Nowadays, tourism is developing flourishingly and more and more people

  travel abroad. When people visit others countries, facing the local customs

  and behaviors, should imitate it or not, there is a hot debate.

  Some people hold that we should imitate the local customs and behaviors of

  the foreign country. First of all, respect is one of the most important

  factors while we visit others countries. Understanding and following their

  way of life shows our respect for the local people and thus makes it easier

  to establish good relationship with them. Secondly, many embarrassments and

  conflicts are results of differences in custom and traditions between the

  tourists and the locals, the solution to which would be for the visitors to

  appreciated and imitate local culture and behaviors. If we don’t

  experience their customs and behaviors by ourselves, it is hard to

  understand the local people and culture. By doing things according to their

  custom, we can better understand them and become more tolerant toward

  differences, the very quality that enable us to live in harmony. Thirdly,

  the foreign custom and traditional always seems fascinating to visitors

  from other parts of the world, the imitating of which makes the travelers

  life more colorful.

  On the other side, however, those who oppose the above viewpoint believe

  that the host country should welcome culture different. In the first place,

  as a kind of unofficial ambassadors, travelers bring different culture to

  the destination country, which not only enriches their lives but promote

  mutual-understanding as well. Besides, imitating is not the best or the

  only way to understand the local customs and behaviors well. The

  understanding of the foreign culture also can be through careful observing

  and intently perceiving. What’s more, for any nation to preserve its

  unique culture heritages, she has to first embrace cultural difference in

  order to increase the awareness of its own culture for its citizens. In

  addition, it is unrealistic to expect visitors coming after to readily pick

  up the local custom for their own culture and deep-tooted and dearest to

  them. And we are experiencing a kind of cultural integration, whose

  advantages far outweigh its disadvantages.

  People of both sides have their own sound reason to support their opinions.

  Taking all the above into consideration, to be honest, it is difficult for

  me to make a decision and I have to hold a balance point of view. It is

  need not to imitate the foreign customs and behaviors completely, and at

  the same time, understanding the local culture through this kind of way is

  not a bad way.