How to express the phrase tour guide in Chinese?

Travelling in China can be a tiring and puzzling activity due to the large territory with so many attracting sites and views. Under this situation, some of foreigners might have learnt some knowledge about the place where they are going to sightsee. Some of visitors who are interested in the civilized heritage and environment are more likely to choose the historical site for their trip. Therefore, it is a beneficial choice for you to apply for a tour guide who is responsible for your reference of your trip, enabling you to have both comfortable and knowledgeable experience in China.

What is the pronunciation of the tour guide? It is called dao3 you3 in the lessons of Chinese learn online, which should be written as 导游 in Chinese characters.

The phrase dao3 you2 actually evolved from another phrase xiang3 dao3 响导. What we speak those two phrase is not formed in a short time. The address of xiang3 dao3, since ancient times, was used as a specialized noun in the military forces. For instance, it had already been recorded in a strategic book called sun1 zi3 bing1 fa3 in the past when people have no platform of Chinese online learning. The recordation means that any troops would better not march forward if the commander has no information of local situations like plains, mountains, and jungles; if you do not have a strategist or an advisor in troops, your advantage of location will not be made use of.

There was another typical example of the meaning of xiang3 dao3 in the Chinese learning online. In the period of Spring and Autumn, the great politician, guan3 zhong4 together with his military forces of the state emperor qi2 huan2 gong1, did not have an appropriate tour guide for the information of local geography. As a result, they lost their way on their way home. At that time, they were at a loss. A moment later, guan3 zhong4 come up with a proposition: the intelligence of the horses is useful for us. Thus, he picked out an old horse, and loosened the rein and other things on the back of the horse, letting the horse go forward about. In this way, the troop of Qi2 found the way home by following the horse. As a matter of fact, this old horse played a role as a tour guide. Therefore, this story gave rise to a Chinese idiom whose pin yin is lao3 ma3 shi2 tu2. It means that a old horse can lead you who lost the way to a right direction.. Later on, this saying was passed down until nowadays.

In Chinese tourism industry, the phrase of address of xiang3 dao3 rather than the xiang4 dao3 was put into practice in the first place. A couple of years later, the sound of xiang3 has been changed into xiang4 with different tone- xiang4 dao3 向导. At present, people more often than not say xiang4 dao3 through online Chinese learning. However, especially in the tourism industry, the phrase xiang4 dao3 was used frequently as dao3 you2.

Source: 

http://chinesehelper.kinja.com/how-to-express-the-phrase-tour-guide-in-chinese-1684815583