Meet the guides

Korean is her first language as much as Chinese — she grew up bilingual. Good with family groups and long shopping days. She also knows every Korean restaurant in Huzhou.

Mid-level national guide and licensed outbound tour leader. Ten years of mountain routes and tea villages. If you want the hiking version of Anji, start with her.

Senior national guide, the top rank there is. He leads our study tours and museum days and can keep a bus of teenagers interested in bamboo for two hours. Also a licensed outbound leader.

Calm, careful, never late. She runs the classic sightseeing days — bamboo sea, waterfalls, the panda hall. Senior travellers ask for her by name.

A food-first guide. She knows which village kitchen still fires bamboo rice the old way and where the tea farmer sells without a middleman. Bring an appetite.

The photography guide. She times the bamboo sea for morning mist and knows tea-field lookouts nobody posts about. Bring any camera; she will find the shot.