CityNews – The designer and owner of the White Temple in Chiang Rai, Chalermchai Kositpipat, announced last week that beginning in October, foreign visitors will need to pay money to enjoy the attraction, as people are not spending enough money when they visit.
From October, foreign visitors including Chinese tourists will have to pay 50 baht to enter the prayer hall and another 50 baht for the art hall.
A video shared on his Facebook fan-page shows Chalermchai eccentrically explaining why foreigners have to pay, referring to the fact he has to pay 4.5 – 6 million baht a month to keep it going, and that visitors are spending too little when they visit.
He also mentioned that for those who pay, a small medallion and guidebook (in Chinese and English) will be provided. If Thai’s want the guidebook they will have to pay for it too, he added.
Chalermchai has a history of ‘run-ins’ with foreign visitors, temporarily banning Chinese visitors in 2015 because they ‘made the toilets unusable’. He has now built ‘Chinese only’ facilities.
In late 2015 he also criticised a Chinese woman taking photos at his temple while dressed in traditional Hanfu clothing, saying she looked like the “mother of a white snake,” and that it was so ugly that if he was at the temple on that day, he would have not allowed it to happen.