About Sam Sung

Sam Sung and Samsung are two different entities. The former is the name of a tour guide whereas the latter is a Korean brand.

Sam Sung was waiting with a piece of cloth bearing his name on it at the airport when we reached Beijing. I was with a tour group from Penang then. Siau Ching, our tour leader went forward to meet him. It seemed that he was assigned to take us on a tour of Beijing.

Sam Sung spoke Mandarin with a Beijing accent. It took us quite some time to get used to his Mandarin and to understand what he was trying to say. He was very well-versed in Chinese history, so before reaching a tourist spot, he would rattled on about its history.

Later, I had a chance to talk to him. From our conversation, I realised that unemployment is quite bad among graduates like him. Hence he ended up being a tour guide. He is the only child in his family as the policy of China is to have only a child in a family so as to avoid population explosion.

Sam Sung is still single. He lives with his family in a flat. It seems that landed property is beyond the means of lower income groups in Beijing.

That’s about Sam Sung, the tour guide that made my visit to Beijing memorable.