$1000 a Month Just for Eating: Job Opportunities in Chinese Tourist Spots

A Chinese tourist attraction, which claims to be the setting for the novel *Journey to the West*, is making headlines locally for hiring an employee whose only job is to eat, under the role of ‘Monkey King’.

Foreign media outlets such as the Global Times reported on May 5 that a tourist attraction in Handan City, Hebei Province, China, known as Taehang Ojisan (or Wuxingshan), has become a hot topic for hiring a person to play the role of the Monkey King from the novel *Journey to the West*.

The person playing the Monkey King, who wears makeup and eats, will be paid 6000 yuan (approximately $940) per month. The main duty is to accept and eat food such as bananas given by young tourists, who call him “Monkey Brother”.

The requirement is that the person must like the Monkey King and be good at interacting with the audience. They must also stay in the cave during working hours because the Monkey King in the novel is trapped under the mountain, which is the palm of Buddha. The working hours are two and a half hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon. They may also rest more when there are fewer tourists.

A Taehang Ojisan tourist site representative said, “Currently, two actors playing the Monkey King are working in shifts,” and “We plan to recruit one more this year. We are still looking for a suitable person.”.

Chinese netizens commented, “It’s a good job. Eating is the job,” “What if you get sick from eating?” and “What if you gain too much weight and get stuck in the cave?”.

The representative explained, “The cave is bigger than you think,” and joked, “Of course, if the current two employees keep working, they might get stuck.”.

The actual location of the Wuxingshan in Journey to the West is not certain. This is because several places, including Da Nang in Vietnam and Hainan in China, claim, “This is the mountain from the legend.” In the novel, it is described as being near Tibet. There is also an interpretation that Wuxingshan is a fictional mountain with a Buddhist symbol.

By. Jun Yoo