Zhu Ming. [Photo/ zj.zjol.com.cn]

The 44-year-old Zhu was born and raised in Wuzhen. He was a manual worker and then an armed policeman before becoming a tour guide in Hangzhou, sticking with this profession for 20 years.

Zhu persists in reading Chinese history and literature for at least two hours a day. To keep tourists consistently interested, he always tries to give them interesting information and anecdotes that are rarely mentioned in regular tourism brochures. For example, when leading tourists around West Lake, Zhu often cites riveting plot points from The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, a popular wuxia novel by Jin Yong, that occur there.

"The best Chinese businesspeople were from Shanxi 300 years ago, from Anhui 200 years ago, but are from Zhejiang today. Many people ask me why Zhejiang-born businesspeople are so brilliant. I would say that's because Zhejiang is poor, and that is not a joke. Zhejiang is a mountainous, water-deficient region with insufficient farmland, which motivates us to strive for a better life," Zhu said in another popular video he uploaded to Douyin.