AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Chinese flight rage is no longer confined to the country’s own airspace. 
 
 A flight from Bangkok to Nanjing had to turnaround midway on Thursday after a female Chinese passenger intentionally scalded a flight attendant with scalding water, passengers and the airline said. 
 
 The incident, which came to light the following day, was the most-discussed topic on social media site Weibo Friday evening. 
 
 A screenshot shows a photo posted to the verified account of Weibo user Zhang Xiao following an attack on an Air Asia flight attendant by a Chinese passenger. Weibo 
 
 Images posted online offer glimpses of the chaos on board Air Asia flight FD9101 as female flight attendants dressed in red uniforms gathered in the aisle — apparently in heated discussion with a group of unruly passengers. 
 
 A statement from the airline said an unidentified female passenger assaulted the flight attendant with the hot liquid after becoming dissatisfied with the service. “The captain of the flight decided to return the plane to Don Mueang Airport deeming her actions as endangering to other passengers and impeding in-flight service,” the statement said, without elaborating on the cause of the conflict. 
 
 One fellow passenger, Zhang Xiao, who identified himself as a host on a Chinese-language television station in Thailand, wrote on his verified Weibo account that the trouble had been caused by one woman and one man. “The man said he wants to bomb the plane; the girl said she wanted to commit suicide,” Mr. Zhang wrote, adding that the woman had thrown hot water at the flight attendant. 
 
 Cell phone video appearing to have been shot on the same plane shows a male passenger shouting obscenities at the cabin crew while other voices can be heard remarking in Mandarin on his lack of class. 
 
 After the plane returned to Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport, the woman and three other passengers were removed from the plane and taken to the airport police station, Air Asia’s statement said. 
 
 “They are losing face overseas,” Mr. Zhang lamented in his post on the incident. 
 
 This is not the first case of Chinese air rage, but to date most examples have been confined to domestic flights, where passenger meltdowns — –often triggered by long delays, 
 
 bad food 
 
 or just downright surly service – are not uncommon. 
 
 Chinese tourist overseas have developed a reputation for bad behavior, ranging from writing graffiti on ancient monuments in Egypt to allowing their children to defecate in public in close proximity to public toilets. 
 
 The situation has become so bad that the government has drawn up a list of do’s and don’ts for Chinese tourists, which includes, among others, a plea for Chinese airline travelers not to steal life jackets from under their seats. 
 
 Today’s incident suggests an update may be in order: Don’t hurl hot beverages to get cabin crew’s attention. 
 
 – Colum Murphy and Yang Jie 
 
 CORRECTION: The incident caused the Air Asia flight to turn around on Thursday. An earlier version of this post mistakenly said the incident occurred on Friday. ||||| BEIJING, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- In the latest scandal to taint the image of Chinese tourists abroad, four Chinese passengers grabbed headlines for causing chaos on a Thai budget flight, forcing the aircraft to return to Thailand. 
 
 The incident occurred on Thursday night, when a couple on a China-bound AirAsia flight, coded FD 9101, had a spat with the flight crew over the seating arrangement and hot water, according to Zhang Xiao, a TV host who broke the story on microblog Sina Weibo. 
 
 The couple, who were not seated together, demanded to switch seats so they could sit together when they boarded the plane. They then requested hot water when the plane was climbing, which was served only after the plane reached cruising altitude, according to Shenzhen Satellite TV, citing a passenger surnamed Wu. 
 
 The man, already annoyed by the water delay, had another fight with the flight attendant over payment and a receipt for the hot water, Wu said. 
 
 "A flight attendant who could speak Chinese came over to explain the situation, but when she turned around, the woman poured the hot water on her back," said another passenger surnamed Zhou. 
 
 Pictures on Weibo show the flight attendant crying while covering her face. A video posted online by a passenger on the same flight shows a man screaming at flight attendants while threatening to bomb the aircraft. 
 
 After the air crew demanded an apology, the man's girlfriend climbed over the back seats, threatening to jump out of the plane, all while punching the plane windows, Wu added. 
 
 The in-flight brawl forced the plane to return to Don Mueng International Airport in Bangkok, where the couple and two other passengers involved were taken away by Thai police. They were required to pay compensation of 50,000 Thai Baht (1,525 U.S. dollars) to the flight attendant, and all four passengers were fined a small amount of money. 
 
 AirAsia said they will not sue the passengers. 
 
 But the drama did not end there. According to an online commenter writing under the name "Lvluonuanuan," after the couple arrived in Nanjing, they refused to get off the plane, asking the air crew to issue a statement to "clear all the rumors" on the Internet. The man even threatened to hit the air crew and onlookers at the airport. 
 
 On Saturday night, China National Tourism Administration issued a statement, saying the passengers' behavior has "severely tarnished the image of Chinese people." 
 
 It vowed to probe the case and punish the passengers involved by including them in a travel blacklist system in their home province of Jiangsu. The tourism agency that arranged the couple's travel has also been criticized publicly. 
 
 The scandal spurred a storm of criticism on Chinese social media, with embarrassed netizens writing scathing comments. 
 
 "Whoever you are, wherever you go, you should remember that your behavior represents your country," said one comment. 
 
 Some angry citizens even started a "human flesh search" for the identity of the passengers involved. 
 
 Luo Guo'an, a research fellow with Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, said the case has tarnished the image of Chinese people, and tourists should learn to behave themselves. 
 
 Outbound tourism is booming in China on the back of rising disposable income, with roughly 97.3 million passengers traveling overseas in 2013, according to official statistics. However, stories of public vandalism abound and have largely embarrassed China. 
 
 In 2013, a boy was caught carving Chinese characters in the Luxor Temple in Egypt. In 2012, two Chinese passengers had a brawl over seating arrangements on a Swiss flight, forcing the aircraft to return.
– An AirAsia flight from Bangkok to Nanjing was forced to turn around after an irate passenger deliberately threw boiling water on a flight attendant, the airline says. According to the airline, a Chinese couple who were traveling with a tour group became furious when they were seated apart, and instead of calming down when flight attendants were able to seat them together, the woman ordered instant noodles and boiling water and then proceeded to chuck the scalding water on a flight attendant after a dispute over payment, Jalopnik reports. Witnesses say the pilot made the decision to return to Bangkok after the man threatened to blow up the plane and the woman started pounding on the plane windows and saying she was going to kill herself, the Wall Street Journal reports. Xinhua—which describes the incident as "the latest scandal to taint the image of Chinese tourists abroad"—reports that the couple and two other passengers involved were arrested after the plane landed in Bangkok and had to pay $1,500 compensation to the attendant. After the incident last Thursday was reported in state media in China over the weekend, authorities issued a statement saying the passengers had been put on a travel blacklist because they "severely tarnished the image of the Chinese people."