IT’S HARD being a Chinese tourist. Reviled for bad behaviour one day and ripped off by everyone from taxi drivers to pickpockets the next, China’s newly minted travelling classes are having a tough year.

身为中国游客可真不容易：一会儿因举止不当受尽辱骂，一会儿又遭到出租司机宰客、扒手抢劫。对中国新兴旅游人群而言，今年过得真心不容易。

In typical fashion, the Chinese government appears intent on regulating away some of that pain. On October 1st China’s tourism industry came under a new set of rules, most intended to curb corruption in domestic travel and ease the burden on guides, groups and tourists travelling within the country. The law includes at least one clause that seems to have been inspired by a series of incidents that have revealed the apparently bad manners of Chinese tourists, on the mainland and overseas.

一如以往，中国政府貌似又打算通过调控来解决某些问题了。今年十一，中国旅游业又迎来一套策，其中多数旨在整治国内旅游业腐败现象，并减轻国内导游、旅游团及游客的负担。政策中不少条例的制定，可归咎于以往中国游客的恶劣言行在海内外引发的无数事件。

The number of Chinese travelling at leisure, both domestically and abroad, has grown tremendously in recent years, boosted by rising incomes, a less restrictive passport regime and softer limits on spending. The new tourism law aims to help the tourists themselves, mainly by preventing practices like the forced-march shopping excursions that are often led by ill-paid tour guides. The law also provides helpful advice to the many millions of mainland Chinese who do their pleasure-seeking abroad.

近几年，随着收入增长、出境限定和消费限制放宽，中国的国内外休闲旅游人数可谓急剧猛增。旅游策旨在帮助游客，主要规定有禁止报酬低廉的导游强迫游客购物等等。此外，策也为无数在境外旅游的大陆游客提供了有益建议。

Section 13 advises Chinese tourists to behave themselves wherever they go in the world. The article is a nod to high-profile embarrassments like the one that a teenager caused by carving his mark—“Ding Jinhao was here”—into an ancient wall in the Egyptian ruins at Luxor earlier this year. Chinese tourists have drawn scorn after posting online snapshots of themselves hunting and devouring endangered sea clams in the Paracel islands, and others have produced fake marriage papers at resorts in the Maldives, in order to take advantage of free dinners. (Closer to home, the new law might have given pause to the group of Chinese tourists on Hainan island who inadvertently killed a stranded dolphin by using it as a prop in group portraits.) Spitting, shouting and sloppy bathroom etiquette have made the Chinese look like the world’s rudest new tourists, from London to Taipei and beyond.

其中第13条建议：中国游客出国旅游应注意言行举止。此条建议也是对各大尴尬事件的高调回应——比如，今年年初，爆料一名中国少年在埃及古迹上刻了“丁锦昊到此一游”字样；有游客在帕拉塞尔群岛抓捕并饕餮珍稀海鲜，照片晒到网上后受尽鄙视；在马尔代夫，还有游客为了吃顿免费餐，甚至伪造结婚证；在国内的海南省，为了拍张集体照，有人竟然屠杀了一只无辜的海豚。从伦敦到台北乃至世界各地，到处都能发现随地吐痰、大声喧哗和不讲卫生的中国人——中国人似乎已经成了世界上最粗俗无礼的游客了。

A vice-premier, Wang Yang, made note of the problem a few months ago, calling on his countrymen to watch their manners when travelling abroad. The new regulations add legal force to his plea.

几个月前，副总理汪洋呼吁国人在境外旅游时注意自己的言行举止。本次新规定恰好为此前呼吁提供了法律效力。

“Tourists shall respect public order and social morality in tourism activities, respect the local customs, cultural traditions and religious beliefs, take care of tourism resources, protect the ecological environment and respect the norms of civilised tourist behaviours,” as Section 13 instructs.

“游客在旅游时应遵守公共秩序和社会道德，尊重当地习俗、文化传统和宗教信仰，珍惜旅游资源，保护生态环境并遵循文明旅游规定。” 第13条规定道。

Although it might be difficult to regulate such sensitive matters by fiat, this kind of nudge can have an impact in China. These few headline-grabbing humiliations, along with an ongoing campaign that mainland visitors face in Hong Kong, have made many relatively seasoned Chinese travellers more careful about the way they comport themselves abroad. In Paris, ever a favourite destination for Chinese tourists and shoppers, polite French-speaking Chinese guides shepherd their flocks through the sites, apologising when any of their charges bumps into others.

虽然通过法令来整治类似敏感问题并不容易，但这一举措确实能在中国产生影响。诸如“抓治耻辱”、香港针对大陆游客的抗议活动等事件，已经引起许多有经验的中国游客的警觉，他们在国外也更注意举止了。在巴黎某个广受中国游客和购物者喜爱的景点，法语流利的中国导游一边领着成群游客穿过景点，一边为不小心碰到其他路人而道歉。

And they must be careful for their own sake as well. Chinese tourists have become a favourite target of French pickpockets and criminal gangs, leading this year to calls for greater protection and self-awareness among tourists over their belongings. Chinese tourists in France and elsewhere have been advised to hide their blingy jewellery and electronics, rather than show them off; to avoid cheap but unrewarding budget travel groups; and to be more aware of the risks that inevitably accompany foreign travel.

而且，谨慎一点也是为他们自己好。中国游客已经成为法国扒手和犯罪团伙的抢眼目标，今年不得不加大保护力度、不断提醒游客保管好随身物品。身在法国或其他国家的中国游客被建议收好珠宝首饰和电子产品，不要炫富拿出来；避开便宜却深藏噱头的旅行团；多加提防境外旅游随之而来的各种风险。

There are hopeful voices among China’s travel elite. Experts who study the industry say the rapid rate at which China’s tourism industry is evolving could portend good things to come. China’s millions of novice travellers want to be respected in the countries they visit, not looked down upon as a kind of scourge.

当然，中国旅游业也有乐观的看法。业内导师表示，中国旅游业的高增长率也预示着积极的一面。中国成千上万的新增旅游者希望出国旅游时能受到尊重，不想被当作祸害。

Zhang Guangrui, who studies China’s tourism industry at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, anticipates that the extra scrutiny will help rein in tourists quickly, and the new law will help.

中国社会科学院旅游研究中心的张广瑞预测说，额外施加监管能有效驾驭旅游业，策确实会起到作用。

“The heavy media reports about the issue, criticism and discussion online about the problems just show Chinese people's increasing awareness about it,” says Mr Zhang. “The new tourism law points out the problem and reaffirms the principle, as a way to further remind Chinese people to pay attention to their behaviours when they travel.”

他表示：“越来越多的媒体在报道相关问题，网上也到处批评或讨论此类问题，可见中国人的相关意识正在提高。旅游策指出了问题，也重申了相关原则，进一步提醒中国人出国旅游时要注意言行举止。”

Even if Mr Zhang’s theory is right, China is bursting at the seams with millions of travellers-in-waiting, very many eager to exercise their new opportunities to get out and see the world. As other emerging economic powers have found over the past century or so of international leisure travel, the antics of a few holidaymakers can go a long way towards tarnishing the reputation of the rest.

假设张先生的推测站得住脚，那么中国会有数以百万的游客迫不及待想要出国见识这个世界。而根据其他新兴经济大国在上世纪的经验，或从国际休闲旅游来看，少数言行恶劣的游客确实能毁掉整个民族的声誉。