Tour Guide - Shirley Tang

Our Guide - Shirley Tang

My name is Shirley. I have been working as an English guide for 14 years. I graduated from Guangxi Teachers University in 1992, and then worked in Sheraton Hotel and Plaza Hotel as a receptionist and secretary for GM. In 1999 I started to work as a tour guide and I found I loved this job very much. I enjoy guiding tourists around beautiful places. So far it is the job I like the best. I am so interested in my work that I feel it fascinating and never tiring. Always I put myself into it, full of energy and enthusiasm. On the other hand, just as a local person, I always try to treat every tourist with love and care. Be good to them, be patient with them, and on the whole, take very good care of them. They can feel when you are really kind to them. My hard work won me tourists’ positive feedback which also brings me satisfaction with my job. Some tourists wrote commendatory letters to me or to my manager and I felt so happy for their approval of my job.
 
In the past 14 years I have welcomed well in excess of 500 foreign delegations and VIP tour groups to China. They were from the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Malaysia, Holland, Israel and other countries. All these experiences have helped me improve my ability to deal with different kind of matters happening during tours.

On one occasion 7or 8 years ago, one of my clients, an American Chinese lady, was sick in the middle of the night. At about 3 o’clock in the morning, I got a call from the hotel assistant manager. She said my client was sick, had serious diarrhea and was very weak. I talked to the sick lady on the phone and knew that she must be sent to the hospital right away. She didn’t want anyone to accompany her except me! I thought this was the moment the lady needed me most, so I hurried and took a taxi to the hotel. I spent the night in the hospital with the lady. She took an intravenous injection and I waited…It was morning when we got back to the hotel and the lady skipped the next day’s trip, resting in the hotel.  I still took the group for sightseeing.

Earlier this year .An American lady from my group discovered she had lost her camera when we were at the airport for departure. She was worried and asked me to check for her. She stressed all her pictures taken in China were in that camera .I understood her feeling. What I could do was to check immediately. I made some calls and fortunately found it was left in the hotel lobby. I told her the good news immediately. She felt so happy and asked me to send it to her .She gave me her address and 50 RMB for the postage. I knew that 50 was definitely not enough to send it to America…I got back to the hotel and got the camera. In the end it took me 280 RMB to send it. Fifteen days later the lady emailed me that she got the camera and many thanks. I mentioned the postage and she sent me the extra. She said now she could show the pictures to her husband and her family. Many years of working in this field has enriched my experiences and made me into a professional, attentive guide. I always believe that you reap what you sow.

In my free time I enjoy swimming and doing yoga. I like music and movies. I like traveling a lot and I have traveled to more than ten countries. The traveling experience opens my eyes and helps me better communicate with my groups.