Skip to main content
FRANCE - China

6,000 Chinese break world record in Nice

Thousands of Chinese tourists set a new world record in the south of France on Friday. More than 6,000 employees of Chinese group Tiens on a company-paid mass holiday arranged themselves on the Promenade des Anglais in the resort town of Nice to spell out the phrase "Tiens' dream is Nice on the Côte d'Azur".

The Promenade des Anglais in Nice
The Promenade des Anglais in Nice Wikimedia Commons
Advertising

Guinness World Records inspectors were on hand to watch and declared that the visitors had created the longest human-made phrase visible from the sky.

The mass trip to France, including Paris and Nice was organised to mark 20 years since the foundation of the Tiens business conglomerate, which operates in a variety of sectors from biotech to tourism.

The company booked 4,760 rooms in 79 four- and five-star hotels in Cannes and Monaco and 146 buses to ferry the employees around.

This was good news for the local economy as the visit generated an estimated 20 million euros for Nice.

Although France is encouraging tourism from China, other Chinese tourists’ antics have not impressed the authorities back home.

Several embarrassing incidents overseas have led to the creation of a blacklist database.

Travellers who commit offences will have their names passed onto police, customs officials and even banks and will be banned from travelling for two years.

According to the state media Xinhua, offences include “acting antisocially on public transport, damaging private or public property, disrespecting local customs, sabotaging historical exhibits or engaging in gambling or pornographic activities".

China’s National Tourism Administration (NTA) this week blacklisted four of its nationals for bad behaviour while travelling.

They include a woman who insulted and threatened a flight attendant and a man who forcibly opened emergency doors on a domestic flight.

The NTA said in a 64-page Guidebook for Civilised Tourism, issued in 2013, that tourists should not pick their noses in public, pee in pools or steal airplane life jackets.

Chinese travellers spent 107 billion euros overseas in 2012, making them the world's biggest spenders ahead of German and US tourists, according to the UN World Tourism Organisation.

 

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning

Keep up to date with international news by downloading the RFI app

Share :
Page not found

The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore.