Thedemand for bodyguard services in Beijing is high. Since the Chinese economy has been booming, people have started earning more money. So much money, in fact, that people have become wealthy. Beijing is the city with the largest number of billionaires. According to BBC News, every 17 hours, another Beijing citizen becomes a billionaire.
The number of millionaires and billionaires in China has never been so high before. Industries such as e-commerce, packaging, technology, production, and food bring out the most clever entrepreneurs. All these businesses also imply diplomacy, promotion, and collaboration with international relations. Alternatively, the Chinese with a dollar to spend have found their way around the world to spend their holiday with family and friends.
Wealth comes with a price, which can vary from positive effects such as fame to adverse impacts such as threats like theft, burglary, being kidnapped, blackmailed, or assaulted. There have been several reports of attacks, kidnaps, and assaults on (ultra) high-net-worth individuals in China.
The growth of UHNWIs in Beijing increases the demand for covert personal protection and bodyguards. Yet, the profession of a bodyguard is relatively new to the country. In the beginning, there was no official description of the profession, nor were there any regulations. However, since 2010, the Beijing security law and national laws have incorporated the profession in its legislation, allowing firms to establish a protection agency and train their staff accordingly. The number of agencies increases every year, but often an international operating agency is consulted.
Another discernible trend is specialized services. These services include a specialized security driver, residential security, family protection and asset protection. We discern the security of assets such as superyachts, pieces of art, cars, horses, and jewelry.
Are you planning to visit Beijing as a business traveler, tourist, or performing artist? Or will you work there for a number of years as an ex-patriate or diplomat? We can help you prepare your trips or stay. Our security analysis of your situation includes an extensive report describing the risks, threats and vulnerabilities and the measures that will keep you and your traveling party safe. Alternatively, our travel bodyguards with lenient visa credentials can accompany you on your trips. This way, we watch out for your safety, and you can focus on your business or leisure goals.
Are you a Beijing citizen planning a trip abroad? Or would you like an international operating protection company to assess whether you run any risks? Or would you like us to assess your personal situation in your hometown? We offer remote protection and gladly fly in to assist you personally.
Infinite Risks is a Dutch-based protection agency with several decades of international experience. Our male and female employees are predominantly Dutch, British and US trained agents from specialized military, police and intelligence units. Every experienced agent speaks at least two languages and is uniquely skilled in, e.g., risk management, advanced driving, close protection, covert surveillance, medical first aid and adventure sports.
We serve international clients traveling to Beijing or elsewhere in China and Chinese citizens in their home country or abroad. Feel free to contact us for more information about bodyguard services in Beijing. We gladly share examples of our experience with you and send you a non-committal offer. We look forward to helping you out.
Imperial guardsmen were among the best-paid soldiers in the realm, with exclusive rights to wearing colors and materials normally only reserved to the emperor. This included golden ornaments, certain pearls and gemstones, and the use of imperial golden yellow silk as a grip wrap on their swords.1
Officers of the Imperial bodyguard paid up to 600 taels of silver for their equipment to which they would often apply their personal tastes. This lead to them being somewhat of fashion icons among Qing soldiers.2
Their palace duty often meant they had a fairly close relationship with the emperor which lead many to rise up to even more important ranks. As the emperor's most trusted men, he often sent out one of his imperial bodyguards to border conflicts as interim managers. Many of them became sung war heroes, whose portraits were hung in the Zǐguāng G (紫光閣) or "Pavilion of Purple Brightness":
[Aun, known in the ring as Kongsuriya Narupai and on his birth certificate as Buncha Taparsa, began studying Muay Thai at age 10 in his home province of Ranong. He has racked up an estimated 100 fights in his career. Aun is now 27.]
After I retired from fighting, I joined the military. That's how it goes for men in Thailand; when you turn 21, it's like a lottery and they pick you or they don't pick you. Only some are eligible, like if you have glasses or are disabled in some way, you can't be a soldier. The ones who are eligible are made to choose a color, red or black, and if you pick red, you have to do two years in the military. I picked red.
They sent me to southern Thailand where they have problems all the time. My duty was to talk to people in the village, try to help them understand why the military came to their province, to protect them and not to hurt them. Southern Thailand still has problems. They try to have their own country and their own culture, lots of Muslims there.
