Our Tour Manager Lee was recently granted "the Best Tour Guide" by the Beijing Tourism Administration. Here is the report about him on the "Tourism" magazine:

Lee is a senior English speaking tour guide authorized by National Tourism Administration of China and a qualified national intermediate level conference interpreter. His outstanding English skill, profound knowledge in the tourism field, as well as 15 years working experience with Uniworld and Trafalgar turned him into a professional tour manager. In 2012, he was awarded the honorary title of Outstanding Tour Guide at National Level by the National Tourism Administration. In 2013, he also received the Award of the Forbidden City Cup sponsored by the Beijing Tourism and Development Committee which represented the top honor in tourism industry in Beijing. His progress and improvement are all based on his hard work as well as his concern and care about his clients.

The Emergency on the Plateau

Lee always did his utmost to provide the best service to his clients. He also attached greater importance to the details of each his clients so that he could always be prepared to find solutions for emergency.

In October 2013, Lee went to Tibet with a group coming from the United States. As always, Lee found none of the group members had any expectation or even basic knowledge toward the high altitude reaction they would encounter in Lhasa. As usual, almost everyone got the symptom in different degree when the group arrived there. Lee educated his group very well about the high altitude reaction before they got there and gave them a clear, effective instruction on how to cope with it. With his effort and the medical treatment, most of the clients felt much better and successfully made their way to the world highest elevated Place-the Potala.

All the group members were so excited about what they experienced there and were fully confident in finishing the last item-Sera Monastery in the afternoon. When they reached the gate of one of the courtyards of the monastery, a granny in the group suddenly got sick. Through a very simple conversation, Lee knew it was asthma. She was in a very bad condition and she even could hardly walk and breathe. The narrow and winding mountain road was not accessible for the ambulance. Lee knew he had to race with time. He understood the only way to save her was to take her to the hospital as quickly as possible. It seemed to be a mission impossible at that moment because no one was around and Lee was not in the position to carry her to the main road which was half a mile away because he himself was still bothered by the symptom. Lee still kept calm while he was desperately looking for a solution. Suddenly he saw a local Tibetan grandpa riding an electric scooter passing by. Lee stopped him and rented the scooter from him to take the granny to the parking lot. Lee asked the driver to drive to the People's Hospital of Tibetan Autonomous Region. On the way he helped her to take oxygen and carried her directly to the emergency department upon arrival. Finally, the granny was saved and she felt better and better in a few days.

The doctor said the quick transfer to the hospital and the prompt oxygen taking on the way provided the favorable condition for the successful treatment. Otherwise, she would encounter a very difficult situation and even lose her life.

Safe Evacuation in an Earthquake

The safety of the group has always been the priority of Lee's concern. He always pays attention to the location of the emergency exits in different places so that could have quick response when something happened.

On May 12, 2008, Lee and his group had their unforgettable experience in Xi'an. When the group was on their way to visit the main hall of the Temple which was famous for the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Lee suddenly felt a sort of tremor while all his group members were on the terrace of the hall. He heard the screaming "earthquake! earthquake! (in Chinese)" and saw people running in different directions. Lee's group members were all foreign friends thus none of them understood Chinese. Some of them still stood there chatting while others were still appreciating the statues of Buddha in the Hall as if nothing happened.

Lee looked up and found the roof of the hall was twisted like a disfigured face. He understood that even one more second staying here would be a disaster for everyone. In a very calm and serine way, he gave clear instruction to every member of the group to slowly and carefully go down to the first courtyard which was a very big and open square in front of the terrace and then he helped several shocked elderly passengers to evacuate. He was the last one to get the square. After the head count, he was relieved when he found everyone was there safely and soundly. He always held the position that the tour leader was the soul of a tour group. If he escaped or run first, he clients would be more nervous and may hurt each other by running or injured by rubbles dropped from the roof.

The Passengers on the Yangtze River Cruises

Lee not only always provides the best service to his group but also offers help to other passengers when he was needed.

Once, Lee and his group were on a flight going to Chongqing from Xi'an. According to the schedule, upon their arrival in Chongqing, they would board the cruise to continue their trip to Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. Due to the heavy rain, their flight could not land at Chongqing. The staff on the plane made the announcement both in Chinese and English to inform all the passengers that the plane would land at Chengdu instead. Apparently, most of the foreign passengers did not understand the announcement very well. Lee explained the situation to his group members and reassured them that he would make arrangement accordingly. Compared with the tranquility of Lee's group, other foreign passengers with the same itinerary seemed to be a little noisy because they did not know what was going on and started to ask questions one by one. The stewardess came to Lee to seek help. They told Lee that with limited vocabulary they could not communicate with those foreign friends effectively. Lee helped them to explain the situation to all the foreign passengers and the whole plane became quite again.

After landing in Chengdu, while waiting for the departure, Lee not only made the arrangement for the delayed boarding of the cruise for his own group but also helped all other foreign passengers on the same flight to contact with their local hosts in Chongqing to settle their problems respectively.

In midnight, the flight landed in Chongqing. It was still raining hard. A family of French FIT did not purchase transfer service and they could find any Taxi available because of the bad weather. They came to Lee to seek help while Lee's group was boarding the bus. Lee asked them the name of their cruise and found it was the same one that his group would board. Lee decided to help them, but for the safety of his group, he did not forget to check the passports and the boarding voucher of this family. He also informed his group members of the situation. With the permission of the whole group, Lee took the French family to the cruise with the tour bus.

The rain stopped next morning. We believed the breathtaking scenery of the Three Gorges would remind those foreign friends of a Chinese tour manager who gave them a hand when they were in difficulties.