Tour Guide - Liping Zeng

Our Guide - Liping Zeng

Hello, I'm Zeng Liping and my groups call me Liping which means beautiful and safety in Chinese. I was born in 1984 at Baishou, a small town of Guilin. It is an old town with an ancient city wall, a small river along the wall, and surrounded by green hills. It is still a place that has not been affected much by the modern civilization yet. People still plow the field with water buffalos, and mountains are covered with large areas of bamboo and fruit trees. That's my home town, a lovely place.
 
After high school, I came to Guilin city and studied at the Guilin Institute of Tourism with a major in tourism English. I had my first job working at the airport as a receptionist of the China Travel Service. From 2006, I became an English-speaking guide. I met all different people from all over the world (USA, Canada, UK, New Zealand, Australia and Israel…), and I feel I like my job very much as the things I need to do for the job are actually the things I like.

I can introduce the visitors to the colorful customs of the minority people here, such as the folk songs of the Zhuang people, the long hair of the Yao people, and the silver ornaments of the Miao people. I tell them what the countryside people's life is like, how to plow the fields, how to plant and harvest rice, and how to fish with cormorants. I show them the beauty of Guilin, the caves, rivers and the hills. I'm looking forward to meeting you with my warm service.

Being a tour guide, I always think for my guests and consider their safety as the most important. Most of my guests told me China is a country with lots of bicycles. I said that's the history, now it's totally different. After airport pick up, I will let them know that Guilin is a city full with electric bicycles. Therefore when you cross the road, you should be very careful especially in the evening, because some of the electric bicycles do not turn on the light in order to save energy. The electric bicycles can run as fast as 30km per hour, and it does make much noise when it approaches.

You know China is a big country and each place has its own local specialties. So when I guide my groups, I always introduce the local specialties. I think people who come from far away always want to bring something local back home as souvenirs. This region, Guangxi, is located in the south of China and by the ocean. A place called Hepu, 400 kilometers to the south from here, is famous for the southern sea pearls since as far back as the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). Guilin literally means forest of Osmanthus, a kind of evergreen tree that blooms in autumn with fragrant yellow flowers. The local people use these flowers to make perfume and tea, which are good to be taken home. The local people like spicy and hot food and they always have pepper paste and fermented bean curds at home and there are always many food stores on the streets where you can buy them. Thanks to the beautiful hills and rivers, there are quite a few people here including farmers and university artists who are good at painting their home town. So on West Street in Yangshuo and in some stores in urban Guilin, you may have chances to take a look at the works. I'm happy to be a local guide in Guilin and I am ready to show you around.