A 15-year-old Chinese tourist defaced a stone sculpture in an ancient Egyptian temple by spraying graffiti on it, according to CNN. The act angered citizens in both Egypt and China and caused a backlash among Chinese "netizens."
The teenager wrote the phrase, 'Ding Jinhao was here,' in Chinese inside the Luxor Temple, a 3,500-year-old structure. A fellow Chinese traveler photographed the graffiti markings and shared them on weibo, the Chinese micro-blogging site.
"The saddest moment in Egypt," the traveler wrote. "I'm so embarrassed that I want to hide myself.
"I said to the Egyptian tour guide, 'I'm really sorry," the traveler continued.
Egypt now faces the problem of how to remove the graffiti markings.
"We want to wipe off the marking with a towel, but we can't use water since it is a 3,500 relic," wrote the traveler. The original post was re-tweeted almost 90,000 times and received over 18,000 comments.
"It's a disgrace to our entire race," wrote one angry reader.
"Reading this disastrous news this morning is heartbreaking," wrote another. "I despise this behavior, especially in Egypt - the place I love."
After news of the act made its way online, angry Chinese tracked down Ding in Nanjing. After he was ridiculed online and the story became more public, his parents issued an apology.
"We want to apologize to the Egyptian people and to people who have paid attention to this case across China," Ding's mother told China Daily. His parents also said they accepted the responsibility of their son's actions, and that their son had learned his lesson.
A photographer for the state-run Xinhua media agency in China said that local Egyptian staff had worked to try and clean the sculpture. Though there was improvement, it couldn't be totally removed due to the risk of damaging the sculpture.
Earlier this month, Beijing called on its citizens to improve their behavior when traveling abroad. Vice Premier Wang Yang stated the importance of projecting a good image of Chinese tourists.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
