Chinese Netizens Enraged at Laowai Swimming in Ecological Park

By Matthew Bossons

A trio of poorly behaved foreigners in Foshan have found themselves in the crosshairs of Chinese social media users (and have become the leading candidates for our annual ‘Laowai Hall of Shame’ article, which will drop in December) after a video surfaced online of the group swimming in an off-limits pond at Foshan’s Nanhai Bay Forest Ecological Park.

In the footage, which flashes between the rule breaking swimmers and a ‘no swimming’ sign, one woman and two men can be seen frolicking in a clear pool of water at the base of a small waterfall. Still images of the scene indicate other foreigners may have been present, but this has not been clarified or confirmed in media reports.

The threesome of disorderly laowai were spotted by park employees during a security patrol, according to South China Morning Post, and asked to exit the water, to which the group allegedly replied “Ha, ha! Okay, we’ll get out immediately.” Of course, they didn’t immediately exit the pool and it reportedly took “about 20 minutes” for them to do so.

“We tried to persuade them several times, but we could only ask, we could not drag them out,” an unnamed worker is quoted as stating.

It currently remains unclear whether the foreigners involved in the incident were tourists or expats based in the Pearl River Delta. Their nationalities are also unknown.

Watch footage of the incident below:

https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?width=500&height=375&auto=0&vid=q0866mrhc58

Weibo users have shown utter disgust at the lack of respect shown by the swimmers in the now-viral video.

“Punish severely and then detain them for several days... Then they’ll know Chinese law doesn’t discriminate and that this is no trivial matter,” posted one netizen hoping Chinese authorities resolutely handle the incident. “Would the local government please blacklist them!” chimed in another user.

Other netizens were arguably even more perturbed by the lack of authority from the park staff, with one person posting “Great job persuading them for 20 minutes... Those workers are weak. I bet if they had spent the whole day swimming then [the staff] would have spent the whole day urging them to leave.”

With files from Ryan Gandolfo.

[Cover image via Huoguo Shipin/QQ Video]

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