The young tour guide is tired and crying. In the scorching summer diary of the Beijing tour guide: I haven't had a break for two months. | Tickets. 12 | Tour guide
Since the beginning of summer, the weather has been hot, making tourism even hotter.
On July 2nd, a local tour guide in Beijing passed away due to heatstroke while leading a tour of the Summer Palace. Despite unsuccessful rescue efforts, he passed away. The Beijing Tourism Industry Association spoke out, urging tourists and practitioners to pay attention to their physical condition. The reporter tracked and interviewed several tour guides in Beijing, recording their busy figures in the high temperature.
At two o'clock in the morning, the alarm clock rang
It's still late at night, dreams are fragrant, and the alarm clock rings. It's already over 2am. Guide Zhao Guangqiu took a simple wash and took a taxi to Tiananmen Square. "The flag is raised at around 4:40 in the morning, and you have to queue up to enter by around 3 o'clock." He has led a flag raising team seven or eight times in half a month, almost coming the next day. "Every day is peak day, and the square is full of people."
After watching the flag raising, Zhao Guangqiu talked to the guests about the surrounding buildings. Busy until seven or eight o'clock, having a simple breakfast, I headed straight to the Forbidden City to pick up another group.
"Compared to previous large group tours, there are more family based small package tours this year. Customers will choose to book local tours online for two to three days, which is more flexible." Zhao Guangqiu said that the relative reduction in large group tours is also related to the difficulty of booking tickets. "Traditional group tours usually book all tickets in advance, but this year's itinerary cannot guarantee tickets for some popular attractions. Especially the Forbidden City, it's really hard to get a ticket." Sometimes, Zhao Guangqiu has just finished a day's group tour and has to go online to grab tickets at night. "If a group of 30 people can only grab tickets for 25 people, the group cannot go and can only continue to grab tickets the next day."
At 9 o'clock in the morning, Zhao Guangqiu finally found the guest who joined the group amidst the crowd. "In the morning, there were a lot of people queuing in the Forbidden City, with tens of thousands of people crowded at the ticket gate on the other side of the Meridian Gate." Zhao Guangqiu witnessed a child beside him feeling exhausted and almost falling down. "Many children usually sit in the classroom and suddenly come to practice in hot weather, and their bodies can't take it anymore." Zhao Guangqiu moved forward with the guests at a pace of five minutes. "I have been leading a group since 2008 and have experienced many peak tourist seasons, but I have never seen such a scene before, which is even more exaggerated than the previous' Eleven 'Golden Week."
Zhao Guangqiu hopes that the Palace Museum can dynamically adjust the number of ticket gates and security channels according to the passenger flow during the off peak season, and increase the number of personnel in tourist evacuation. "In terms of details, some optimizations can also be made, such as implementing phased entry, providing guidance on the tour route and duration, and trying to disperse tourists as much as possible."
More than two hours later, Zhao Guangqiu finally entered the Forbidden City. "Coinciding with noon, there are not many places inside the Forbidden City that can provide shade. In addition, there are palace walls all around, and the heat waves are constantly boiling and surging. After three minutes of exposure to the sun, guests can no longer withstand it." Zhao Guangqiu believes that if some ventilation facilities such as fans can be added to promote airflow, the experience of tourists may be improved.
Drink ten bottles of water in a morning
From watching flag raising in the morning to strolling around the Forbidden City at noon, Zhao Guangqiu drank about ten bottles of mineral water, but hardly ever went to the bathroom. "When going out, there are still many explanatory devices for guests in the bag, so I can only bring two bottles of water, and the rest can be bought in the scenic area." Zhao Guangqiu found that if I move slower, I may not even be able to buy water.
Looking back on the past few years, Zhao Guangqiu couldn't help but sigh. "Great ups and downs." Zhao Guangqiu once watched helplessly as one tourist restaurant after another closed down, the tourist fleet disbanded, the hotels stopped working, and many tour guides had to switch careers due to long-term lack of income. "It's an unprecedented bleakness, the entire industry has reached the extreme of darkness." Now, with the skyrocketing demand in the tourism market, tour guides have suddenly become a "hot commodity". Anyone with a tour guide certificate will be called to the rescue site.
