CNN.com is featuring an article musing on which group of people are likely to have deeper culture shock: the Brits who will be visiting Hainan, a small Chinese island, or the people of Hainan who ware about to be inundated by British tourists after 2007. The reason for this influx of Brits will be, apparently, entirely due to a tour company, Airtours, based out of a small English town in Manchester.
The article explains that the island, while beautiful, and home to several resorts, still needs to do some “tweaking” before the English come: “Predominantly, it’s about delivery in the hotel,” said Steve Barrass, managing director for Airtours. According to the article, “the Chinese need to get to grips with changing their menus daily. Offerings such as ‘Fried Froggy’ and ‘Stir-fried Flesh’ might also need some tweaking.”
Cultural insensitivity aside (and I’ll let you decide who’s more culturally insensitive), the island sounds lovely, with “golden sand and clean, blue water stretching as far as the eye can see.”
I’ve actually only been to Asia once, but Hainan seems as good a reason to return, don’t you think?