Stay in line: Hanoi’s new attempt to improve public manners

• Hanoi’s etiquette code for civil servants bans tattoos, ‘improper’ fragrances
• Vietnamese travelers told to show a little decorum
• Da Nang publishes booklet asking Chinese tourists to behave
• Poor hygiene makes Vietnam less attractive tourism destination: survey
• Filthy toilets and robberies: Deputy PM names tourism nightmares in Vietnam
• Weak marketing hurts Vietnam's tourism growth

Hanoi has started a new public campaign to improve the manners of its residents, hoping that there will be more queuing and less littering.

In a new list of dos and don’ts for public places, Hanoians are also told not to spit, urinate, use bad language or dress indecently.

Among the things that they should do are abiding the law and respecting others, especially disabled people, the elderly and pregnant women.

To Van Dong, who heads the city's culture department, said the list came after officials unveiled new etiquette rules for civil servants, ranging from office dress codes to the use of perfume.

Such efforts to alter public behavior is not a new concept in Vietnam as the idea of moral education is still very much engrained in Vietnamese thinking.

The new etiquette rules will come into effect early next year. While public order offenses such as urination and littering have already been or will soon be subjected to fines, it remains unclear how other bad manners will be policed and dealt with.

Related news:

> Vietnamese travelers told to show a little decorum

> Hanoi’s etiquette code for civil servants bans tattoos, ‘improper’ fragrances

> Filthy toilets and robberies: Deputy PM names tourism nightmares in Vietnam