As reported in Shin Min Daily News, the men attacked them from behind, grabbed the neck of one of the women, and even brought her to her knees.

Ms Shen, 44, who was in Xiamen for a holiday with her family returned with injuries on the right side of her face, bruises on her knees and less than fond memories of Xiamen.

"Last Wednesday was our last night in Xiamen, my sister-in-law and I were taking the hotel lift down to go for foot reflexology across the road."

In the hotel lobby, they brushed past three men, one of whom was tottering unsteadily, and caught a strong smell of alcohol coming from the men.

Suddenly, Miss Shen's neck was grabbed from behind violently, causing her to lose her balance. Her assailant then released his grip just as suddenly, causing her to fall forward and land hard on her knees.

"I was scared stiff, and I did not want to further anger them, so after my sister-in-law helped me up, we turned to go immediately," Miss Shen just wanted to forget the matter as they were all very drunk.

But her attacker blocked their way, pointed his finger at her and shouted, "Why did you insult me?"

Miss Shen's sister-in-law retorted, "We didn't insult you, you attacked us first. Why did you hit her?"

But the men refused to back down, and said that they only attacked them because they had scolded them.

The two women tried to escape, but the men continued to block their way and swung a punch to the right of Miss Shen's face, and even gave her a kick.

Miss Shen then picked up the handset of a phone hanging on the wall and threw it at her attacker.

At this moment, the hotel security arrived and held the drunken men back, having spotting the scuffle on the hotel's CCTVs.

Did she insult him?
According to the hotel management, the men, who were patrons of the hotel's night club, claimed that Miss Shen said they were "so gross" when they walked past, thus raising their ire.

However, Miss Shen said that the strong smell of alcohol as the three walked past made her feel like vomiting, so she commented that she "felt nauseous" to her sister-in-law.

In mandarin, the phrase "zhen er xin" can mean both, but colloquially it has come to mean the former.

Local police not helpful
Miss Shen also claimed that the local police were stonewalling and appeared to be discouraging her from reporting the case.

She said she will be reporting the case to the China embassy in Singapore.