The guidebook’s travel scouts

How do you become a scout for China Self-Guided Travel?

China Self-Guided Travel currently has more than 30 scouts. Their identities are never disclosed to the public, and they are never shown to the operators of attractions. A qualified China Self-Guided Travel scout must have the following qualities:

A passionate traveller. Only someone truly obsessed with travel can fully devote themselves to this “hard-working, always-on-the-move” job;

A seasoned “travel buddy” with extensive travel experience, who excels at finding the most beautiful sights and mapping the best routes;

A food expert and an expert in enjoying life. Beyond finding and tasting great food, they are often the first to try many leisure activities, and they always know the most classic spots to recommend to readers;

A review expert with strong writing skills, able to capture in a few words the core character and highlights of a city or scenic spot.

How do China Self-Guided Travel scouts work?

Before exploring a region, scouts must thoroughly research all relevant information about the destination. In addition to their own rich travel experience, they must consult other reference materials and online resources to identify the most valuable landscapes and sights in the area, as well as the latest developments and travel tips for the destination. Based on this, they plan comprehensive and reliable itineraries, including the selection of high-quality attractions, the planning of optimal routes, and recommendations for distinctive food, accommodation and shopping.

While travelling, scouts must position themselves as ordinary tourists. They personally try out various modes of transport, identify the latest and most convenient routes, and, based on each destination's characteristics, recommend walking or other ways of sightseeing. They experience the service quality of each scenic spot and discover what makes it special. Scouts also sample, stay at and try out places to eat, sleep and play, verify the relevant details, and never accept hospitality from merchants. This ensures that every food, accommodation and leisure venue they recommend is genuinely enjoyable and genuinely good value. Along the way, scouts also keep detailed records of their journeys and collect the best images of each scenic spot for later use.

Gathering Information

Beyond gathering firsthand material on the road, scouts inevitably run into questions. These must never be brushed aside. Scouts must make extensive inquiries with local tourism authorities, residents, fellow travellers and others to resolve them and avoid omissions, ensuring that travel information is accurate and reliable. For places previously recommended, scouts revisit them in various ways, keenly detect changes, and describe their current state and development trends. If quality or service standards decline, the “recommended place” or “recommended service” is removed from the book. Through this revisit-based updating, the book keeps its recommendations consistently high in quality and standard.

Once the trip is over, scouts turn to presenting their firsthand travel information to readers accurately and in detail. Wherever the outcome differs from the plan, they must find out why and arrive at the most accurate information. Drawing on their experience, scouts comment on current travel trends, assign star ratings to each attraction, and share with readers the best routes, best times to visit, best ways to explore, and travel tips for each site.

China Self-Guided Travel rates attractions on a five-star (★★★★★) scale. When rating, scouts assess each attraction's star level from the following aspects:

The number of stars an attraction receives is decided jointly by all scouts who have visited it. Every scout who has been there must submit their review opinions within the deadline set by the editorial office. If opinions differ, a second round of review is held until a unified assessment is reached. Throughout the review process, China Self-Guided Travel adheres to the principles of independence and fairness and is completely free from outside interference. All star ratings in this book come from this process.

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