‘Not a bad thing’: Chinese students gave tours of National University of Singapore for cash
- Chinese students say such tours help mainland visitors learn more about university application processes, as locals complain of overcrowding of facilities
Chinese postgraduate students were selling tours of the National University of Singapore (NUS) to tourists, amid unhappiness from local students over an influx of mainland visitors.
A listing of the two-hour tour, which has since been removed, was found on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu for 273 yuan (US$38). Thirty-one people had purchased the tour, which covered the Central Library, University Town and the NUS Museum, and left mostly positive reviews on Xiaohongshu.
One of the tour guides, a mechanical engineering masters student who declined to be named, told This Week in Asia on Tuesday that she and three other students started offering the tours four months ago to make extra money.
The average cost per person for such tours was 130 yuan, with prices dependent on what customers wanted to see, she said.
The 24-year-old claimed she removed the listing on Wednesday as the campus was getting too crowded with tourists.
She said she used to provide tours for a tour company, but while the company charged 350 yuan per person, she would only get 50 to 80 yuan.
