When a journey becomes a job

British expat turns her wanderlust into a business opportunity in China, Zhou Xiaoli and Zhang Jianhua report.

Beijing-based British entrepreneur, Sarah Keenlyside, has tailored thousands of trips for celebrities, senior business managers and other international visitors to China.

Her client list includes American singer Katy Perry, actor Matt Damon, as well as several board members of WPP, a well-known advertising agency.

Keenlyside's knowledge about Beijing and China may surprise many local residents.

It's been eight years since she founded Bespoke Travel, a company that offers customized tour services for international visitors to China.

The company received more than 260 bookings from overseas visitors last year, and Keenlyside plans to expand her business further by establishing an office in Japan.

Before coming to China, Keenlyside, who was born and raised in England, was a journalist with the Sunday Times newspaper in London, and she knew very little about China when she first came to the country.

On her first trip in February 2005, she was overwhelmed by the surroundings and found it difficult to even order meals.

"My first impression of Beijing was wonderful. It was a real feast for the senses. Everything was so different from things in England and anywhere in the West," she says.

Eight months after the trip, Keenlyside decided to quit her job and move to China.

Seize the chance

The first job Keenlyside got was as an editor for the city magazine, Time Out Beijing. This gave her plenty of opportunity to explore the Chinese capital, discovering new shops and reviewing new restaurants and bars.

"It forced me to really learn about the city. I had to go all over Beijing, to every corner, and really know everything about it. I really started to love this city," she says.

Keenlyside recalled that Beijing underwent a rapid transformation before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Changes were taking place so quickly that many foreign visitors found it difficult to navigate their way through the city if they religiously followed guidebooks - even those published just the year before.

"Many guidebooks were irrelevant; the subway lines weren't right; venues had closed down," Keenlyside says. "A lot of foreigners using the guidebooks were getting lost and struggling."

As Beijing's reputation led to a flood of international visitors post-Olympics, Keenlyside saw an increasing demand from independent overseas travelers for up-to-date information and timely assistance. So, she hit upon the idea of setting up her own travel company.

"There needed to be something besides the useless guidebooks and the package tours," she says. "So, I decided to seize the opportunity, try to start this company and see what happened."

A bridge that connects

Since entering the travel industry, Keenlyside and her company have tailored tours for a large number of international visitors to China. Among her clients, however, Keenlyside was most impressed by Katy Perry.

In 2014, Perry was in Beijing to perform at the Infiniti China Brand Festival at the Olympic Stadium, and she set aside time to see the city with her family and friends, says Keenlyside.

Keenlyside said they took her to the Great Wall, Nanluoguxiang alley and Panjiayuan Antique Market. Perry posted a photo on Instagram of herself doing a split on the Great Wall and the photo received more than 360,000 likes.

Thanks to the tours arranged by Keenlyside and her team, many overseas visitors have been able to not only visit the city's famous tourist attractions, but also explore some hidden gems, such as the White Stupa Temple and the Temple of Ancient Monarchs.

"China is one of the most misunderstood countries on the planet," she says, adding that the one thing Bespoke Travel has done is to show international visitors what modern China looks like. "There is much more to see than the panda, the Terracotta Army and rice paddies.

"You don't really have the right to have an opinion, unless you see things with your own eyes," says Keenlyside, adding that her aim is to help her clients form their own opinion about China based on reality.

High spirits & optimism

Keenlyside says that alongside the rapid transformation of the city landscape, people living in Beijing tend to hold a more optimistic view of the future, and that she is able to absorb this energy through her interactions with the people around her.

She also says there is an entrepreneurial spirit among the Chinese that she has not seen back home.

"As China is rising, people tend to think they can do something, or at least give it a try."

Keenlyside says she is amazed by China's high-speed railway technology and the flourishing digital economy.

"Beijing is now a really exciting place where technology is booming, and there are lots of first-time things here," she says.

According to a report released by the China Tourism Academy recently, there were 29.1 million foreign visitors to China in 2017, up 3.6 percent year-on-year and bringing in $69.5 billion in revenue.

Also, according to statistics from the CTA, the tourism industry contributed 9.13 trillion yuan ($1.32 trillion) to China's gross domestic production in 2017, accounting for 11 percent of total economic output. China is the world's fourth largest destination for inbound tourists, receiving 139 million inbound trips in 2017.

"I think people's interest in China will only continue to grow," Keenlyside says, adding that an increasing number of people are now aware of the significance of understanding China.

"If you don't understand it, you are going to be left behind, because what's happening in Beijing and Shanghai now is what will happen in America in two years' time," she says.

Xinhua