Chiang Mai Uni under siege from 'bizarre' Chinese

CHIANG MAI: Chiang Mai University will this week start charging tourists to visit its campus after a series of bizarre incidents in recent weeks involving Chinese visitors who have swamped its grounds.

The university, and its tranquil lakeside surrounds, has become a “must see” destination for the Chinese after it was featured in the 2012 Chinese smash hit movie Lost in Thailand, which has grossed more than US$200 million (B6.5 billion baht) at the box office.

Associate Professor Rome Chiranukrom, who handles international relations at the university, said they were getting up to 500 Chinese visitors a day who were roaming the campus and disrupting the running of the university.

The intrusive behaviour included some Chinese pitching a tent near the Ang Kaew lake and writing “We are here” in paint on the ground; causing car accidents; sneaking into classrooms to take snaps of teachers and students; and leaving a mess in the canteen.

However, the strangest misbehaviour, which is widely encouraged on Chinese travel websites, involves costume play where the visitors buy or rent a student uniform and pose for pictures.

Mr Rome said on many occasions Chinese tourists in university uniforms have sneaked into classrooms and attended lessons.

On Monday (February 24) a Chinese teenage brother and sister dressed in uniforms and being photographed by their parents in front of the campus were noticed by a campus security guard who took them to Mr Rome.

Mr Rome said he informed the family it was against university regulations for non-students to wear the uniforms — consisting of dark slacks or skirt, a white top and purple tie — which they had bought from a clothes shop across the road from the university’s main entrance.

They were taken to a local police station and warned they could be fined B100,000 or face up to a year in jail under Thai laws covering university dress codes. Mr Rome said they were not charged.

“The parents told me that they admired Chiang Mai University so much and they wanted to be part of the university,” Mr Rome said. “They even said that they wanted to enrol their children at the university.

“I saw this as a great opportunity instead of a threat. It is a good chance to publicise not only the beautiful setting of the university, but also its academic excellence.”

Mr Rome said that overall the university was “not too worried about the situation” and they were happy to welcome the Chinese visitors in Lanna style. The biggest problem they created was traffic mayhem on campus.

“They have bad traffic manners,” Mr Rome said. “Part of it is because they drive on the different side from Thailand. They have caused a lot of accidents on campus”.

From Tuesday, the university will start 30-minute mini-bus tours of the university, charging adults B50 and children B20.

There will also be charges for cycling or driving in the campus, or for parking inside.

But Anchalee Vittayanuntapornkul, the owner of CM Paradise, scoffed at the idea. “Are they trying to turn the university into a zoo?” she asked angrily.

“Instead of collecting fees, why don’t they enforce stronger rules to control crowds? I’ve never heard of any university in the world collecting a fee just to go inside. Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Rai is much more beautiful than CMU, but they don’t collect fees to go to visit the campus.”

Chinese tourists have come under fire for their unpopular behaviour in Chiang Mai, highlighted in a recent survey.


-- Phuket News 2014-03-02

Come on now, these are the quality tourists the government has been working on for years now to attract..

They can't drive any worse than the locals ?? Can they ??

Question : are the Chinese crashing into the Chinese , or who exactly is crashing into who ?

It has been tradition here in the North that the foreigner is always at fault for any accident, and pays accordingly for damages.. Maybe they are not as generous as some of the Farang visitors to the Country ?

I see the university will start a mini-bus tours of the university, charging adults B50 555

If people are fined B100,000 for wearing university uniforms when they are not students, how much are students fines for not wearing the uniforms?

Already under discussion http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/707271-chiang-mai-university-to-curb-onslaught-of-chinese-tourists/

So what? The rest of Thailand is under siege from 'bizare' farang.

They're not bizarre tourists, just lost, and looking for the Night-Bazaar !

"Mr Rome said on many occasions Chinese tourists in university uniforms have sneaked into classrooms and attended lessons."

God forbid that anyone should try to listen to a university-lecture, and learn something, whatever is academia coming to !

"Mr Rome said on many occasions Chinese tourists in university uniforms have sneaked into classrooms and attended lessons."

Mr. Rome says, "when in Rome don't dress as the Romans."

Or else!

"They were taken to a local police station and warned they could be fined B100,000 or face up to a year in jail under Thai laws covering university dress codes...consisting of dark...skirt, a white top and purple tie."

To which the Chinese tourist inquired why HE was fined 1,000 baht for taking a young woman, who was not a student, and wearing the same school uniform, out of a bar. He could not understand why she wasn't fined, and on top of that he had to pay more money for her to comply with the law and remove her phony uniform when they got back ot his hotel.

So the DPR state of Lanna has got their first tourist attraction, to generate income to pay their farmers, progress made quickly

Declare a "State of Emergency" and send in CMPO!......Where are you Lermbo?

"However, the strangest misbehaviour, which is widely encouraged on Chinese travel websites, involves costume play where the visitors buy or rent a student uniform and pose for pictures."

Why is this so strange?

How many monuments or landmarks have you seen in movies that don't charge you to view them? TIT 555 Chinese got big money anyway

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Disrupting these poor students... How will be resolve this? I know let's charge 50 baht per head!

If people are fined B100,000 for wearing university uniforms when they are not students, how much are students fines for not wearing the uniforms?

