Outdoors lovers turn their skills into profession in China
Tai Shan is very popular with locals and has welcomed 1.27 million visitors in the first quarter of 2025. — CHARLIE FONG/Wikimedia Commons
As dawn broke over Tai Shan (Mount Tai) in east China's Shandong Province, 26-year-old Wang Yang packed his backpack with essentials like first aid kit, trekking poles, and energy-boosting candies.
He was preparing to guide a family of five to the summit in six hours, marking his seventh booking during this year's five-day May Day holiday recently.
Wang is part of a growing wave of 'mountain companionship guides' emerging across China's scenic spots. This new group – comprising students, hiking enthusiasts and homestay owners – offers personalised services such as route planning, photography, and even 'encouragement therapy' to support climbers along the way.
Charging between CNY400 (RM238) and CNY1,500 (RM893) per trip, depending on the difficulty level, some guides earn as much as CNY30,000 (RM17,869) a month.
The emergence of the new profession reflects a broader rebound in tourism. Tai Shan, for instance, saw 1.27 million visitors in the first quarter of 2025, up 12.6% year-on-year, after surpassing eight million annual visits in both 2023 and 2024.
'The shift toward personalised and specialised services also reflects powerful consumer demand upgrading,' said Wang, who recently put his first-aid training into use by helping a hiker suffering from low blood sugar.
Some 1,000km away in northeast China's Jilin Province, Yu Wei, 50, sat in a ski lodge, poring over notes. A veteran mountain operations director, Yu played a key role in drafting China's first national standards for 'ski patrollers', a newly recognised profession at the national level.
When Yu entered the industry in 1995, Chinese ski resorts depended on donated foreign equipment and saw only a trickle of recreational skiers. But everything changed after Beijing's successful bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, with domestic ski visits surging to 234 million in the 2024-2025 period.
'With 70% of skiers now using snowboards and attempting advanced tricks, rescue work requires new skills,' said Yu, whose team developed protocols like 18-minute patrol cycles to keep up with the evolving demands of the sport.
From food reviewers to sports technicians, the rise of new roles in tourism reflects broader societal shifts. Song Zhiqiang, a popular content creator based in northeast China's Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, has turned food vlogs into a powerful marketing tool, driving over CNY10mil (RM5.96mil) in local sales and consumption.
Industry data showed that social media influencers like Song helped generate CNY133.3bil (RM79.4bil) for businesses across the country in 2024.
Since 2019, China has officially recognised 93 new professions, with 'new economy' workers totalling 84 million, accounting for 21% of the workforce.
'These roles aren't just jobs; they're gauges of consumption upgrading,' said Zhou Guangsu, a labour expert at Renmin University of China. – Xinhua
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