Ten years, three thousand travellers, one panda
How a nervous first trip to the panda base started a decade on the road.
My first tour, ten years ago, I was more nervous than the guests. A family from the UK, their first time in China, and their only request was pandas. I had my script ready. I had memorised every panda's name in the Chengdu base. I was going to be perfect.
We got to the base at 8am, and within ten minutes, the youngest kid dropped her camera into the moat. Not a metaphor — straight into the water. The parents froze. I remember thinking: this is the moment the whole trip ends.
Instead, a keeper fished it out with a long pole, laughing, and handed it back with a towel. The kid cried, then laughed, then couldn't stop. That morning taught me the rule I still follow: a great trip isn't the one that goes perfectly. It's the one where things go wrong and somebody good is standing next to you.
Ten years later, I've hosted more than three thousand travellers. I've seen proposals at the panda base, honeymoons, and one very serious man who flew from Germany just to watch pandas sleep. The cameras get dropped less often now — but the lesson is the same.
The family still sends me a postcard every Christmas. The kid is in university now. Last year's card said: "Still my favourite guide in China." That's the whole job, right there.