Chinese city offering tourists 50,893-dollar salary to become modern Marco Polo
Melbourne, March 13 : Hangzhou in eastern China is searching for a foreign traveller to become a "modern Marco Polo.''
The winner will be paid a 50,893-dollar salary, Hangzhou's tourism commission said in a media release.
The Chinese city, renowned for its canals and bridges, was described as the "most beautiful and elegant city in the world'' by the Venetian traveller Marco Polo, whose 13th-century journal was one of the first detailed accounts of China written by a European, according to the Herald Sun.
Now the city is "calling people around the world to follow Marco Polo's steps'', said Chen Li, of Hangzhou's tourism commission.
The new Marco Polo will be recruited via Facebook - which is banned in China - and will undergo intensive training before being flown to the city for a 15-day trip, the tourism commission told the media.
The winner is required to make a short video about Hangzhou and promote the city online. Both men and women can apply, it said.
"The Travels of Marco Polo,'' composed in 1298, described a journey across Asia through realms of pygmies, exotic plants and cannibals.