Tibet to blacklist graffitiing tourists at

Everest scenic site

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 11 May, 2016, 3:01am

Tibet plans to blacklist mainland tourists who deface its Mount Everest scenic zone
with graffiti.

The plan for the area known on the mainland as Mt Qomolangma echoes a
name-and-shame scheme introduced by the China National Tourism Administration
last year after a string of cases of uncivilised behaviour by mainland tourists both at
home and abroad.

Gu Chunlei, deputy tourism director of Tibet’s Dingri county, said more than 40,000
tourists visited the zone last year and an increasing number were leaving their
names on its monuments, Xinhua reports.

“It’s difficult to prevent this kind of uncivilised behaviour by a small number of

tourists. Some people argue with us when we try to stop them,” Xinhua quoted Gu
as saying.
“The spectacular natural scenery has lost its beauty because of the graffiti.”
He said that in addition to stepped-up patrols and expanded public awareness
campaigns, local authorities would set up a black list to deter the vandals.

Gu said tourists already had to register to enter the scenic zone, making it easier to
identify any wrongdoers.

Authorities would also set up several “graffiti walls” so tourists could leave their mark
and gradually change their “bad habits”, Gu said.

The tourism official said his staff had to use petrol or other chemicals to remove the
graffiti once every two weeks.

Mainland tourists have long carved sentences or their names at scenic spots, with
their graffiti found on wall, plants’ leaves and tree trunks.

Three years ago a young boy from Nanjing, Jiangsu province, reportedly scratched
“Ding Jinhao was here” on a relief sculpture at a 3,000-year-old Egyptian temple.

His parents later made an apology to the public.