Remember to be on your best behaviour when touring China

In an effort to amend the seemingly blemished reputation of its travellers overseas, China is launching a gauge that grades diverse levels of bad behaviour amongst tourists. China's National Tourism Administration intends to use the classifications and share that data with airline operators, guesthouses and tour agents so they can choose whether or not to do business with them.

China Tour operators and other firms in the business would be able to rely on the data in advance of "deciding carefully whether to sell the person that ticket, or whether to let them take my flight," Chairman Li Jinzao said.

The new scheme would also arrange for information to reach the general community about below par tourist attractions and hotels. It would consist of material on the amount of grievances collected by attractions and hotels, how many had been resolved, and how many patrons had been fulfilled with the result.

Mishandled attractions and hotels could be disciplined by being cut off from the list of the mainland's endorsed list of tourist attractions and hotels.

Rated Hotels, which have been evaluated and secured governmental approval, will be graded numerically from one to five. Chief tourist attractions in China will also be ranked into five levels, from 1A to 5A – with 5A being the highest. The scores of places take into account their significance and other aspects such as the organisation, security, and hygiene of the area.

Some tourists from China have secured a bad reputation around the world from numerous prominent instances of tourists misbehaving. Only last month, China said it would discipline a crowd of Chinese tourists who compelled a Thai flight to return to Bangkok after growing violent against the flight entourages over a seating disagreement. Chinese media outlets called the travellers "barbarians" after scalding a Thai aircraft attendant with hot water and noodles, and warned they would blow up the aeroplane in the course of a flight from Bangkok to Nanjing.

"They believed that behaving like barbarians would get them what they wanted, forgetting that civility demands that a fellow human being be treated as an equal," stated news agency China Daily. "The incident should serve as a lesson not just for the four culprits, but also for all Chinese to behave properly to get respect."

Another Chinese passenger created a newsflash while aboard a domestic flight from Hangzhou to Chengdu after he unlocked an emergency exit just before take-off to "get some fresh air."