Forget the skyscrapers for a minute.
This is a different side of China. Mountains that disappear into mist. Villages where life moves at a different speed. The taste of slow-cooked bamboo shoots picked by locals. The everyday moments that sneak up on you and make you realise you’ve stumbled into something truly incredible.
That’s Fujian. And Sunny has been our best storyteller since 2023.
How a Traveller Became a Guide
Sunny didn’t set out to be the person showing people around China. Travel found him first. He grew up moving between Malaysia and Singapore, studied across borders, and somewhere along the way learned how to turn unfamiliar places into somewhere that feels like home.
He’s guided in Malaysia, Thailand, Bhutan, and Russia. But when a friend stepped away from leading adventures with The Dragon Trip and passed the opportunity to him, something clicked. This wasn’t just another guiding gig. This was the chance to show people the place that shaped him, not as a tourist destination, but as a home.
“I’m telling my friends,” he says. For Sunny, guiding isn’t just about sharing facts, it’s about showing travellers what life here really feels like through his own stories and experiences.
The Version of China Most People Miss
Ask most travellers what they know about China before they arrive, and they’ll describe the same things: futuristic skylines, high-speed trains and cities that never seem to slow down. Few of them expect Fujian.
But that’s exactly why it sticks with them. This is the side of China Sunny loves sharing. Mist-covered mountains. Family-run restaurants. Villages where life moves at its own pace. Less noise, fewer crowds, and a chance to experience a side of the country that most travellers never even know exists.
“Everyone knows China for the big cities, but Fujian is more simple, more rural, more local.”
The Moments When Everything Stops
Some of Sunny’s favourite memories happen high in Fujian’s mountains. Not while moving, but while standing completely still.
After hiking to a viewpoint, sometimes the group just… pauses. Blue skies. Mountains that stretch endlessly into the distance. The kind of quiet that actually means something. No phones. No schedule. Just the awareness of being exactly where you are.
“Sometimes you just stop, look at the blue sky and take it all in. That feeling cannot be beaten.”
It’s become his favourite thing about this region, not just the scenery itself, but the permission it gives people to actually notice it. To slow down in a way that feels impossible elsewhere. To let a moment be just a moment.
The Real Surprise
Travellers arrive expecting landscapes. What they’re not prepared for is the people. Most visitors to a new country carry stereotypes they don’t even know they’re carrying. But Fujian, and China more broadly, disrupts those assumptions almost immediately. “People have stereotypes about China,” Sunny says, “but we are very friendly and welcoming as a culture.” The encounters that stick with travellers longest rarely happen at landmarks. They happen on village paths. Over shared meals. In conversations that weren’t on the itinerary.
“Landmarks can be similar everywhere,” he points out, “but it’s rare to meet people who are so genuine and friendly.” Those are the moments travellers talk about when they get home. Not the famous sites, but the people who changed what they thought they knew.
Bamboo Shoots and Unexpected Tastes
Eating local isn’t always comfortable. Especially when that means bamboo shoots, picked fresh, slow-cooked until they’re tender, a seasonal staple around Chinese New Year. “People see pandas eating bamboo and think it’s only for them,” Sunny laughs, watching travellers process this unfamiliar ingredient.
The reactions are mixed. Some embrace it. Some politely decline. But that’s not the point. The point is trying something that locals actually eat, tasting a place the way people who live there do, and occasionally discovering that pandas can absolutely keep this one. It’s part of the honest experience. Not every moment has to be comfortable to be memorable.
The Day Rain Became the Best Part
Last year, Sunny was leading one of his biggest groups, nearly half over 50, during Fujian’s rainy season. A cycling experience was planned. The weather had other ideas.
He wasn’t sure how people would take it. Would they bail? Ask to do something else?
Instead: “We’re British. Of course we can.”
Raincoats came out. A few people got so enthusiastic about the rain they abandoned their shirts entirely. The group cycled on, got covered in mud, took a few tumbles, and spent most of the experience laughing so hard it hurt.
“We got muddy, there were some falls, but everyone was laughing,” Sunny remembers. “It was so much fun.”
That afternoon, the one that could have been written off as a weather casualty, became one of his favourite memories from years of guiding. It’s the kind of moment that defines a trip. Not because everything went according to plan, but because people chose joy anyway.
The Secret to Groups That Feel Like Friends
How does Sunny bond a group of strangers into people who’ll message each other years later? His method is refreshingly simple.
“We just gossip,” he laughs.
Silly questions. Stories from earlier on their tour. By the time travellers reach Sunny in Fujian, they’ve already been travelling together for a while, already swapped social media, already gathered inside jokes that make no sense to anyone else.
His job is to help that chemistry deepen. To build what he calls “a bridge”, not just between travellers and China, but between people whose lives might never have intersected otherwise. “It’s nice to see The Dragon Trip connecting these people,” he says.
What the Job Gives Back
Sunny might be the one sharing China with travellers, but he’s careful to point out that the exchange works both ways.
“It makes me feel young,” he says. Every trip brings new people, new stories, new perspectives. Hearing about lives different from his own, celebrating moments together, staying curious and energised by the constant exchange. After years of guiding, that still hasn’t worn off. “You learn about their lives and their stories too.” The job isn’t draining him. It’s feeding something essential.
The One Moment He Never Gets Used To
There’s one part of the Fujian experience Sunny would happily make less emotional: the train station.
Three nights. That’s usually how long travellers spend with him. It sounds like enough time until it’s suddenly not, until those days have disappeared and it’s time to say goodbye.
By then, there have been mountain viewpoints and local meals, muddy bike rides and jokes that were funny only because of everything that came before. There’s been laughter and unexpected moments and a whole history built in 72 hours.
“The train station is the worst part. I’m always the last man standing.”
By the time everyone leaves, friendships have been forged that feel impossible to leave behind. And for Sunny, watching people board trains back to their regular lives, knowing he won’t see them again, never gets easier.
What Sunny Hopes Stays With You
Ask him what he most wants people to carry home from Fujian, and the answer comes immediately.
“Happiness.” But also something deeper: the feeling that you’ve glimpsed the true side of China. Not the version in guidebooks or viral videos. The local life. The mountains that took your breath away. The food that surprised you. The quiet moments that nobody scheduled. The people who turned into friends in three days. The rain-soaked bike ride. The genuine, unfiltered laughter.
The stories that make a place feel more real than anywhere else you’ve been. And his advice for anyone booking The Dragon Trip for the first time?
First, practical: “Install Alipay.” (You’ll need it.)
Then, essential:
“Don’t be a lone ranger.”
Join in. Talk to people. Make friends. Throw yourself completely into the experience. “You’ll have a much more impactful experience,” Sunny says.
Because that’s what Fujian is, not just a place to visit, but a place to genuinely experience. And Sunny is the person who knows exactly how to help you do that.
