Wu Lijuan, also goes by her English name, Literza (WeChat ID: literza1), is undoubtedly the absolute worst tour guide I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with in my entire life. Although I hesitate to even call her a tour guide, because given the 1 day that I spent with her, I can conclude that SHE IS NOT A TOUR GUIDE.
I booked her for 4 days (March 25-28, 2018), but even before the 1st day was over, it was completely apparent to me that she was completely incompetent, and I decided to cancel the agreement with her on the first day and quickly find another tour guide.
I can summarize my horrible experience with her in 3 bullets: (1) SHE IS NOT A TOUR GUIDE TO BEGIN WITH (2) SHE IS COMPLETELY INCAPABLE IN SKILLS OUTSIDE OF BEING A TOUR GUIDE (3) SHE ONLY CARES ABOUT MAKING MONEY
This is my account of my experience with her on March 25, 2018.
#1 SHE IS NOT A TOUR GUIDE • SHE DOES NOT HAVE FREE ACCESS TO ATTRACTIONS – I only learned this when I was talking to other tour guides, but apparently, all tour guides in Zhangjiajie should have free access to all attractions. They get free access when they are certified by the government. Literza does not have free access, meaning she is not certified. You shouldn’t have to pay for the entrance tickets of your tour guide. Paying for her entrance tickets to everything is a BIG expense. I’m talking an additional RMB 2,000, on top of her tour guide fee for all the major attractions in ZJJ. Although I admittedly agreed to paying for her entrance tickets beforehand, it was only because I wasn’t aware that tour guides had this type of certification. But anyway, take this as a warning. Literza is NOT certified, meaning you will have to pay an additional hefty price for her tickets on top of her tour guide fee. • SHE WAS INSISTENT ON RECEIVING FULL PAYMENT THE MOMENT WE ARRIVED AT THE AIRPORT – Having booked a new tour guide, I now know that tour guides in ZJJ DO NOT ask for full payment for all days at the start. At most, they request for a 500 RMB holding fee, but other than that, you pay for each day on the day itself. Literza was so insistent on receiving payment for all 4 days the very moment that we arrived that she even tried to coerce me into paying for an RMB 250 airport pick up fee. Take note that my hotel was 3 KM away from the airport, and only a less than 10 minute drive. Why on earth would I agree to that?? A taxi to my hotel would have cost no more than 30 RMB.
When I asked her to justify why I should pay 250 RMB, her justification to me (after so much back and forth) was that so that I could meet her that very evening to collect her tour guide fee for all 4 days. She said she lived far from the airport, and since I was arriving a little past midnight, she would need to hire a private car to pick her up from her home, bring her to the airport to meet us, then bring her back to her home.
Seriously, what kind of shady logic is that? A tour guide’s #1 priority should be giving their guests a good time. Why would she even think of proposing to charge 250 RMB to her guest, just to pay for a private car for her, so that she could collect her money the moment we arrived at the airport?
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