Tomorrow is the first day of the Lunar New Year in 2026. This morning, I received hundreds of New Year's greetings or well wishes via WeChat. Director Ding still insists on not sending group messages. Here's why:
First, indiscriminate mass messaging lacks sincerity. It is common for WeChat friends to send mass messages containing advertisements, and then claim that it is not a mass message. There are no salutations or names. Who would believe that?
Second, everyone is quite busy during the Spring Festival. I have more than 10,000 real-name friends. Where do I start?
Third, out of politeness, I always feel I should reply. Putting myself in their shoes, if I sent a group message to more than 10,000 people, wouldn't that cause them a lot of trouble?
Fourth, if you don't want to bother or burden the recipient but still have to send the message, you should at least provide some value, whether it's "literary" value or emotional value. For example, an original piece of writing that catches the eye or makes others remember you, rather than becoming a "zombie" friend in their contact list—never to be contacted again or having no presence at all.
Therefore, Director Ding thought it best to make a brief summary, as a way of reporting back to his friends who care about him. Let's first review his humble work from two years ago below 👇👇👇
Those years, the team that Director Ding formed
The link above only records up to January 15, 2024, so let's continue writing in calendar order—starting with customized group tours and private group tours.
On April 4, 2024, during the Qingming Festival holiday, Director Ding organized a private tour of 5 people to Sanqingshan and the popular Wangxian Valley. Thanks to a long-time customer who had asked Director Ding to arrange trips to many places in China, this was Director Ding's first tour since becoming a Ctrip travel consultant. Of course, Director Ding had to serve such a good customer with his heart and return the favor by making perfect arrangements!
Next, I helped my older brother, whom I've known for nearly 10 years, organize a group of 6 people to go on a high-end, customized, semi-independent tour to the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
In the summer of 2024, Director Ding helped a senior from a fellow school organize a 12-person private tour group consisting of stay-at-home moms and handsome young men, successfully completing a 6-day, 5-night private tour covering Guilin, Longji Rice Terraces, Yangshuo, and the Li River.
Summer travel requires early booking, ideally a month in advance! Hulunbuir is especially popular! My senior colleague's private tour of four couldn't even get a room at the Matryoshka Hotel.
Taking advantage of the last days of summer vacation, Director Ding arranged a private tour to Japan for 5 days and 4 nights with a family he had known for 11 years. The trip went through several twists and turns – possibly due to cancellations caused by the child's school – but the trip finally went smoothly.
On September 3rd, at the start of the new school year, Director Ding led a group of over a dozen old friends on an 11-day independent trip to Tibet, purchasing some round-trip airfare through Ctrip. He essentially helped a group of septuagenarians fulfill their dream of visiting the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
The day before Director Ding departed for Tibet, a group of eight overseas Chinese, with an average age of over 75 and a oldest member aged 82, formed the longest tour group in Director Ding's history. They spent 18 days in Xinjiang before flying directly to Yunnan for another 9 days, for a total of 26 days! Their stamina and energy are truly impressive; even young people can't argue with that.
Late summer and early autumn is the peak season in Xinjiang. My junior colleague, who had been working with me for many years, formed a group of four on her own. When she returned, she praised the driver as a handsome guy who was also good at taking photos. He found many good spots for them and took a lot of portraits and great shots!
Years of hard work have finally paid off. After signing up for a trip to Guizhou, a friend of Director Ding found Ctrip's platform quite reliable and had her son sign up for a private tour to Bali for their honeymoon.
Zhangjiajie is not only a must-visit "pilgrimage" destination for South Koreans coming to China, but it also holds great appeal for Director Ding's old friend, his Australian son-in-law, and grandson. This September, a private tour for the whole family of five—young and old—is on!
On October 26, at the request of his superiors, Director Ding bought 12 Disney tickets at once, including several VIP Fastpass tickets.
On November 10th, a junior classmate I don't contact often suddenly booked a private tour to Harbin and Changbai Mountain with me. This shows that even though we may not contact each other often, our friends may be keeping an eye on us.
