A video of a quarrel between mainland tourists caught snacking on a Hong Kong subway train and local passengers has burnt up the Internet in both Hong Kong and the mainland. But are mainlanders really such barbarians?

Some of my friends who have been to Hong Kong talked to me about how clean Hong Kong's streets are and nobody spits on the streets. One of them sighed, "The mainland economy has been developing, but why is there such a disparity in etiquette between the mainlanders and Hong Kongers?"

It seemed to me that he adored Hong Kong people's civilized behavior but is also jealous about it. It reminds me of two events in Beijing.

Beijing's subway line 4 was the first line built and managed by Hong Kong's MTR corporation. Therefore, many details of Hong Kong's subway management can be sensed here in Beijing's subway, including the regulation that food is forbidden in the subway. Most people show understanding of the regulations and stick to them.

But they also show tolerance toward those who eat and drink in the subway. If they feel too bothered by those rule-breakers, they will kindly remind them of the norm. There's seldom any clash between people over this issue.

Another thing is the norms of taking escalators. People who have been abroad all know that we should stand on one side and walk on the other. It has become an unwritten rule.

At the beginning when Beijing promoted such norms, not everyone obeyed them. But now, you can find no matter in busy subway stations or hustling shopping malls, giving way to others has become people's habit.

From the two examples above, we can see that it doesn't take long for mainlanders to accept international civilized rules. It shows that some bad habits among mainlanders are not that incurable. What we need is proper guidance, so that people can actively accept international customs and maintain the peaceful social order.

The author is an editor with China Youth magazine based in Beijing. yinjunguo@126.com