Speak More Chinese, Ambassador Tells Thais BEIJING - Some Thai police are corrupt and the justice system is slow, but perhaps more importantly, not enough Thais speak Chinese - that's the gist of "a long list" of complaints by China's Ambassador to Thailand, Guan Mu, delivered at a meeting with Thai officials Wednesday on the popular vacation island of Phuket, the Phuket News reported. As China grows in financial muscle and strikes multimillion, even billion-dollar deals around the world, its people are traveling abroad in fast-growing numbers and encountering other cultures, often for the first time. It can be a rocky process. Recently, there was much embarrassment at home after a teenage boy from Nanjing scrawled "Ding Jinhao was here" on a stone relief in Egypt's 3,500-old Luxor Temple. There are reports about "cashed-up" Chinese tourists being the target of robbery in France. Children defecating in public, while commonplace in China, is another contentious issue, including for people in Hong Kong and Taiwan; and in March, Rendezvous reported on how Chinese tourists to the Maldives were allegedly using room kettles to cook food, annoying hotel managers. This comment by a reader called Vint Chavala published in The Nation, a Thai newspaper, noted: "Local businesspeople are complaining that Chinese tourists are too boisterous. They tend to drive speedily on the wrong side of the road, and often go against traffic on one-way streets. Chinese tourists also often stop in the middle of busy intersections - just to argue among themselves about directions. This month, China's deputy prime minister, Wang Yang, spoke about the problem and admonished some Chinese tourists for their "uncivilized behavior." They make a terrible racket in public places, scrawl their names on tourist sites, ignore red lights when crossing the road and spit everywhere, Mr. Wang said, according to Reuters news agency. This damages our national image and has a terrible effect. Amid the criticism, the ambassador's visit to Phuket struck a different, more combative, note. Issues Mr. Guan thought should be addressed by Phuket authorities included security, theft, food poisoning, road accidents and, in particular signage, the newspaper wrote. In Bangkok there are Chinese signs and information, but in Phuket there are very few. For example, tourists don't know what red flags" at the beach mean, the newspaper quoted Mr. Guan as saying. Panompol Thammachatniyom, president of the advisory group to the Senate Standing Committee on Tourism, pointed out - apparently at the meeting - that there were 600 to 700 Thai guides in Phuket who speak Chinese, the newspaper wrote. "Why don't Chinese tour companies use them?" he asked. Mr. Guan's answer: "I'm not talking about quantity. I'm talking about quality," the newspaper wrote. "The meeting began at 2 p.m. and was slow going, partly because all discussion had to go through an interpreter, even though Amb Guan speaks excellent Thai," it noted, perhaps drily. Mr. Guan wanted the Thai police to offer Chinese-language help hotlines. "When Chinese tourists call 1155," the Tourist Police hotline, "officers cannot speak Chinese, and the recorded messages in Chinese are complicated and difficult to understand," he said. Chanapan Kaewglachaiyawut, secretary of the Thai-Chinese Business Association, agreed that was a problem, pointing out the police pamphlet promoting the 191 emergency number used Google Translate for the Chinese message. "Google Translate should never be used, he said, because it was inaccurate," the newspaper cited him as saying. Mr. Guan then advised the Thais to copy China, where, he said, emergency calls go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs call center where many languages are spoken fluently. Writing in the article's comment section, a person called agogohome said: "The Chinese may have the most widely spoken language on the planet per head, but the ideal answer would be for everyone to speak - or at least understand, a common, global language. English for example. Mr. Guan may see things differently, and his approach had its admirers: "Alas, at least for today, it looks like only Chenese ambassador really cares about his citizens and he lets himself to express problems directly whithout diplomatic langauge. Great respet for him!" (sic) wrote Stranger. Either way, it's a pressing issue in Thailand, which has seen an already-huge rise in Chinese tourism in recent years spike again after the runaway success of "Lost in Thailand," a low-budget "Hangover"-style film by Zheng Xu, released just before the Lunar New Year holiday. According to figures from Thailand's Tourism and Sports Ministry, nearly 2.8 million Chinese tourists arrived in Thailand last year, up by 62 percent from 2011. Over the Lunar New Year holiday alone there were about 270,000 Chinese visitors, the ministry said, based on initial estimates, making China the single biggest source of arrivals in those days.