"I just finished leading a tour group at 12 o'clock, and as long as I say 'I'm leaving' in the tour guide group, a new tour group will be found in less than half an hour." Zhao Guangqiu said that in some emergency situations where a tour guide is needed to save the scene, a high daily salary of 1500 yuan can even be offered, but this is just an exception. The daily salary of most tour guides is still around 500 to 600 yuan, which is much higher than the previous daily salary of around 300 yuan, but this is also a result of overwork
In less than half a month, Zhao Guangqiu had become black and thin. "Long term lack of sleep, coupled with extreme heat, can easily lead to symptoms such as arrhythmia and cerebral hypoxia, which require medication. For those of us in our thirties and forties, we carry quick acting heart saving pills with us. Some young girls with weaker bodies should bring heatstroke prevention drugs such as Huoxiang Zhengqi Water." When leading a group, Zhao Guangqiu rarely feels tired, "because we need to keep our spirits up, closely observe the guests' physical condition, and promptly handle their emotions."
When he saw off the guests, he suddenly realized that he was scattered all over. The entire month of July and August will be characterized by high intensity, with almost no rest for a day. Seeing the news of a colleague passing away from heatstroke in the Summer Palace, Zhao Guangqiu felt particularly uncomfortable. "In such hot weather, both tourists and tour guides' bodies are being tested. We hope that the scenic area can take more humane measures to further improve the tourism experience."
At 3 pm, hide under the tree
At 3 pm, the temperature approached 40 ℃, and the surface temperature was even higher. Outside the south gate of the Old Summer Palace, tourists gather densely from all directions. Under the scorching sun, tourists who have already experienced half a day of sightseeing are feeling tired and cautiously moving towards the park. In the crowd, you can see several bright and stubborn small flags swaying vigorously, which are the ground guides.
Lao Wan was pitch black all over, with black sunglasses, skin tone, and clothes. He was also wearing black sun protection sleeves. He sent all the tourists in the group into the park, wiped their sweat with his clothes, and then rested under the shade of trees on the square outside the south gate. "It's too hot and tiring, but there's nothing we can do. We just do this job."
Many outdoor scenic spots in Beijing lack shading facilities, and these few big trees outside the south gate of the Old Summer Palace have become good friends of tour guides. Several tour guides holding small flags are resting here. "The ground is too hot, otherwise I could sit for a while." Lao Wan tried the temperature on the ground and chose to stand against the tree for a while. Having been a tour guide for over a decade, this summer is the most special. "I used to be busy during the summer, but I haven't been as busy as this year, and I haven't experienced this high temperature in Beijing for so many years."
My family reminds Lao Wan to pay attention to hydration and take some time to rest. When he arrived at a scenic spot, he quickly went to buy a bottle of mineral water. "I want ice, but by the afternoon, the ice water supply is running out, and everywhere is' out of ice '."
Unlike Lao Wan who is all black, female tour guide Xiao Liang is all white. After sending the group into the park, she also found a tree to rest. "In three or four days, I have to come once. Sending off waves is another wave." Xiao Liang said, "Tickets are difficult to grab this year, and the Old Summer Palace is relatively easy to grab. It has a sense of history and is loved by many tourists from other places.".
While chatting with Xiaoliang, another tour guide led the team through the trees. "Hi, it's cooler here, everyone gather and listen to me." The tour guide called the tourists to his side, "Now, 12:30, oh, no, 3:30, I'm dizzy... Later at 5 o'clock, let's gather in place and go take the bus, okay."
On the other end of the phone, the tour guide cried
After a busy day's work, it was already very late at night. Tour guide Lao Zhu, who runs his own travel agency, glanced at his watch and muttered to himself, "It's time, we're ready to grab a ticket to the China Science and Technology Museum."
No matter how hot or tired, Lao Zhu can overcome it. The most difficult part of this summer is booking tickets. Our travel agency, like many individual travelers, competes for tickets in the same ticket pool. If we can't get them, we can't either. Some must see attractions, if we can't get tickets, we face withdrawal. Recently, Lao Zhu has encountered the situation of withdrawal. In order to avoid it as much as possible, he mobilized a tour guide who can still hold on, and used a usable phone to compete for tickets together. "We have a timetable in our minds. When we go to a certain point and grab tickets to a certain scenic spot, the alarm clock in our minds rings on its own. In the few minutes of grabbing tickets, I don't answer any calls."
As he was preparing to grab a ticket, Old Zhu's phone rang and when he answered, he heard crying. After frowning and chatting for ten minutes, Old Zhu sighed and said, "The little girl just got her certificate. She can't bear it anymore. She's been crying and hasn't taken a day off for two months. I can only calm her down and make adjustments first. It's not that easy to find someone again."
In recent years, many tour guides have changed careers and there have been few new tour guides added, resulting in a severe test of Beijing's tourism reception capacity this summer. Every tour guide who perseveres needs to endure physical and mental pressure in the face of sudden surge in demand. "The tour guide wakes up earlier and goes to bed later than the tourists. After delivering the tourists to the hotel, they take the subway back home on their own. A group takes three to four days and runs continuously."
