Tour Guide - Lily Xiao

Hi everyone!

 

Lily Xiao at Terracotta Warriors Museum, Xi'an

My Chinese name is Xiao Liguo, and my English name is Lily. Originally from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, but I'm not a Uygur person. I am a Han people. I've stayed in Xi'an almost 20 years. I got my own family here. I have an 11-year-old son, and a husband who work for the government. So I'm a Xi'an citizen now! I've been working as a guide more than 10 years, so I'm well experienced in this industry. I graduated from Xi'an Foreign Language University, and my English is pretty good. Also because I'm a part-time actress; I can imitate lots of classical movies dialogues, so I could make your tour very interesting.

Talking about my job, most people think I'm just their travel companion who gives them a lot of information and takes them to different places and travel a lot. Actually, that is not true. First, you need to love what you are doing. I love my city, and I love my job! Every time when my guests leave Xi'an, they tell me “Lily, you really love your city!” They say this because I show them my love during my guidance. Secondly, you need to know what you are talking about and doing. Simple information from the textbooks is not enough to be a guide, because you can meet different people from different countries, and need to prepare sufficient knowledge to serve different tourists. They may be professors, official people or artists. Different people have different tastes, so you need to know lots of things. As a tour guide, you should be a teacher of your clients to represent your city and country. You must also be aware of the make-up of your group and be sensitive to the cultural differences and taboos you may encounter. So I know as a tourist what they expect. You have to be a host to take care of them and make them feel at home.

Lily Xiao at Big Wild  Goose Pagoda, Xi'an

After all, this is a very challenging job. Do what you can to help your clients. That is very good. They depend on you to make them feel welcome and comfortable, to feed them, to provide them with a sense of security. If they have any problems, they will come to you for help or to complain. This is probably the most important I think. Tourists are on vacation, they want to enjoy themselves and be comfortable. At any of these circumstances, I will always be willing to solve the problems.

I always follow this rule: treat your guests like you would want to be treated. Being a tour guide sometimes can be very difficult and hard. All people are different. They have different educations, backgrounds, likes and dislikes. To keep all of them happy is not easy, but with 10 years’ experiences, I can affect my ability to do very well. During the tour things, you can never expect what happens, such as traffic accidents, illness, documents lost, or tourists lost. This is the time to tell how good a guide really is. I think I can easily deal with these problems, and lead you a fantastic China trip! Finally, a warm welcome to Xi'an! Come on, join me and join Travel China Guide!