Social Skills is a monthly column featuring community groups where you can meet new people through exercise or other enjoyable activities.
It’s hospitality-meets-networking for the digital age. Inspired by American founder Casey Fenton's trip to Iceland, CouchSurfing started as a small project in 1999 and turned into a non-profit corporation in 2004. Today, the organization boasts 12 million members worldwide, all coexisting in an online community where accommodation, food and local know-how are shared mutually between hosts and travelers – free of charge. CouchSurfing's only revenue stream is its optional paid identification verification service which charges members a tiny fee to prove they are who they say they are.
Visitors to a new city can use the service to put them in touch with a local. The CouchSurfer not only gets accommodation, be it a bed, couch or some empty floor space, but also a local perspective and connection that crosses oceans, continents and cultures.
In return, hosts get to meet interesting people from around the world, while also building connections and positive reviews for their profile, allowing them to enjoy the hospitality of others when they find themselves on the road as well.
Since its founding, CouchSurfing has hosted countless travellers and a total of 550,000 events, including language exchanges, dance classes, hikes and dinners. According to their website, registered members are spread across the world in approximately 200,000 cities.
Guangzhou’s CouchSurfing branch, for instance, began in 2007, with weekly meet-ups being held ever since. Since the beginning, Guangzhou expat Balazs Kaplar, who studied in the city in 2001-02 and later moved to live here, has organized the meet-ups, where CouchSurfing hosts, travelers and any individuals interested in community can get together. “The meeting is about traveling. It's for people who are on the road and happen to be in Guangzhou at the time and for locals who are interested to meet travelers who are visiting their city.”
Go to couchsurfing.com to sign up as a host or traveler, or to connect with community members organizing weekly meet-ups.
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