Comments

1. There ought to be an etiquette guide for passengers with foul faux “service” dogs .

   One rule : “Leave them at home”.

2. The best depiction of etiquette was the Marx Brothers eating breakfast in “Room Service” .

3. Westerners have become completely inured to urban violence, so much so that they treat it much like fish treat water. They know it’s there, at least sufficient to enquire as to where they may travel safely in any given place.

   People coming from places like China where one can walk in any part of any city at any time of day and not have to think about personal safety for a millisecond, don’t understand that there are places that they will be unsafe or at least need to be enguarde. I find nothing at all wrong with this as it’s literally true – if poorly expressed – and Chinese people don’t have to sacrifice their personal safety to spare anybody’s political sensitivities.

4. Well Air China aint wrong….

5. Indian neighborhoods in London are safe.
   Its the Islamic ones where they have people harassing women to cover their heads and such that one has to be careful about. That is the truth.

6. I guess the truth is painful at times. More should not be afraid to tell the truth like Air China.

7. Personal safety is much more important than political correctness.

8. The blob of Western governments and corporations do not like truth, especially when it highlights their own failure/refusal to enforce laws and/or support an orderly society.

   Many westerners cannot understand that there are parts in the world where wandering a few blocks away from the wealthy part of town does not suddenly and significantly elevate one’s odds of getting robbed, raped, or killed. For people from those areas, there is an exigent need to clearly impart that, in western cities, wandering off course by a short distance can cost you everything. These folks need to know what to look for. Westerners know what to look for, but are conditioned to keep it to themselves.

9. People are not making a fuss because the message is wrong, people are making a fuss because Air China said the quiet part out loud. In our overly politically-correct environment that is incredibly difficult for people to stomach.

10. “Westerners know what to look for, but are conditioned to keep it to themselves.”

    So, in Western countries you don’t speak certain truths publicly because you’d be penalized otherwise by powerful societal forces. In China, you don’t speak certain truths because you’d be penalized otherwise by powerful governmental forces. Aren’t we going to end up with the same results?

11. @Tony … Perceptive . Well said .

12. The Japanese etiquette guidelines do sum up some cultural values and are just polite sense anywhere. But be cautious in pointing these out, even in a complimentary manner. Such occurred recently and someone was unfairly slammed for it.

13. Just because it’s AIr China doesn’t mean they’re wrong. Then and now.
    Out of interest, I checked :The ONS data clearly shows knife crime offenses in London have surged by around 50% since Sadiq Khan became Mayor in 2016, driven primarily by a spike in knife-point robberies. This contradicts claims made by Khan’s office that total knife crime has fallen during his tenure. Indeed, the Office for National Statistics stated that if London’s figures were excluded, the national knife crime trend in England and Wales for 2022-23 would have shown a 1% reduction instead of the 5% increase.
    I used to love London. I don’t go there any more.

14. “So, in Western countries you don’t speak certain truths publicly because you’d be penalized otherwise by powerful societal forces. In China, you don’t speak certain truths because you’d be penalized otherwise by powerful governmental forces. Aren’t we going to end up with the same results?”

    Not really. In China you can’t comment negatively on government policy or the role of the CPC, but otherwise you can say pretty much whatever you want, including in situations when westerners need to bite their tongues. The pearl clutching at the the suggestion that certain areas of London aren’t safe is a perfect example.

15. Air China cuts right through the proverbial BS. Hard to argue with that which is true.

16. @Mak:
    > People coming from places like China where one can walk in any part of any city at any time of day and not have to think about personal safety for a millisecond, don’t understand that there are places that they will be unsafe or at least need to be enguarde. I find nothing at all wrong with this as it’s literally true – if poorly expressed – and Chinese people don’t have to sacrifice their personal safety to spare anybody’s political sensitivities.

    China is this magically safe place?? I have relatives over there and they’re definitely on guard.

    1) Visiting her relatives in the city I’m always expected to not show how close the relationship is and to the extent practical take the elevator to the wrong floor and then use the stairs. The issue is to avoid any indication of wealth.

    2) Same thing, picking up a relative from school I’m expected to stay away, lest I set up said relative for kidnapping.

    3) We had been in a restaurant, heading back to where we were staying. The group had gotten a bit dispersed due to varying walking speeds. The young, female relative I was near at the time wanted to hurry as she felt it was unsafe. My evaluation of the situation was while most places were closed there were still enough people about involved in closing activities that I did not feel unsafe, but wouldn’t have wanted to be there in another half hour. (But we only had about 5 minutes to go.) Admittedly, she obviously feared rape rather than mugging (she was the only young female in the group), but still a fear.

    China at least in the past tended to be safer for foreigners than for locals. The bad guys know that the police response from a foreigner being victimized will be greater than from a local being victimized. Note how my relatives were not afraid anything would happen to me, but that something would happen to them after we had gone home.

    And I actually think the Air China warning was reasonable. It’s not that **all** such areas are hazardous, but that as someone not used to the environment they aren’t going to be able to tell them apart.

17. Would love to see Air China comments for sh!tholes like New York or LA.

18. I am surprised by the support of Air China’s language. Having traveled across the US and to many other countries, my advice would be the following. Avoid areas that appear to be run down and populated by the poor.

19. Sadiq Khant is a duplicitous and mendacious person and Air China is NOT wrong. Many parts of London resemble Third World crapholes and ARE unsafe.

20. More interesting – and more alarming – than a rehashed-for-social-media eight year old airline magazine article, is the fate of the writer herself, Haze Fan. She was working for Bloomberg in December 2020 when detained on charges of “endangering national security.” The Chinese government announced she was released on bail in 2022, but apparently nobody has heard from her since. “Where is Haze Fan?” is what matters.

21. I wonder what the guide says in Chinese. Sometimes the different languages have different meanings.

22. @ Gary — This just makes Chinese people look bad. You would think AirChina would be a little smarter than this. People are not inherently more dangerous becuase of their race. That is nonsense.