想要到中国旅游，经济又不太宽裕的老外们注意了：中国部分家庭从上月起开始提供英语课程换免费住宿服务，只要每天能够保证至少两小时的英语交流时间，来中国旅游的老外便可以在提供该服务的中国家庭免费住宿。

Travelers can choose to exchange their language for free accommodation, tour guiding or even Chinese cooking lessons.

Visitors seeking to see China on a budget（节省费用） would do well to brush up（擦光，复习） their English language skills to take advantage of a scheme that offers free lodging¹ in Chinese homes in exchange for English tutoring.

With the cost of one hour of English tuition costing up to 500 yuan ($73.26) -- unaffordable for the vast majority of Chinese -- a not-for-profit Chinese organization called Tourboarding launched the initiative last month.

Lodgers²（房客，寄宿人） must speak at least two hours of English a day in return for their keep while their Chinese hosts can learn for free from a resident live-in English teacher.

"In the past 30 days, 5,000 Chinese families have signed up," said Ken³ Chen, 38, one of the founding members for Tourboarding.

Chen said the aim of the company, which is run online (www.tourboarding.com/), is not to make money but to provide opportunity for the millions of Chinese keen to learn English.

Tourboarding hopes to tap into foreign demand for cheap accommodation（膳宿） in China, particularly in Shanghai, as hotel prices have soared since the start of the World Expo in May.

"Travel industry hates us, people love us," is the motto on its website, which prides itself on offering travelers airport pick-up and drop off, free accommodation with a family and two meals a day.

Travelers can choose to exchange their language for free accommodation, tour guiding or even Chinese cooking lessons.

Yang Yang, 16, a female student in Shanghai advertises her home on the Tourboarding website to prospective⁴ travelers: "The house is next to a lake, green is good. We can offer single rooms for you to live. My parents want me to invite a woman."

Chen said Yang is just one example of a rising number of Chinese opening their homes to foreigners in the hope of improving their English.

"We accept travelers from all over the world. In the future we will copy this model to imitate in new, booming countries such as Russia, Brazil and Vietnam," said Chen.

Chen who quit his job at Nike Sports China, joined forces with Nuno Zhang, 28, an ex-Google employee to create the Tourboarding concept. The company started up in April.

He added that the website would rely on donations from travelers until volume traffic increases.

"In the future we will bring in advertising⁵ to make the service sustainable but we will not charge hosts at all as they are from a developing country," Chen added.