I heard gunshots everyday but was never involved. I was involved in bombings, though. Cooking gas explosions happened three times. I was near them but I was safe every time. People were killed, yes, but thankfully no one in my department or my friends.
After my military service, I went back to Muay Thai. Worked as at trainer for a few months in Hong Kong, then went over to FA Group in Bangkok, to Wat Charoenrit in Koh Phangan. FA Group used me as a training partner for some of their other fighters, but I wasn't a full-fledged trainer, so that's part of why I took the new job in Koh Phangan. I didn't have problems with any of my gyms; I just moved to find better opportunities.
A lot of my fighter-friends went to Macau. They would tell me all about it. They're the reason I got the job. They called and asked me to work with them. Bodyguard work, they told me. If the boss wants a new bodyguard, he tells his other bodyguards, who are mostly former fighters, to ask their friends.
So I thought about it for two weeks, then decided to go. I was able to leave Thailand immediately. The boss I was about to protect was mafia, and he was able to help with visas and sort all that out easily. I went in February 2014, stayed one year and 10 months total.
My job duties as a bodyguard were exactly like what you see in the movies. When the boss goes to dinner, we bodyguards go with him and just stand there close by. There was no special training once I arrived. They said as long as you can fight, you can do this job.
Working hours depended on my boss. If he didn't go anywhere, I would stay at the office waiting for him, or wait at home for him to call. Sometimes the boss would pick me up at home. I earned 50,000 to 60,000 baht a month, and of course tips from the boss and his friends.
Sunday was my day off. I did whatever I wanted, sometimes touristy stuff in Macau, but mostly I liked to stay home, cook and relax. I was never really one for casinos or bars, never liked partying. I wanted to save money instead.
My boss was Chinese, somewhere in his fifties. We spoke Cantonese to each other. The boss had a legal business, a five-star hotel in Macau and China, and casinos too. He also had an illegal money-lending business, lending to people with a really high interest rate. I knew he was doing illegal activities because I was with him all the time, when he was doing his shady dealings. He didn't try to hide it from me, either. Everyone in Macau knows that the people who have bodyguards are probably doing something illegal. They know the rich people are mafia because they buy everyone. Macau used to belong to Portugal, so there's corruption everywhere. They've been independent for a while and still have corruption, like police taking money.
I would get this anxious feeling every time we drove around. I was worried someone would shoot us in the car. Think about it: cars aren't safe. If you're in a car, you can't fight. I would have these bad thoughts about people shooting us from a long distance, like snipers, or a truck hitting our car and ramming it over a bridge, on purpose or by accident. I think I was afraid of this because I'd heard stuff like that had happened a long time ago, before I worked there. My boss's car was bulletproof, but every time we would go somewhere, we had to search under the car for bombs. My boss had bodyguards just to watch the car; we took turns. The boss had seven or eight of us working just for him. Sometimes we'd work together, and everyone had his own duty.
All the big bosses were friends, like a group of 10 heads of companies, and they all had Thai bodyguards. And sometimes when they wanted to fight, they'd fight with another group that hired Chinese bodyguards. But sometimes things got out of hand. It was well known that if you beat someone to death and go to jail, your boss can't help you but he can help your family, send your salary back to them. So they did help.
None of that ever happened to me, but it happened to Thai bodyguards I knew. I heard of one case like that. Fifteen years in jail for killing a policeman, and all 10 people involved went to jail. Doesn't matter who actually did it. They all went to jail. But the bosses still sent money back to the families. I heard the policeman was killed accidentally. Their boss had told his bodyguards, "This policeman did something bad to me. Go give him a lesson." But it got out of hand.
Stories like that scared the hell out of me. I didn't fight anyone because I was afraid of the consequences of fighting. Luckily my boss was a nice guy and I didn't have to fight. Good, because things escalate quickly in fights. Macau has really strict laws, like no guns and no knives, so if something happens, it would supposedly be a fistfight. If you use guns or knives, you could go to jail for 15 years. That's why they hire old Muay Thai fighters to be bodyguards, because we know how to fight.
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