Preparation for overseas trips can never be too thorough

A string of recent incidents has put Chinese overseas travelers on notice. The incidents range from the embarrassing - getting arrested for breaching local laws - to the tragic - people losing their lives camping or hiking.

All serve to re-emphasize the importance of travel safety.

On Saturday, two Chinese men, aged 36 and 49, were arrested in Berlin, Germany, for making Heil Hitler gestures while posing for cell phone pictures in front of Germany's parliament.

Nabbed by police officers patrolling nearby, the two were later charged under Germany's post-1945 laws that prohibit hate speech and symbols associated with Hitler and his Nazi followers.

Given the steady increase in disposable income in China and the younger generation's strong affinity to the Western lifestyle, the travel industry has been gaining strong momentum over the past two decades.

According to the China National Tourism Administration, approximately 122 million Chinese, or less than 10 percent of the country's total population, toured foreign countries in 2016 and spent around $110 billion abroad.

While it's widely accepted in Germany, Austria and other European countries that laws (and common decency) forbid any invocation of Nazism through symbols or gestures, it's not clear that the flood of Chinese visitors to these places have any idea of the restrictions. They should be informed.

On the US West Coast, two tragedies involving Chinese visitors losing their lives have made headlines.

On July 25, search and rescue teams found the body of missing 18-year-old Wang Bin, a Chinese high school student, in a 30-foot-deep cove at Camp Firwood in Whatcom County, Washington, where he had been visiting with a camp group from Seattle.

From Hefei, Wang had flown to the US to attend a two-week summer camp that cost his parents around $7,200 and was filled with outdoor activities. The sailboat capsizing drill that Wang participated in and that caused his death was one of the mandatory exercises. Fellow campers told investigators that Wang did not know how to swim or communicate very well in English.

Wang's parents landed in America on Aug 5. "This is so sudden that we are stunned," said Wang Youqing, the father.

And on July 31, authorities at Yosemite National Park in California confirmed a woman found dead was 27-year-old Wang Chaocui, a Chinese citizen born in Chongqing. Her body was found on the Pacific Crest Trail.

Covering an area of 3,000 square kilometers, Yosemite stretches across the western slopes of the rugged Sierra Nevada mountain range.

The Chinese consulate in San Francisco told media that information provided by the park suggested the cause of Wang's death was drowning.

"California has seen a record winter snowfall in the Sierra Nevadas and the rivers this summer are swift and treacherous," said Wang Hongwei, a veteran hiker familiar with Yosemite. "Not for any reason should an amateur hiker like Wang have set off on an expedition on her own. It's no different from committing suicide."

While the two men who thought nothing of making Nazi salutes were eventually released on around $600 bail each, the family members of Wang Bin and Wang Chaocui return home with the heaviest of hearts, their lives changed forever.

Contact the writer at junechang@chinadailyusa.com.

(China Daily USA 08/08/2017 page2)