As the host city of the 2017 Asian Fortune Forum (AFF), Guangzhou is under full preparation for the event, including training bus drivers with foreign languages.

In order to provide better bus services, Guangzhou Yiqi Bus has offered free courses for bus drivers to learn commonly used expressions in five foreign languages including English, French and German. The service will also offer English manuals with travelling information. 

Tang Wenjian, a bus driver in Guangzhou, has learned other languages so well that he now is able to have conversations with expats. 

Tang was saluting a French passenger with a smiling "Bonjour, et bienvnue à Guangzhou" (Hello, welcome to Guangzhou), as he mentioned that knowing more foreign languages has helped a lot during work.

"We give badges to those whose oral foreign language is good enough to communicate with foreign tourists in order to encourage them to provide better services," said a worker from YiQi Bus. 

A bus driver affixes information to a bus. [Photo by Fu Chaojun/southcn.com]