China plans to ‘name and shame’ tourists who scrawl graffiti in and around the basecamp at Mount Everest.

Officials have lost patience with the number of visitors who etch their name into stone tablets which provide information on the mountain in several languages.

Base camp officials on the Tibetan side of Everest will now pass on the names of culprits who will be added to China’s ‘uncivilized tourist’ list and their details will be published to the media.

“We will set up a blacklist to punish badly behaved tourists, such as those who leave graffiti. The blacklist will be made public through media outlets,” said tourism official Gu Chunlei

To encourage more responsible behaviour, a special wall will be set aside for visitors to leave messages, Gu told local media.

“It’s a way of getting travellers to change their habits without even knowing it.”

China has a similar system in place on the Great Wall near Beijing with a section of the Wall designated for tourists to mark their visit with a message.