Mind your manners...

It seems the Chinese nouveaux riche haven't acquired nouveaux manners to go with their nouveau cash (see this story in last Saturday's Guardian). The Chinese government, ever mindful of its worldly image, has been encouraging its tourists to refrain from stereotypical, anti-social behaviours such as spitting and slurping their food while overseas, for fear of causing offence to their hosts. Such appeals to self-restraint are, of course, to be welcomed. After all, you would never see British tourists overseas getting drunk out of their minds, vomiting and urinating on the streets, starting fights with locals, destroying public and private property and generally being obnoxious.

Oh. Wait...

Well, never mind. Perhaps the upwardly-mobile Chinese tourist will discover the Mediterranean, where he can spit and slurp to his heart's content.