Mission Statement
Eastern Voyages aims to deepen your China experience. We aim to impact you so that when you go home, you can share your experiences with your family and friends with relish and true insight. We want to share this wonderful country with you and inspire you to dig into China's cultural treasure trove. We do this by taking conventional China trips one step further. Option 1- studying Chinese in an actual Chinese school, Option 2- offering one-of-a-kind self-defense training, or Option 3- doing recreational activities with the backdrop of the world's most famous places.

The Origins of Eastern Voyages
When we decided to form this business, we had one common goal - we wanted to change the perception of China by the Western World. Soon after we met, we found that we shared this goal and decided to put it into a concerted effort. That was when we created Eastern Voyages. Here is some background about each of us.

Zheng Peter Yu was born in Beijing a few years after China opened its doors to the world. From a young age he was fiercely independent in a society that shunned individualism. At 16, he moved to Texas to start his life as an American - completely on his own. Not being able to speak a word of English and the only Chinese student at his new American high school, he faced a lot of challenges. He taught himself English and earned the respect and admiration of his classmates.

In 1999, Peter relocated to Portland and finished school at Westview High School. He is attending Portland State University, where he is currently working on a degree in marketing. He is also very active socially and academically, joining a fraternity. He was Orientation Leader for two years, where he led tours around campus and made new students from everywhere feel welcome. He also led marketing campaigns for events, planning advertising layouts in the school paper, planning events and orientation meetings. He is fluent in both Mandarin Chinese and English. Ambassador at PSU, he improved relations between the Portland community and Portland State University. His language skills have earned him respect at General Motors, a Fortune 500 company, where he led the first-ever Chinese consumer marketing campaign in the history of General Motors.

Erlinda Song

Erlinda Song was born in the U.S. and grew up in the Midwest. In high school, she studied several languages on her own and took French and German at school. At age 18, she graduated high school and went into the U.S. Army Military Police Corps, where she served for two years. She was discharged after sustaining serious injuries. She then attended school at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In just four years, she was one of a handful out of 2,000 graduates with a triple major. Her degrees are in Chinese, International Affairs and Spanish. She can read, write, and speak Mandarin Chinese to include being able to read and write in both simplified and traditional Chinese. In 1999, Erlinda went on her maiden voyage to China, attending Fudan University in Shanghai, one of China's elite colleges.

After graduating from university in 2001, Erlinda moved to South Korea and then China, spending two and a half years overseas. There she learned about Northeast Asia intimately, including Japan. She co-founded one of South Korea's largest English-speaking Internet portals, SeoulSearching.com. She has also traveled to Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. She has lived, worked and studied in China and in doing so, has traveled to virtually every major city in China and all points in between. Her hands on, personal and local knowledge of China is viceral. Her multilingual skills can help to bridge gaps for many countries coming to China.

Shaowu Yu

Shaowu Yu was born in China around the time that Chairman Mao founded the People's Republic of China. He grew up in Beijing. Tragically, his father died fighting in World War II, so starting at the tender age of nine, he helped his mother raise his younger brothers. Soon after he graduated from high school, he went straight to work, where he met his wife. They had one son, Zheng Peter Yu.

Eventually, Shaowu started driving a taxi at the dawn of China's tourism industry. Both his foreign and Chinese customers liked his warm personality and admired his local knowledge and passion for Beijing. As a cab driver, he knew where all the best places in Beijing were to see, well-known and not so well-known. He freelanced on the side as a Beijing guide. Soon, he became a well-respected tour guide for both Chinese and foreigners. He decided to invest in his talent and subsequently graduated from the Beijing Tourism College. He founded the prosperous North Star travel company. He is still closely working in the travel industry for all of China. He directs a tour on Wushu Kung Fu every summer in every province in China. He has led a couple of high-profile tours including tours to Tibet, Guilin, Shanghai, Hong Kong, etc. He is also very well connected in the tourism industry in international and domestic travel. Trusted by high-profile individuals, some executives and high government officials will not tour without him. Shaowu is the main contact for the BBC on trips to China. He directs them where to go on all the great places to eat, visit, rest and play. He is Eastern Voyage's main and trusted contact in China.