Generally people think that when working in tourism you get a lot of advantages like free hotel rooms and flight tickets. Actually these benefits are almost non-existing, although you might get some reductions on hotel rooms. But the great thing in tourism is that you get to meet a bunch of people from all over the world.
Chinese people, especially those who haven't seen a lot of foreigners, are very curious about our different lifestyle. Mouth-dropped starring is quite common, especially if you would be tall and blond.
This Chinese curiousness can be very annoying, as when you get stalked to see where you're heading. Or as people check the groceries you bought in your supermarket trolley.
On other occasions it can be very charming in interesting. Being a foreigner in China can bring you to stardom in this Communist country.
So far I have acted on local TV and did two commercials.
A few years back I got a teacher's job in Hong'An county, Hubei province. For the annual Christmas show in the local TV studio I was one of the three TV hosts. This was broad casted in Hong'An TV.
One day I needed some call credit for my Chinese telephone. At that time I was guiding in Chengdu, Hebei province. I couldn't get any prepaid card at several kiosks. So I decided to go to the local China telecom shop. Upon entering the shop on man was acting very exited. After I got my credit he tried to explain me they had a promotion period for a new phone and he wanted my help for this promotion. I had to hold the phone and smile while he was taking some pictures. I guess he made some posters out of it, foreign models are very sought after in China, so he immediately saw an opportunity.
I played model one more time, advertising a new hotel. For my guiding job I was inspecting some hotels in Shanghai. After visiting some fancy places the Millenium Hongqiao hotel was next. This hotel held its "soft" opening, which means the hotel receives guests and tries to invite travel agencies for inspection, but is not 100 % operational yet. I was very well received and got the whole tour, including spa, swimming pool, all type of rooms and restaurants. In the lovely restaurant one of the assistant managers and I were having lunch, when suddenly she got a phone call. She ended the call and asked me if I had time to come back in the evening. That day the Millenium hotel held the photo shoot for its website and catalogue, but their international model had just cancelled. The high-payed British photographer could not be cancelled and I was asked if I could help out. Of course, no problem. So I got back in the evening. I dressed up in a neat seat and got my instructions. I had to stand at the front desk, pretending to check in and keep looking in the eyes of the girls at the desk. Standing there half an hour, gibbering with those girls, wasn't an easy task.
The Millenium Hongqiao hotel used following picture for nearly 2 years on there website, but nowadays new pictures have replaced my glorious picture. So my modeling career is silently getting to an end.
Maybe I will encounter some new opportunities in China!
