8 days
China Essentials
Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai linked by high-speed rail: the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Terracotta Army and the Bund.
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Private and small-group travel
China tours, planned around you
Private and small-group China itineraries with English-speaking guides. Tell us your dates and we'll send back a day-by-day plan, free of charge.
Free day-by-day plan within one working day
No deposit, no obligation
Flights from Heathrow, Manchester and Dublin
Guides in every destination, not just the big three
One point of contact from first email to last day
How we work
Three things that change the trip
01
A plan before you pay
Tell us your dates and budget; we send a day-by-day itinerary with real hotels and real prices. No obligation, no deposit.
02
A human pace
Two or three sights a day, not eight. Time to sit down for lunch and to walk the neighbourhoods without rushing.
03
Someone on the other end
One contact for the whole trip, on WhatsApp, in your language and your time zone — not a call centre queue.
Tours
Eight itineraries that work
Between 7 and 15 days. Any of them can be lengthened, shortened or combined.
8 days
10 days
Golden Triangle & the Giant Panda
Beijing, Xi'an and Chengdu. A morning at the panda breeding base and Sichuan cooking after dark.
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7 days
Zhangjiajie & the Avatar Mountains
The sandstone pillars that inspired Pandora, the glass bridge and the world's longest cable car.
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11 days
Tibet: Roof of the World
Lhasa, the Potala Palace and Namtso Lake. We handle the Tibet entry permit for you.
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14 days
Silk Road Odyssey
Xi'an, Dunhuang and Kashgar along the Hexi Corridor, with the Mogao Caves and Crescent Lake.
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9 days
Culinary China
Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shanghai, eating what people actually eat: dim sum at dawn, hotpot, wholesale markets.
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12 days
Yangtze River Cruise
Beijing and Xi'an, then three nights through the Three Gorges, finishing in Shanghai.
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15 days
Grand China Odyssey
North, centre and south in one trip: Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, the Yangtze, Guilin and Shanghai.
See the itinerary →Not sure which one fits?
Send us your dates and we'll come back with a day-by-day plan and a price for those exact dates. Free, and within one working day.
Ask on WhatsApp
Email us your dates
Whichever you use, your message arrives with this page attached — so we know what you were reading.
Destinations
Provinces and cities, in pairs
The province answers “what to see and in what order”; the city answers “what do I do with these days”. Each has its own page.
The clay army and Mount Hua
The province of the Terracotta Army: Xi'an, the trail up Mount Hua, and the eastern end of the Silk Road.
Pandas and peppercorns
Pandas at dawn, hotpot after dark, plus Mount Emei and the lakes of Jiuzhaigou in the north.
Minorities and rice terraces
Kunming as the gateway, then Dali, Lijiang and Lake Erhai — the province most people return to.
The landscape on the banknote
The Li River, terraced rice fields and Yangshuo for slowing down after the cities.
The pillars that inspired Avatar
Zhangjiajie's sandstone towers, the riverside town of Fenghuang, and Changsha — the capital of chilli.
The ice festival
Harbin in January: ice sculptures at city scale, Russian architecture, and the only place worth −20°C.
+ Beijing · Shanghai · Chongqing · Tianjin — four municipalities, each with its own page
Journal
Latest
Practical information, checked and dated. No “China is fascinating”.
