A few years ago, Maxim was still chasing opportunities in Central Asia. This March, he had just obtained his foreign language tour guide license.
Before switching careers to become a tour guide, he spent a long time in Central Asia. He first worked in the car export business, and during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, large numbers of imported cars were routed through Central Asian countries into Russia.
But that window of opportunity didn’t last long. He turned his attention back to China and chose to work as a Russian-speaking tour guide. At the same time, China’s visa-free policies have taken effect in recent years, pushing inbound tourism into the spotlight. Foreign-language tour guides have quickly become highly sought after, especially those speaking less commonly available languages like Russian. In many popular destinations, demand now far exceeds supply.
“In Chengdu, a Russian-speaking tour guide can generally earn over RMB 1,000 (about USD 147) a day. During peak seasons, when guides are in short supply, the pay can be even higher.”
Also riding this wave of inbound tourism is Lilia, a Russian-speaking tour guide born after 2000.
She studied Russian at university in Chengdu, but when she first graduated, she had not expected to make a living from the language.
During a period of uncertainty, she obtained her tour guide license and initially led Chinese-speaking groups. Later, by chance, she met an experienced Russian-speaking guide in a tour guide chat group, who introduced her to the Russian-language inbound tourism market.
“Before the visa-free policies, I would work at most ten to fifteen days a month during peak season. But since mid-March this year, I’ve basically had tours almost every day.”
