Consumer rights must be better protected

For most hardworking Chinese people, the annual Golden Week holidays are usually an eagerly anticipated time to have a break or travel with other family members, relatives or friends. And every one who travels hopes to encounter hospitable local residents and honest and credible businesspeople in their destination.

However, it is common to hear complaints from tourists about the fraudulent practices of local shop owners during the National Day and Spring Festival holidays every year. The exposure of such bad behavior is not only a discordant note in the otherwise generally jubilant festival atmosphere; it also casts a shadow over people's choice of holiday destination. For example, reports that a local restaurant owner in scenic Qingdao, East China's Shandong province, significantly overcharged a tourist for shrimps during the just-concluded National Day holiday, has once again fueled public indignation over the lack of effective measures to protect consumer rights and interests at tourist sites.

According to media reports, a tourist who complained of being overcharged for a seafood dinner at a restaurant in the eastern port city said that he checked the price of a dish of shrimps with a waiter before ordering it and was assured that the price was 38 yuan ($5.98). However, when the bill arrived, he was asked to pay 1,520 yuan for consumed shrimps because the price quoted was for each shrimp. When he queried the bill, the restaurant owner threatened his family, and when he approached local authorities, he was advised to pay the bill as demanded although the police offered him help.