Chinese Tourists Do Europe -- in 14 Days - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

Journey to the West: Chinese Tourists Do Europe -- in 14 Days

"Chinese tourists have recently discovered Europe as a destination. SPIEGEL traveled with a group who covered 11 countries in 14 days by bus, snapping the sights and buying up brand names. But for some the Old World was a disappointment, full of lazy Italians and slovenly French."

Their goal is to absorb as much as possible, as quickly as possible, about these peculiar Europeans. There is one thing, above all, that the members of Operation "Flying Dragon" want to take home from their journey -- the ability to enjoy life. They've already mastered the art of making money, but spending it is a different talent altogether.
The group encounters Germans -- tanned from their vacations on Sri Lanka -- on the flight from Colombo to Frankfurt. The global village is already a reality in economy class, where all package tourists are the same, a fact some Europeans aren't quite ready to accept.
"A Chinese group? I'd rather sit next to a bunch of kids!" says one irate German annoyed by the chattering Chinese on his flight. This is about as close as these Chinese tourists will come to their research subjects. Close, face-to-face contact with other people is risky, demanding and time-consuming.
The group already begins isolating itself from its German surroundings on the bus ride to a hotel near Frankfurt Airport. The next morning, a Sunday, official Zu Fazheng, 58, gets up at 6 a.m. to explore his surroundings with his SLR camera. But aside from a few houses with closed shutters, he finds little worth photographing.

And what about Amsterdam, which seems almost overrun with dark-skinned immigrants and where half-naked prostitutes advertise their charms behind red-lit windows? The Dutch metropolis definitely has too much "luan" -- chaos -- for the Chinese, and they're happy to leave the city in the evening and head to Belgium and on to their last stop, Paris. But the French capital turns out to be the biggest disappointment of Operation Far West.
When she was a young girl, Liu learned to admire the French as a people worth emulating, because of their polish and elegance. But now, as she stands on the Champs-Élysées with her video camera, she sees them as nothing but ordinary, jostling city dwellers, many of them out of shape and poorly dressed. Bits of paper and plastic bags float around on the street. "My dream has been destroyed," she says.
For these Chinese, France has clearly seen better days. According to Liu there is little left to learn here, at least for young people. She is eager to return to the place that she thinks has a bright future -- China. Operation Flying Dragon has been a success.