5. Local guide, Sister Zeng
Sister Zeng, all the employees called her that. She was a local guide. Most local guides like her wandered around the West Street all day long seeking business. Unlike the most, She spent more than a half day staying at the hotel. She must had a very good relationship with the hotel so she could stay there, while the other guides were forbidden to enter the hotel to bring in business for themselves. And that benefits Sister Zeng a lot, most of her clients were from the guests staying at Aiyuan Hotel. She made money by selling them tickets to scenic spots and the world’s largest outside musical “Impression: Sister Liu Sanjie”.
Most of the local guides on West Street were female, some are in their thirties’ or middle aged. You can see a lot of them running to you when walking down the street, asking if you want to go somewhere. They would charge you 100 or 200 Yuan a day depending on how many people you have. Most of them were illiterate or poorly educated. I see them as the bravest people of the twon, because they dare to ask tourists with their crappy mandarin, some can even speak a little foreign lauguages that they never learned. They just listen to the tourists carefully and remember everything. They stepped out from the rural village and made a living in town, unlike the left ones who still worked the land there. Some could be annoying though, they’d ask you tirelessly until they got an answer.
Sister Zeng was short and stout middle aged woman with tanned skin. She didn’t work for the hotel, but she claimed she’s the travel consultant of the hotel. She’s a passionate woman, built her reputation by giving tourists free advices on where to eat and have fun around Yangshuo, even they didn’t buy any tickets from her. Her husband worked in town as well, renting bicycles to tourists from 15 yuan to 50 yuan, depending on the condition and function of the bicycles.
There was a saying around the hotel, if you need anything, go find sister Zeng. She’s acknowledged as the resource of the hotel who can cope with anything. Sister Zeng was good with people, easy to get along with. You would hear her loud laughters while talking with the guests. There was no doubt that people liked her.
Even a person like her could be disliked by the minority. There was a complaint against her on the internet saying that she overcharged tourisits and forced them to buy tickets from her, and the experience was quite awful. The manager told her to keep a low profile when he knew about the complaint, said it was not good for the business of the hotel. I believed there were some misunderstanding or it was simply a malicious slander, because I’ve never seen her quarreled with any tourists or forced them to do anything.
It is too easy to make your comment on anyone or anything. Since speaking online is free and you don’t have to be reponsible to the words you said, people tend to use the meanest language on the one they don’t like and it is so not fair.
