Tourists in hot water over toilet lid removal
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, October 21, 2016
A young Chinese couple who took a spare toilet seat from a hotel in Japan have sparked an online debate, with many calling their behavior shameful.
The couple, who were on a tour organized in Ningbo, found themselves in the spotlight on Wednesday after their tour guide complained on WeChat that they had removed "a multi-functional toilet lid" from the Nagoya outlet of Japan's Toyoko Inn hotel chain.
The guide, who was conversing via a WeChat tour guide group, said that the hotel had then called her, asking the couple to return the lid, valued at about 2,600 yuan (US$385). At first, the guide said she had insisted on the guests' innocence. "I was almost shocked to death after hearing the truth, and it was so shameful."
The Ningbo outlet of Shanghai Spring Tour, the travel agency that organized the trip, yesterday confirmed the incident had occurred.
The tour group stayed at the hotel on Monday night, and staff of the hotel called the tour guide the next day, saying the lid was missing.
The male member of the couple, surnamed Li, told the guide he believed the lid, which he had spotted under a bed, was left by previous occupants of the room and it was therefore all right to remove it, according to a statement issued by Shanghai Spring Tour. The couple come from Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, and their group was on a six-day tour of Japan.
Li's wife was a client manager of a commercial bank in Taizhou, eastday.com said. She is reported to have since resigned her position.
The tour group was on the way to Mount Fuji when the guide received the call from the hotel about the missing lid, said Yang Shipei, an employee of the travel agency.
Li, a businessman, agreed to return the lid immediately and the tour guide helped mail it back on Tuesday, the travel agency's statement said.
A hand-written apology letter by Li posted online expressed the couple's regret.
The affair has triggered waves of criticism online, with people saying what had happened was shameful.
The Ningbo Tourism Administration said it had ordered travel agencies to increase efforts to point out that "uncivilized behavior" by tourists was unacceptable.
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