27% of torist arrivals to Thailand in 2016 were Chinese. The figure is expected to be much higher in 2017. Times they are a changing and I suspect the marriage eligible males (1 child policy) that vastly outnumber the females in China may be coming to look for a bride in Thailand.
I don't know if Thai women will embrace Chinese tourists as readily as they embrace farangs. I just don't see Thai women moving to the polluted cities of mainland China. I could be wrong. However, I have no doubt that they will embrace taking their money :-)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-17/chinese-tourists-become-a-wildcard-for-thailand-s-growth-outlook
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-tourism/go-go-going-as-chinese-women-fuel-thai-tourism-boom-idUSKBN1CP0FC
Tourists of all types leave Thais with the impression that they have money to burn. Thais often don't understand that a tourist will save for a full year or borrow money to spend like crazy for 1 week. A tourist may go out every night of their week long travel whereas, an expat may go out one or two nights and be on a budget.
My favorite response to 'You buy me drink' is, 'I poor farang', which usually results in being left alone rather quickly. I get treated very differently if I tell the bar girl I am from Canada on a week long holiday, rather than I live in Bangkok, the last 5 years. It is informative from time to time to pretend I am a naive tourist to see how the standard fishing lines have changed.
I also suspect that different nationalities get treated differently. Of late, I have notices that the girls on stage get very exuberant when a group of 4+ Chinese males arrive in a bar. The Chinese behave much differently than the taciturn Japanese and the girls respond differently. I would describe the Chinese males by the phrase, 'Boys, they just want to have fun!'.
The bar girls refer to Japanese men as 333's. 3 inches, 3 minutes, 3,000 Baht. I don't think many Japanese would be amused if they knew :-)
TTYL
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