Shirly Li, the young and remarkable proprietor of Our Inn located in historic Xingping - has had quite a life story.

Born and raised in China’s Guangxi Province, she graduated with a degree in Foreign Trade at Geosciences University in Wuhan. During her years at the University, she became fairly proficient in English. After graduation„ she propelled herself into the tourism industry when she started working for a Chinese Travel Company based in Shanghai. The company specializes in tours for oversea student groups (teenagers) - mostly from the United Kingdom, Korea and Africa. Shirly was groomed as a tour leader/coordinator, and with her new job, Shirly traveled all over China

She worked for 5 years for the travel company, and during his time period she made many visits to Yangshou County– including Xingping - and Guilin in Guangxi Province. On one of her many excursions to Yangshou, she met Afu, her future husband and a man of many talents.

Shortly thereafter, Afu and Shirly were married and in early 2009, Shirly and Afu decided to buy a somewhat rundown guesthouse located on the banks of the Li River in the historic town of Xingping.

They closed the guesthouse, and after extensive renovation and the constriction of a proper restaurant, they had their grand reopening 6 months later in October 2009.

As a travel professional, I must admit that, Shirly and Afu have done a quite a remarkable job and have turned Our Inn to a first class guesthouse/hostel. Although nothing fancy, the rooms are configured like proper hotel rooms with flashes of color and simple decorations.

More importantly, Shirly, drawing on her experience as Tour leader, really excels in her people skills - she’s very personable, her facility with English is very good and she knows the area very well. Together with her husband and Lammie, her pet Golden Retriever, Our Inn exudes warmth, personality and ambiance.

During my four nights stay there in December 2010, Shirly took some time out from her busy schedule and hiked with me to the famous lookout point overlooking the Li River and the spectacular Karst mountains. Shirly didn’t think I could complete the hike with my bad leg, but I proved her wrong. What a remarkable lady and a real sweetie!

Tags: guesthouses in Xingping, Our Inn, Shirly Li, Xingping, Yangshou county

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 27th, 2011 at 8:53 am and is filed under China, People, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.