.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Hong Kong was supposed to maintain a high degree of autonomy for 50 years after its return to Chinese rule in 1997. The protests that engulfed the city in 2019 were aimed at preserving those freedoms, and ultimately failed. Signs of the city’s authoritarian turn now dot the urban landscape, from the billboards promoting National Security Education Day to the banners extolling the words of China’s top leader, Xi Jinping. Those changes have made Hong Kong more attractive to mainland visitors like Guo Xiuli, a 56-year-old retired state worker from the southern city of Chaozhou, who spent a recent morning taking photographs in Golden Bauhinia Square, a popular tourist site near the heart of the financial district. Image The Golden Bauhinia Square is a popular tourist site where flag-raising ceremonies are held and the national anthem is played. Credit...Anthony Kwan for The New York Times Ms. Guo, who was not a member of a budget tour group, said she had been treated with more respect compared with her first visit to Hong Kong in 2004, when she felt that speaking Mandarin made her a target of bigotry. “I used to feel rejection, indifference and impatience, especially when I spoke to waitresses or asked for directions on the streets,” said Ms. Guo, who dressed up for her photos in red velour heels and a face mask fashioned from lace and rhinestones. “I think it is because the mainland’s economy has developed,” she continued. “Hong Kong is not so special by comparison.” Zixu Wang contributed reporting. Advertisement Continue reading the main story SITE INDEX SITE INFORMATION NAVIGATION * © 2023 The New York Times Company * NYTCo * Contact Us * Accessibility * Work with us * Advertise * T Brand Studio * Your Ad Choices * Privacy Policy * Terms of Service * Terms of Sale * Site Map * Canada * International * Help * Subscriptions Support independent journalism. See subscription options