Taiwanese Kidnapping Scare Triggered by Cheap Chinese Tourists

Taiwanese police spent much of Thursday looking for kidnappers after a motorist saw evidence that a man had been stuffed in the trunk of a taxi carrying four Chinese tourists.

Reuters reports that is was all a big misunderstanding: Turns out the four tourists were part of a five tourist group of budget travelers who had convinced the cabby to fit them all in his car in order to save money on taxi fares. One of the men had then climbed into the trunk of the cab.

It all would have worked out fine if a motorist hadn't seen a hand sticking out of the trunk and called the police, who eventually found the taxi and fined the driver $104 for breaking various traffic laws.

Previously, the interactions between Chinese tourists and the Taiwanese have largely been governed by the tour group leaders herding them around the island, but last month Taiwan opened to individual mainland tourists for the first time, prompting some discussion of whether or not younger tourists could be trusted to behave. The tourists, eager to see their mysterious neighbors to the south and sample some of Taiwan's famed cuisine, came flooding into the country.

This incident seems to have been an innocent, albeit stupid, mistake.

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