Cempaka Culture and Tourism: Chinese tourists boost Thai economy but stir outrage

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Monday, July 6, 2015

Chinese tourists boost Thai economy but stir outrage

Yahoo – AFP, Marion Thibaut, 5 July 2015

Last year around 4.6 million Chinese nationals visited Thailand, with the average

tourist spending 5,500 baht ($160) per day -- more than the average European visitor

(AFP Photo/Christophe Archambault)

Accused of urinating in public, spitting on the street, or kicking a sacred temple bell -- free-spending Chinese tourists are receiving a mixed welcome as their soaring numbers help the kingdom's creaking economy.

Growing outrage over the perceived disrespect of visitors from the Asian giant saw authorities print thousands of Chinese-language etiquette manuals earlier this year in a bid to keep their tourists in check.

Last month it was a photo of a young girl peeing in the grounds of Bangkok's Grand Palace that triggered the latest round of enraged, and sometimes racist, comments as Thai social media users claimed she was Chinese.

With the recent easing of visa rules

between the kingdom and China, more

Chinese tourists are expected to arrive

in Thailand this year (AFP Photo/

Christophe Archambault)

In March a Thai model's video of tourists from China jumping the queue at an airport was viewed more than two million times and saw a similarly angry rant against Thailand's largest group of foreign holidaymakers.

At the gleaming Wat Rong Khun, also known as the White Temple, in northern Chiang Rai province, owner Chalermchai Kositpipat complained about the state of the toilets after a recent visit by a Chinese group.

"We had problems with some Chinese who defecated anywhere, so I asked the guides to explain to them that rules must be respected in Thailand," Chalermchai told AFP, having earlier threatened to refuse the nationals entry.

But he stopped short of issuing a ban, and like Thai authorities is loath to cut out the Chinese at a time when they are bucking the trend of dipping visitor figures in the kingdom, where tourism accounts for 8.5 percent of gross domestic product.

Last year around 4.6 million Chinese nationals visited Thailand, with the average tourist spending 5,500 baht ($160) per day -- more than the average European visitor.

Their collective contribution, expected to reach $5.6 billion this year, is not one the ruling junta can afford to lose as it struggles to revive a sclerotic economy -- one of its key promises after seizing power from an elected government in May 2014 that was paralysed by months of protests in Bangkok.

'Cultural misunderstandings'

At the White Temple, Thai tour guide Pin Su says her job has become an art in diplomacy due to the growing number of Chinese visitors.

"They do not always pay attention, they spit, talk loudly, sometimes they leave the toilet in a catastrophic state," she said in between ferrying tourists around the building.

"But I cannot remind them every day that we must be careful to be clean. I do not want to offend them. And all these tourists, it is for Thailand!"

Bangkok's ruling generals have been busy courting Beijing as they build new diplomatic allies after last year's coup was widely condemned by Western nations, including longtime friend the United States.

Late last year the two Asian nations forged new agricultural ties, and Beijing was also granted a major railway contract to construct two new lines criss-crossing Thailand.

With the recent easing of visa rules between the kingdom and China, where the growing ranks of the middle-classes are increasingly holidaying abroad, even more Chinese tourists are expected to arrive in Thailand this year.

Last year around 4.6 million Chinese nationals visited Thailand, with the average

tourist spending 5,500 baht ($160) per day -- more than the average European

visitor (AFP Photo/Christophe Archambault)

Unsurprisingly, Thai authorities appear keen to downplay any incidents of strife.

"Chinese tourists do not create problems for us. They are nice tourists," said Srisuda Wanapinyosak, an executive director at the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

"But sometimes there might be cultural misunderstandings as we have different cultures," she admitted before running through the tips laid out for the Chinese in the new manuals.

Back at the White Temple, Cai Zheng Hua and his wife from Fujian, a province in southeast China, are enjoying their long-awaited honeymoon.

He says that while some of his compatriots may "not have enough education to know how to behave", they are very much in a "small minority".

For most visitors Thailand is a "dream" and "very fashionable", said the holidaymaker, raving about the architecture at the site.