French tour guide creates Shanghai walk routes; inspired by childhood love for China culture
Master’s degree graduate takes advantage of Covid-19 pandemic to design city walks; says she was ‘born in France, but made in China’
A young French woman who loves Chinese culture has designed more than 30 city walk routes in Shanghai to introduce the city’s hidden gems to tourists and locals.
Clarisse Le Guernic, whose Chinese name is Le Gaixi, has been living in Shanghai since 2019.
The 29-year-old graduated with a Chinese major from a university in France and a tourism management major from Ningbo University for her master’s degree.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, when international tourism was suspended, she decided to design city walk tours for people living in Shanghai.
She carried out a lot of research to ensure that her tours explored the lesser-known history and untold stories of the city.
She also walked the route after making a sketch to refine the narratives and make the tours engaging.
One of her original tours is Shanghai’s first and the only one based on the fifth volume of the comic series The Adventures of Tintin, The Blue Lotus.