As the calendar turned to 2025, just after the Spring Festival, Sister A, whom I had known for ten years, and her company employees, a total of 24 people, went on an incentive trip to Malaysia under the personal guidance of Director Ding. This was Director Ding's 65th overseas destination in his career, making it a very memorable trip, and he made four video posts about it.
Following that, the girl who had taken a private tour to Xinjiang with Director Ding in the fall of 2024 signed up for another private tour to take her mother to Japan for 5 days starting February 15th. The price was really high, but the feedback was excellent.
From March 28th to April 6th, I hosted a Malaysian family of 10 for a 9-day tour of Sichuan. On May 17th, a senior from a fellow university and his colleagues commissioned Director Ding to organize a 2-day customized tour to Deqing, Zhejiang.
One of the top choices for private honeymoon tours, the Maldives, was featured on Director Ding's Ctrip travel consultant e-business card. After a recommendation from a fellow school, the trip was finalized once again, starting May 31, 2025, for 10 days.
This is the cheapest private tour I've ever offered, bar none, and it's also the first time I've had a fellow Xinjiang resident ask me to help them with their passports. The price-performance ratio is truly amazing. Two people went on a 3-day private tour to Jeju Island on June 7th.
The capital city always holds a unique attraction for the older generation. For example, on May 26th, Director Ding's cousin took her parents on a private tour to Beijing, traveling by high-speed rail and saving them the hassle of going to and from the airport.
Just before the summer peak season, my junior colleague and her family of eight went on a 5-day private tour to Chengdu. She's truly amazing at cost control, no wonder she's in finance!
On July 16th, Director Ding met a fellow traveler he had known for almost 20 years. Although the colleague had changed careers, he had asked Director Ding to arrange a company trip to Sanya a few years ago. This time, for a team-building trip to Yunnan, he again commissioned Director Ding to create a customized tour.
With the arrival of summer vacation, there has been a noticeable increase in parent-child tours. On July 26th, a 5-day private tour to Yanji and Changbai Mountain was organized by a family of old friends from nearly 10 years ago.
A summer trip for six second-generation university students from a sister university—a promising future indeed.
For a team building event at a partner school, Director Ding was "appointed in a pinch." We set off early on July 19th, and then went to Director Ding's office on the afternoon of the 18th to buy insurance for 43 adults and 4 children. Luckily, it was all handled easily!
Any Golden Week holiday, including National Day, is a wallet poison for tourists. A price that normally costs a little over 10,000 yuan can suddenly reach 18,000 yuan – and that's only after Director Ding gave them the biggest discount possible. The honeymooning couple was happy, and they took many photos.
From October 31st to November 1st, and from November 10th to 18th, Director Ding organized and received inbound tourist groups from France and Indonesia/Hong Kong, respectively, and hired French and English-speaking guides to lead them to various attractions in Shanghai and Jiangxi/Zhejiang/Shanghai. On November 16th, my junior colleague booked 14 Disneyland tickets with Director Ding; the image below shows 5 of them as an example.
On January 2, 2026, Director Ding led his first group of the new year, a group of over 20 people including alumni and colleagues from another school, on a 6-day, 5-night leisure trip to Nanning and Mingshi in Guangxi. They even asked me to organize a group trip to Deqing last year.
The image below shows prices excluding airfare and Nanning hotel accommodations.
While Director Ding was leading a tour group in Guangxi, he was simultaneously arranging a customized tour to Egypt for eight people, which was scheduled to depart on January 3.
From January 24th to 28th, a group of over 20 people, including a colleague from another school, organized a team-building trip to Guilin and Yangshuo. Director Ding directly contacted a local travel agency they had worked with multiple times, so no record was left on the Ctrip platform.
On February 3, 2026, I was quite surprised to receive an inquiry from my senior sister who was thousands of miles away, and the deal was finalized the next day! A high-end customized tour of France and Switzerland.
The group consisted of hundreds of individual travelers, too many to count. Fireworks and firecrackers were going off outside the window, and I had too many messages on my phone to reply to, so I'll stop here and share this with my friends.
Director Ding sincerely wishes all his friends a prosperous Year of the Horse, with strong troops and horses, and swift success!
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