Securing a woman's world

China's female bodyguard boot camps often require them to get bottles smashed over their heads, tackle knife-wielding assailants and be stomped facedown into water. Recruits also learn evasive driving and advanced reconnaissance. [Photo/Agencies] 

China's female security guard boot camps often require recruits to get bottles smashed over their heads, tackle knife-wielding assailants and be stomped facedown into water. They also learn evasive driving and hand-to-hand combat.

But Yu and Lulu say their jobs aren't as dramatic or dangerous as their training and movies would suggest.

"People believe bodyguards fight all day, but our job is to do our best to notice risks and avoid them," Lulu says.

The job is tedious and tiring. She must concentrate to scan for risks every second of every shift. That goes for seemingly safe places, such as entrepreneurs' companies, too.

She accompanies clients all day as a driver or assistant at their offices and banquets.

Lulu gets to rest only when her clients do. She spent a month accompanying a client to socialize with friends until 3 am every night but had to get up at 7 am to drive her child to school.

That said, there are dangerous moments in which China's women bodyguards must spring into action.

Yu recalls more than a dozen people trapped her client on a building's ninth floor. She and her client had to escape through the 10th-floor window and rappel down the building's exterior to safety.

Lulu explains: "Our job is to rescue clients and bring the other parties under control without harming anyone."

But other requirements mean her kit includes sanitary napkins, pills and nylons for her clients - just in case.

"My responsibility isn't only to protect her from physical threats but also from embarrassment," Lulu says.

She learns about clients' health, habits and lifestyles before assignments. Lulu also keeps their agendas and reminds them of appointments.

Yu says it's often wealthy husbands who hire bodyguards to watch their wives and children.

In return, women guards often earn more than 300,000 yuan ($49,000) a year - a large proportion of which the company takes as commission. Lulu's company claims half. Women bodyguards' salaries are usually higher than men's because there are fewer females in the industry.

And clients often ply them with pricey gifts - iPhones, designer perfumes and luxury handbags.

Shi explains: "We try not to arrange a woman bodyguard for a male client or a male guard for a female client. It's inconvenient. And they could become emotionally involved."

The first lesson guards get on the first day is: Don't get into a relationship with the client.

"That's dangerous," Shi says.

"If they argue, the bodyguard might be upset and not focus on the client's safety."

They're actually forbidden from having romantic relationships with anyone outside of work, too.

"Women have to be independent," says Lulu, Shi's employee.

"Some clients remain single into their 40s. They're outstanding and have many suitors. A woman can lead a happy life even if she doesn't marry young."

Most clients advise Lulu to master as many skills as possible.

One even taught her how to perform tea ceremonies.

"I really like tea ceremonies," Lulu says.

"They've changed me a lot. They've made me more feminine."

Yu and Lulu are from well-off families and say they didn't choose their careers to make money.

Yu says she went into the sector to work alongside successful people and learn things from them that ordinary white-collar individuals don't get the chance to, such as etiquette and industry secrets.

Pan, who has worked as a guard in such countries as Libya and Kuwait, says China's private security industry is chaotic. Some unprofessional agents harm the sector's reputation.

But starting last year, guards who pass qualified trainings can get the Special Security Professional Training Certificate issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

"Such a certificate paves the way for sector regulation," he says.

Given the surging wealth of Chinese women who feel they need private security, it seems likely a mounting slice of the certificates' holders will be female guards.

Tiffany Tan and Erik Nilsson contributed to this story.