A girl faints in the street and you try to help her. The police arrive and instead of regarding you as the Good Samaritan you have to explain them you have no relationship with the girl and you have nothing to do with her fainting. What do you do? If you don’t speak Chinese you can call China Help Line.
China Help Line started in January 2005 and is a telephone-based interpretation and information service serving the foreigners who live, work, and travel in China. Curious about what they do and how it works I asked Jean Wu to answer some questions. Jean got involved with China Help Line in August 2005 and started as a part-time English interpreter, quickly moved to the Marketing and Business Development area, and then started to manage the company in March 2006.
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The number of Chinese traveling abroad is increasing every year. Curious about the world beyond the border, Chinese tour groups are now a common sight in Asia and Western touristy spots. The Chinese government even issued guidelines for Chinese travelers on how to behave.
Recently I noticed that Roy Graff (I met him several times in Shanghai before) had started a blog about the China Travel Industry. He is the owner of CContact, a market entry specialists company focused on China.
Roy has been working in the tourism sector for more than 12 years including 1 year in Taiwan and 3 years in China.
In the interview we talk about the kind of Chinese travelers that go abroad, the value of travel statistics and the cultural differences foreign operators have to take into account when selling packages to overseas destinations.
Roy’s career in the tourism industry started in 1995, when he went to study in Taipei as well as working part time as the representative of the Israeli Tourist Office. That’s also where the interview begins. (more…)
This week’s msn interview is with Fili. He’s the man behind Chinalyst. Chinalyst is a community for independent English China related blogging. He studies Chinese language and culture with a few other courses in multi-culture research and East Asia business in the East-Asia department at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He also works as an IT consultant in the field of security. The Chinalyst website was build by himself.
Let’s start the interview. Can you tell me a bit about yourself and also about your China fascination?
My China curiosity started when I left to Asia on 2005. After traveling for a while in SE-Asia, I came across some Chinese influences in Vietnam.
Hearing about Chinese culture from fellow travelers and visiting a few places with Chinatown it became obvious that there’s something about Chinese culture that attracts me.
I ended up studying Chinese in Taiwan for over a semester, and then it became a significant part of my life. I adore Asia.
Can you pinpoint what it is in Chinese culture that attracts you? (more…)
