Tour guide sparks debate after yelling at woman for falling asleep on bus

Tourist accused of being ‘disrespectful’

The guide can be seen berating the women on the bus (Getty)

A tour guide in China’s Yunnan province has provoked online debate after waking up a tourist and shouting at her for being “disrespectful”.

The unidentified tourist had been visiting Lijiang – a preserved ancient town – and uploaded a video of the guide on 9 July. According to the South China Morning Post, in the video the guide asks her: “Don’t you think sleeping on the bus means you don’t respect me?” 

The tourist protests, saying that she “paid to join this tour group. Why can’t I sleep on the bus?”.

But the guide continues berating her, reportedly saying: “No sleeping! You need to respect me, and I need to respect you.

“We should show mutual respect. You respect me and I respect you, right?”

Eventually, the irritated guide says that the tour will “just stop here to discuss this issue. Our bus will move on after you are completely woken up”.

The confrontation sparked debate on Chinese microblogging site Weibo, with many people criticising the guide.

“The tourist spent money to travel and play, not to show respect to a tour guide” said one user according to the SCMP.

“There is no necessity to investigate. The facts are so obvious. What gives the guide the right to stop tourists from sleeping?” one person commented.

“Instead of following the ‘customer is king’ rule, she behaves like a teacher while tourists are like primary school students who should obey her orders”, added another, also calling the guide “unscrupulous”.

It is unclear exactly how long the confrontation lasted and what the end result was, though the incident took a surprising turn when the Lijiang bureau of culture and tourism began to investigate the event.

It discovered that the guide, identified by her last name Zhang, had no practice licence and therefore had organised the tour illegally.

Insider reports that the bureau issued a statement issued on 11 July reading: “On 8 July, on the way to Dazu Village from Luguhu Town, Yanyuan County, Sichuan Province, Zhang had a dispute with tourists on the tourist bus.

“Zhang’s behavior violated the provisions of Article 28 of the ‘Tourism Law of the People’s Republic of China.’”

The guide now reportedly faces a fine of up to 100,000 yuan (£10,825).