Leo - Founder of TravelChinaService

Built from the Ground

My Journey in China Inbound Travel

I did not begin my career in an office.

In 2001, I had the opportunity to become an English-speaking tour guide in Xi’an, mainly responsible for receiving international travelers visiting the city.

At that time, my work focused on welcoming foreign guests, guiding them through places like the Terracotta Warriors, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, and many historical and cultural sites across Xi’an. I introduced them to Chinese history, traditions, and local customs.

Being able to share the history and culture of my own country with overseas visitors gave me a strong sense of pride. When I saw their surprise, appreciation, and the feeling that their journey to China was truly worthwhile, I felt proud not only as a guide, but also as a Chinese person.

Leo's tour guide certificate in 2001

During those years, while receiving and sending off hundreds of tour groups in Xi’an, I learned something important through conversations with guests from around the world:

the world outside was much bigger than I had imagined.

Many travelers spoke to me about Beijing, Shanghai, Guilin, Chongqing, Tibet, and many other destinations across China. As a Chinese person, I realized that there were many places in my own country that I had never seen myself.

My curiosity for knowledge, for the outside world, and for understanding China more deeply gave me the desire to step beyond Xi’an and see more.

From Xi’an to All Across China

I worked as a local guide in Xi’an until early 2004.

Then I made an important decision—I left my local guide position and became a China national tour guide.

After professional training and examinations, I started leading multi-city tours across China for international groups.

Compared with local guiding in Xi’an, where most tours lasted only three days, national guiding was a completely different challenge.

At that time, the main international gateway cities were Beijing and Shanghai. Before every group arrived, I often had to leave Xi’an one day earlier and arrive in Beijing in advance.

Before guests landed, I needed to confirm every operational detail:

• hotel check-ins
• restaurant arrangements
• transportation
• vehicle coordination
• attraction ticket reservations
• train tickets
• flight tickets
• guest information verification

and all the small details that determine whether a journey runs smoothly or fails.

I was only 24 years old at that time.

For a young person, it was the best kind of training—real responsibility.

Travel Is Not About Itineraries — It Is About Responsibility

Each group usually had between 15 and more than 30 travelers, coming from the UK, Australia, the United States, New Zealand, South Africa, and many other countries.

Their journeys across China often lasted from 12 days to over 31 days.

Leo with clients

The routes included Beijing, Xi’an, Yichang, Wuhan, the Yangtze River, the Three Gorges, Chongqing, Chengdu, Guilin, Kunming, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Shanghai.

Sometimes we also traveled to Zhangjiajie, Dali, Lijiang, Shangri-La, and many remote destinations.

All of these places had to be connected by trains, flights, overland buses, and long-distance road travel.

Successfully operating one full journey from beginning to end—ensuring guest safety, smooth logistics, satisfaction, and a happy return home—was never easy.

It was a major responsibility.

Guests had to adapt to weather, food, climate, culture, and physical fatigue from long travel.

Every group was made of different people, with different personalities, expectations, and needs.

There were always unexpected situations:

• guests getting sick
• extreme weather
• flight cancellations
• broken buses on remote roads
• temporary attraction closures

and many other challenges that required immediate decisions.

This work gave me something far more valuable than titles or position:

• real operational experience.
• The ability to solve problems.
• The ability to stay calm.
• The understanding of what guests truly need.

These became my greatest and most valuable assets.

Leo at Jiuzhaigou

The Hardest Routes Teach the Greatest Lessons

I still remember in 2005, when my company assigned me to lead an overland adventure route from Kashgar in Xinjiang to Lhasa in Tibet.

The journey started by receiving guests in Guangzhou, then flying to Urumqi for sightseeing, and later flying onward to Kashgar.

From Kashgar to Lhasa, there were more than twenty days of difficult overland travel.

There were no detailed instructions.

No luxury hotels.

Only simple guesthouses and very basic conditions.

It was physically demanding, operationally difficult, and full of uncertainty.

It was the company’s first group on this route.

They told me only one thing:

You must complete it successfully. Failure is not an option.

I still remember guiding guests on a two-week hiking journey along the Great Wall, starting from Shanhaiguan—the eastern starting point of the Great Wall—all the way toward Beijing.

Leo at the Great Wall

These were not ordinary sightseeing programs.

They were real expedition-style operations.

During more than ten years as a China national guide, I experienced countless special routes like these.

Looking back, I remain deeply grateful for those years, for the trust my previous company placed in me, and for the opportunities to learn through real responsibility.

Those experiences gave me direct knowledge of China’s inbound travel destinations, route design, operational standards, and the reality behind successful travel execution.

Built from the Ground

I started from frontline guiding, not from an office.

That gave me knowledge, experience, and the most direct understanding of what travelers truly need.

It taught me how to reduce risk, avoid operational mistakes, and deliver what guests actually hope to experience when they come to China.

To make sure they leave feeling that the journey was truly worthwhile.

My love for Chinese culture, my passion for this industry, and the daily challenge of solving real problems for travelers have kept me in China inbound tourism all these years.

Today, with the support of our team, I focus on sharing everything I have learned.

I teach my team the same operational thinking, responsibility, and standards that I learned on the road.

Because good inbound travel is never built by sales language.

It is built by experience.

By trust.

And by years of doing the work the right way.