Tour Guide Extraordinaire

David Huang

David is a pretty interesting character, not only in that he survived and prospered during the enormous transformations that have occurred in China, but as a person, he is inquisitive, outgoing, innovative and easy going. And he's  extremely good at his job as a guide.

Childhood

Stories of his boyhood during the 60's and 70's in China reflect how difficult life was for most Chinese. He is the second of four brothers. David's father had been a butcher when he was very young, and later became the manager of a food processing company. His mother raised the boys and did whatever she could to get by. They lived in the prefectural capital, Mangshi, near the Myamar border, which is lush and mountainous.

Hungry Days

He told us how difficult it was for his parents to feed the family during these days, and when they would have a chicken, he and his brothers would fight over the food. When he was six and seven, he and his brothers helped his mother make Adobe bricks out of mud and straw, cut grass to be sold for horses, picked rocks from the river to sell for construction and collected firewood. David recalled a time when his mother had cooked up sweet potato vine for the pig food, and he took a small potato off the vine because he was so hungry. He also tells of many times when there was nothing to eat but rice with a little salt. These were the years following the disastrous government programs of the late 1950's when agriculture was badly mismanaged and many farmers were dissuaded from planting their crops to manufacturing. He feels that people in the southern Yunnan region were able to avoid the famines that ravaged the country because there were so many plants, animals and fish from the wild that were available.

Home Sweet Home

David's childhood homes were made of Adobe with a tiled and thatched roof, located at the edge of town at the foot of a hill. Sometimes the family would need to move into a temporary bamboo hut with a tar paper roof because earthquakes damaged the brick home. Then they would repair it and move back in. Although in a warm climate, some homes would be heated by firewood or charcoal for old people or babies. The inside kitchen used firewood for cooking. He remembers snakes sometimes in the bed he shared with his brothers as a child.

Swimming to the Top

Another job David and his brothers had was grazing the water buffalo. This involved  either crossing a river or using the bridge which took longer. David decided that he needed to learn to swim, especially when he fell off the back of the water buffalo into the water trying to cross the river. Swimming in the river was fun and a good way to cool off in this hot climate. He and his brothers joined the local swim team, and although he enjoyed it, a big incentive was cookies or sweets the coach would give out at the end of practice. To a growing boy with little food, this was especially important.

David excelled, and at the age of 12 he had the opportunity to join the Yunnan Swimming Team in Kunming. This involved moving to a boarding school in that city. At 15 he moved back to his hometown so he could focus on studying for the university entrance exam. He says he worked very hard that year and it paid off because he scored first in his prefecture. His older brother is the team coach for the Yunnan Provincial Swim Team, who sent a member to the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984.

Tourism Studies

David's high score enabled him to attend the University of Tianjin, considered to be one of China's top universities at the time. He majored in English and Tourism, a new field of study at the time in China. After four years he graduated in 1987. He was assigned a civil service job  by the government in Yunnan tourism. Bored with that job, in 1994 he was able to move out of the government office and joined the Yunnan Overseas Travel Service, where he remains today. He also works as a guide with Flying Horse Travel Service in Dali. His career move coincided with the loosening of restrictions by the Chinese government, which allowed him to take that opportunity. Today, he is working on establishing his own tour company, as well as working with the previously mentioned organizations.

David's Office

Understandably, David needs to be communicating with potential clients/groups as well as soliciting new ones, and arranging for the current tour group he may be with, as well as organizing for future groups. Since he is not home much, he relies on his phone (i.e. portable office) to keep everything rolling, in addition to keeping in touch with his family. It was a familiar sight on both trips I've been on with David to see him texting or phoning during his spare time.

Since 1994 David has also worked with Betchard Tours, out of the USA, and the Chinese Photographers Organization, organizing and running tours. In the 1990's and early 2000's many Western tourists flocked to China, presumably because it was a novelty and inexpensive. China's economy boomed during this time so more Chinese had disposable incomes, and began to travel both home and abroad. Simultaneously, China developed its infrastructure such as roads, tourism sites, and hotels, and it has inevitably become more expensive to westerners. The economic downturn of many Western economies over the past ten years and perhaps the novelty of traveling to China has worn off, which has also resulted in fewer Western tourists. Meanwhile, Chinese tourists' numbers have increased dramatically, as we have seen on this trip, in particular, where we have been virtually the only Westerners in many places.

When he's not living in a hotel room, David lives with his wife, and their 12 year old son in Kunming. We had the pleasure of meeting Sui Yung (hope I spelled this correctly!) on our last day in Kunming. Unfortunately, our Chinese is limited to about five words, equivalent of her English, so we had to make David translate. Even so we had a delightful time and it was very pleasant.

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David, Thank you for a wonderful, and memorable trip!