In mid-August 2012, 37 Russian tourists were evicted from the rooms of the Chinese sanatoriums "Sea Breeze" and "Open" in Beidaihe. This resort is located on the Yellow Sea coast, 279 km from Beijing.
The incident occurred as a result of an economic dispute between two tour operators - Yakutintourist and the host company Hai Wai in Harbin. The latter made a complaint about the delay in paying bills for the accommodation of tourists at the resort. The Russian firm owes its Chinese partners 500,000 yuan, which in terms of rubles is 2.5 million. As a result, at the direction of the General Director of Hai Wai, Yakut tourists were moved from their rooms to the lobbies of hotels and left without food. Some of them have their passports taken away, which is a violation of Chinese law, since it is the prerogative of the police to confiscate passports in this country.
The staff of the consular section of the Russian Embassy in the PRC had to intervene in the situation. Soon a message appeared with a link to the head of the department, Leonid Ignatenko. According to him, the incident was settled, the problem was solved, and the people returned to their rooms. At the same time, Rosturizm received information about the second group of evicted tourists, numbering 47 people. The media learned about this from the official representative of the agency, Irina Schegolkova.
Yelena Khristoforova, director of the Yakutintourist company, did not comment on the incident, but Rosturizm said that the Russian company was trying to pay off the debt by bank transfer, but the Chinese side demanded instant payment of the entire amount.
The situation when tourists who have documents confirming that they have paid for all services are involved in the showdown of business entities was regarded by experts as elementary blackmail. With the help of this scandal, the Chinese side decided to knock out money from the Russian operator, which for some reason did not transfer in time. From the point of view of innocent tourists, this is called the New Russian word lawlessness. As a result of the incident, the Federal Tourism Agency recommended that domestic travel companies refuse to cooperate with the Chinese operator Hai Wai.
