By no means is that every incident reported, but those are just some of the biggest ones leaving their dents in newspapers and social media.

Visiting at Home

While Chinese abroad have had their fair share of transgressions, it's also worth nothing that tourist attractions on the mainland have come under fire too. For example, the ways animals are treated in China's zoos is downright sad. Zoos can (arguably-speaking) be depressing places on their own (though not as depressing as Sea World). But in China, there have been a rash of attacks on animals there, like a psychopath biting and killing an ostrich in January or the visitors in the same month who kept trying to hit the Hangzhou Zoo's lions with snowballs or the visitors at the Shenzen zoo who all but killed crocodiles by throwing stuff into their exhibits, because they thought the animals were fake. Clearly, that behavior would not fly in a U.S. zoo. But that's a little different than visiting Buddhist temple in tiny shorts or dropping trou and human feces in the Tuileries. And it's a tad different than a Chinese man busting the glass to a Forbidden City antique.

And it's a little different than the graffiti-style vandalizing of an Egyptian pyramid. But when it comes to that unfortunate (and sort of hilarious) "Ding Jinhao was here" vandalization, that act may actually come from the bubbling up of Chinese street art, which began in 2005. Writer Carolyn Look has a good story on the emergence of street art in Beijing and Shanghai and how the counter culture fights back against the idea of China being an uncreative economic powerhouse. "Today, graffiti is a trend that is on the brink of exploding in China," Look writes. Look explains that the vandalization of Beijing's buildings, some ancient, is a positive thing, "In many ways, graffiti in Beijing has been less a criticism towards the government than towards the passivity of the public. It has forced them to literally open their eyes."

The Chinese Response

Ding's parents have apologized profusely for wrecking the relic. And that's encouraging. It'd be quite a different thing if Ding's parents said that their child did nothing wrong and did not accept any responsibility. But the broader issue is the image of China. Ding's transgressions came just days after one of China vice premiers urged the country's people to be polite. Vice Premier Wang Yang said in a statement:

Improving the civilized quality of the citizens and building a good image of Chinese tourists are the obligations of governments at all levels and relevant agencies and companies ... Guide tourists to conscientiously abide by public order and social ethics, respect local religious beliefs and customs, mind their speech and behavior … and protect the environment.

And, as Guilford explains, China seems bent on cleaning up its tourism image: "China announced just last month that it is issuing a Tourism Law to take effect in October. That law will give travel agencies the authority to penalize tourists who 'violate social ethics,' though it’s also geared toward cleaning up the domestic tourism industry."

Still, some of mainland response of Ding's vandalization comes from a the grade-school, "well they do it too" excuse. In the wake of finding out about the Luxor vandalization came from Chinese hands, Author Abe Sauer explained that "numerous Chinese reporters pointing out that Great Wall is littered" with Western graffiti.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.