Chinese Tourist Attacked and Beaten in Taiwan

Yesterday evening a mainland Chinese tourist travelling to Taiwan with her mother was beaten by several Taiwanese men. The 40-year-old woman had booked a trip for 8 days and 7 nights through a Taiwanese travel agency paying 3900 RMB (about 500 Euros, or 20,000 NTD). She and the other members of the tourist group come from Zhengzhou (鄭州 / 郑州) in China's Henan Province.

Yesterday, while she was shopping outside of their hotel in the hot spring area of Zhiben (知本, spelt Chihpen in Taiwan), about 15km from Taidong, she heard people screaming behind her. At first she didn't pay attention to it, but then 5, 6 men surrounded her. Among them were the bus driver, the tour guide and the group leader she had been travelling with. "They were pointing at their noises, talking in Taiwanese," said the woman later to journalists. "Then the tour guide came. I asked him what was going on. But he ignored my question."

The men punched and kicked the woman several times, until a friend of hers intervened. The two of them managed to escape to a convenience store on the opposite side of the road. "Call the police!" screamed the woman. The shop assistant locked the door to prevent the men from entering. "I'll call the police!" shouted the woman. "Do it! I'm not afraid!" answered the tour guide.

Zhiben hot spring (source: Wikipedia, uploaded by Koika)

According to the woman, the dispute arose over the amount of money she and other mainland tourists from her group had spent during their stay. According to Ettoday, the tour guide, the bus driver and the group leader have agreements with local stores: they take mainland tourist there and see to it that they buy things. This is the main source of income for the three men. However, this time the tourists were not spending enough. Yesterday evening, the three men met to have a few drinks. Then they saw a member of the tourist group who had gone out shopping. They became furious, surrounded and beat her.

Interviewed by the media, the woman said: "Yesterday the group leader complained that we didn't spend enough time in the shop and that he had been criticised by the bus driver. He asked us to be more cooperative. So today we were very well-behaved. But the jewels in the shop were too expensive, so I didn't want to buy any." The group had been taken to a jewellery in Kaohsiung.

Because the woman was afraid the tour guide would get angry if she didn't stay long enough, she spent an hour in the shop. When she went out, nobody was there and the shop staff had to call the tour guide to pick her up. She had to wait in the hot summer weather without even having something to drink. "I didn't spend much", she said. "I just bought some fruits to eat. The other people didn't spend much, either."

She was asked by a journalist if she wanted to continue travelling. "I'd rather stay at the police station," she replied. "I'm too frightened."

However, according to Apple Daily there is another explanation that is currently being examined by the authorities. There seems to have been a dispute between the tour guides and the woman. The latter had allegedly left the group and joined a Taiwanese friend of hers. But according to Taiwan's regulations mainland visitors travelling through travel agencies must remain with their group for a fixed amount of time. A journalist from the newspaper today went to the travel agency (世通旅行社) to ask for more details about the incident, but the agency refused to issue an official statement or to answer the journalist's questions.

The bus driver and the tour guide have apologised to the victim, saying that they had become impulsive after drinking alcohol.

Comments

The Window Trick of Las Vegas Hotels

When I lived in Hong Kong I often passed by a residential apartment complex commonly known as the " monster building ". " Interior of the Yick Cheong Building November 2016 " by Nick-D is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 . _____

Living in Taiwan: Seven Reasons Why It's Good to Be Here

Chinese New Year can be a pretty boring time for a foreigner. All of my friends were celebrating with their families, and since I have no family here, nor have I a girlfriend whose family I could join, I had nothing special to do. Shops and cafes were closed - apart from big chains like McDonald's or Starbucks, which were overcrowded anyway. So I had a lot of time to think. On Saturday evening I went out to buy my dinner. While I was walking around, I heard the voices of the people inside their homes, the sounds of their New Year celebrations. Then I suddenly asked myself: "What on earth are you doing here? Why are you still in Taiwan?" Before I came to Taiwan, some Taiwanese friends of mine had recommended me their country, highly prasing it and going so far as to say that Taiwan is a "paradise for foreigners" (bear in mind that when I say foreigners I mean 'Westerners'). "It's easy for foreigners to find a job," t...

Is China's MINISO Copying Japan's MUJI, UNIQLO and Daiso?

Over the past few years Japanese retailers such as UNIQLO and MUJI have conquered foreign markets, opening shops in cities such as Paris, Berlin or New York and becoming household names in several countries. But the success of their business model seems to have inspired people with dubious intentions. As the website Daliulian recently showed, a new chain called MINISO, which claims to be a Japanese company selling ‘100% Japanese products’, seems to be nothing more than a knock-off of UNIQLO, MUJI and Daiso, copying their logos, names and even the layout of their stores. The company’s webpage proudly announces – in terrible English – that “ MINISO is a fast fashion designer brand of Japan. Headquartered in Tokyo Japan, Japanese young designer Miyake Jyunya is founder as well as the chief designer of MINISO, a pioneer in global 'Fashion & Casual Superior Products' field. ” According to the company’s homepage, MINISO advocates the philosophy of a simple, ...

Macau: Gambling, Corruption, Prostitution, and Fake Worlds

As I mentioned in my previous post , Macau has different faces and identities: there is the old Macau, full of colonial buildings and in which the pace of life seems to resemble a relaxed Mediterranean town rather than a bustling, hectic Chinese city, such as Hong Kong or Shanghai. On the other hand, there is the Macau of gambling, of gigantic hotel and casino resorts, and of prostitution. These two Macaus seem to be spatially separated from each other, with an intact colonial city centre and nice outskirts with small alleys on the one side, and bombastic, modern buildings on the other. The Galaxy - one of the huge casino and hotel resorts The Importance of Gambling for Macau's Economy Dubbed the 'Monte Carlo of the East', Macau has often been portrayed as the gambling capital of China. Media reporting on Macau tend present pictures of the city's glistening, apparently luxurious skyline. But a visit in Macau suffices to realize that it is fa...

Trip to Tainan

Tainan Train Station Last weekend I made a one day trip to the Southern Taiwanese city of Tainan (Chinese: 臺南, pinyin: Táinán), the former capital and one of the most important centres of culture, history and architecture of the island. This blog post is also intended as a special thank to Grace, a Taiwanese friend who was so kind to show me around, and very patient, too. Since Tainan doesn't have an extensive public transport net, Grace picked me up at the train station with her motorcycle, a vehicle that, along with cars, is regarded by locals as indispensable for living comfortably in Tainan. To my great embarrassment, though, I had to admit that I cannot ride a motorcycle. That's why we had to take busses to move around. It was the first time she ever took a bus in Tainan. And now I know why: busses come more or less every half an hour, and service stops early in the evening. No wonder Tainanese snob public transport. Grace had no idea about the routes and about whe...

Schedium

Search This Blog