🎓 Licensed professionals
Certified guides with a Chinese tour guide licence. They do this for a living and charge accordingly.
See all guides →🇨🇳 Find a local in China before you land
Meet China with someone who actually lives there
Book a licensed guide, or just a local who loves their city — food crawls, temple runs, hospital paperwork, SIM cards. Arrange it all before your flight.
Guides travellers keep coming back to
Every profile here has been reviewed by our team.
Professional
Li Wei
Beijing · 11y
Hutong mornings, Peking duck evenings — 11 years of the same walk, never the same day
History & heritageFood & street eats+2
English · Japanese
5.0 (1)¥950/day
Local friend
Chen Hao
Shanghai · 6y
Art districts, speakeasies and the parts of the Bund nobody photographs
Art & museumsArchitecture+2
English · German
4.7 (3)¥1,200/day
Local friend
Zhang Mei
Chengdu · 4y
Teahouses, mahjong and the hotpot places with no English menu
Tea cultureFood & street eats+2
English · French
4.5 (2)Donation
Professional
Gao Ning
Harbin · 8y
Ice festival, Russian quarter, and how to not be cold for twelve hours
Photography spotsArchitecture+2
English · Russian
5.0 (1)¥680/day
Professional
Wang Jing
Xi'an · 15y
Licensed Terracotta Army guide who will also take you to the Muslim Quarter properly
History & heritageFood & street eats+2
English · Spanish · Russian
5.0 (1)¥780/day
Local friend
Xu Peng
Chongqing · 2y
The vertical city — stairs, cable cars, and hotpot that will genuinely hurt
Food & street eatsPhotography spots+2
English
4.7 (3)¥520/day
What you want to do
How it works
- 1
Tell us where and when
Filter by city, language, budget and what you actually want to do — not by a fixed tour package.
- 2
Send a request
Describe your trip. The guide accepts or declines within a couple of days, and you can chat here first.
- 3
Agree the details directly
Once accepted you get their WeChat and phone number, and you settle the details between yourselves.
Two kinds of company
🧭 Local friends
Students, retirees, hobbyists. Some charge a small fee, some do it for free, some just want you to buy lunch.
See all guides →Live in China? Show someone around.
Set your own rates — or none at all. We review every application before it goes live.
Before you book
TravelingMate introduces people. We do not take payment, hold funds, or act as a travel agency — you agree terms directly with your guide. Check that a professional guide's licence number is real, and meet in a public place first.