For many international tourists coming to Tibet, a tour guide speaking their native language is crucial for them to push the limits about knowledge of Tibet, a mysterious holy land as they guessed, or learnt.

A Japanese tourist says his tour guide has unveiled Tibet’s mystery for him and as a result he felt much closer to it.

Similarly, for a foreign language tour guide, interpreting Tibet is not only his job, but also a way to learn more about this place.

Most aid-Tibet tour guides regard Tibet as their second homeland. Out of passion for this land and the obligation to let more people know it, they are eager to learn Tibet's history and its culture.

A total number of 570 volunteer foreign language tour guides have worked in Tibet since 2002, when national aid -Tibet program kicked off to meet the urgent needs of foreign tour guides especially during Tibet’s peak tourist season from the beginning of May to the end of October annually.

One of the tour guides working in Tibet shared her working experience.

"I have been to Tibet for three times since 2005, which is the upper limit for aid-Tibet tour guides according to regulations issued by the National Tourism Bureau".

She recalled one of the tour groups visiting the Potala Palace she had received.

"This group contained both domestic and foreign tourists; as a result, I had to use Mandarin and English respectively. Consequently, the whole process lasted for 4 hours."

"Tour guides are in such great demands during peak tourist season that we have to do this," she said.

Statistics showed that more than 6,500 tour groups have been received by aid-Tibet tour guides, with the tourist number surpassing 60,000.

According to Shao Qiwei, Director of Chinese National Tourism Bureau, great effort will be put on aid-Tibet tour guide program in the coming 10 years, especially on foreign language guides.

Source: China Tibet Online

（Editor：陈丽丹、张茜）