What, you mean i their 'other job'?

"Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Rai is much more beautiful than CMU, but they don’t collect fees to go to visit the campus.”

And do they have the same influx of Chinese misbehaving in the same way? My guess not or they may reconsider.

As for the 'cosplay' school uniforms, the Japanese would fit right in, probably bring their own.

"However, the strangest misbehaviour, which is widely encouraged on Chinese travel websites, involves costume play where the visitors buy or rent a student uniform and pose for pictures."

Why is this so strange?

It's a common practice at many Chinese cultural sites, but Chiang Mai University is no cultural site. It's just an ordinary northern Thai university.

I've long asked myself what the deal is with all the mainly Chinese visitors to Chiang Mai university, most of whom ride bicycles onto campus, not cars as the article claims.

All the while there are plenty of westerners that also visit Chiang Mai university, but few would come to take pictures or make it a tourist destination in it's own right - they go there to visit lecturers, staff or students they personally know, or to have a coffee on campus, something like that.

I've seen a couple of Chinese tourists hanging around at Chiangmai zoo dressed as pandas.

Maybe the University could stop allowing anyone (students included) to drive onto campus grounds, period? Just build a few multi-storey parking lots near the various entrances, force everyone except teachers to park there and only teachers would be allowed to park in front of their buildings. Everyone else would be forced to walk, ride a bicycle or catch a shuttle bus.

Over the years universities in other parts of the world have progressively banned cars from being driven around campus and turned their campuses into walking zones. An example is UNSW in Sydney, Australia. Back in the late 80s and early 90s it was possible to drive through campus, going from Barker St. to High St. although there would have been some parking restrictions already in place. Now, except for service vehicles, it is impossible to drive through most parts of campus anymore and you either have to park off campus or on campus in one of the provided parking garages if you have a parking sticker.

Such a solution would solve the issue of traffic accidents.

Note that even Chinese universities are following their western counterparts - there are universities in Kunming for example, where I wouldn't know where to find parking inside and there's no way you can drive through those campuses. Basically you are forced to park outside or only in specially designated areas.

Why can't Chiang Mai university learn from these international examples?

How is charging going to stop the disruption to the students? Just makes it an earner while the notoriety continues (until the film is forgotten).

In the UK at Cambridge and Oxford colleges they have security at entrances that check student IDs. All students here have IDs, so what is the problem?

I've seen a couple of Chinese tourists hanging around at Chiangmai zoo dressed as pandas.

Did you look real close?

I tried to feed them bamboo and they asked me if the meat fell off those sticks.

and there you have the content for Lost in Thailand the sequel.

Disrupting these poor students... How will be resolve this? I know let's charge 50 baht per head!

Indeed. what it actually translates to is:

"Forget about the students. Lets turn it into a cash cow and fill up lots of brown envelopes with untraceable daily cash."

500 tourists at 50 baht each is 25000 per day.... maybe not Mercedes Benz quality but still a nice little earner.

A profane derogatory post has been removed.

Disrupting these poor students... How will be resolve this? I know let's charge 50 baht per head!

Indeed. what it actually translates to is:

"Forget about the students. Lets turn it into a cash cow and fill up lots of brown envelopes with untraceable daily cash."

500 tourists at 50 baht each is 25000 per day.... maybe not Mercedes Benz quality but still a nice little earner.

That's a fair chunk of change per month If you work it out by 30 days. Around 750,000 a month. Any self respecting University would not do this.

A year in jail for wearing a school uniform???

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

"Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Rai is much more beautiful than CMU, but they don’t collect fees to go to visit the campus.”

And do they have the same influx of Chinese misbehaving in the same way? My guess not or they may reconsider.

As for the 'cosplay' school uniforms, the Japanese would fit right in, probably bring their own.

Thought they were more into taking the uniforms off.

I do not think this a positive move for CMU. On a world scale they may not care but little things add up to mar their international reputation and this has ramefications on the quality of international staff they can attract. This is not to reflect on current foreign staff.

"However, the strangest misbehaviour, which is widely encouraged on Chinese travel websites, involves costume play where the visitors buy or rent a student uniform and pose for pictures."

Why is this so strange?

It's a common practice at many Chinese cultural sites, but Chiang Mai University is no cultural site. It's just an ordinary northern Thai university.

I've long asked myself what the deal is with all the mainly Chinese visitors to Chiang Mai university, most of whom ride bicycles onto campus, not cars as the article claims.

All the while there are plenty of westerners that also visit Chiang Mai university, but few would come to take pictures or make it a tourist destination in it's own right - they go there to visit lecturers, staff or students they personally know, or to have a coffee on campus, something like that.

If they were to have a guided tour I would go for that. I have worked on a few of them back home and always enjoyed the feeling of being alive I felt there. Had a boss who would quite often go there for lunch. Not that the food was that good but the people had so much energy.

It should read Chinese lay Siege to Chiang Mai, send them all home for bad behavior, I want to ask them do you act this way at home: walking down the middle of the road, riding a motorbike you have not a clue to ride, stopping in the middle of the road to discuss the plan of the day, going into the kitchen of the restrurant and taking food out of the refrigerator and many more to numerous to mention.