Before the itinerary, the idea. What we believe a journey should be, and what nineteen years of listening to travellers has taught us.
Many threads run through every journey we plan — follow the one that sounds like you.
Every visitor sees Beijing's great imperial landmarks. But beyond the grand avenues and monumental architecture lies another city — one shaped by waterways, measured by ancient timekeepers, and lived in through narrow lanes and courtyard homes.
Market first, wok second — a Sichuan kitchen in one morning.
Breakfast on the locals' street, hand-pulled biangbiang at the noodle bench, paomo you tear yourself, and the night grills at lantern-light.
Dim sum at dawn, then a Shunde kitchen where the fish is the point.
A Miao village up close: the market, the kitchen, the evening songs.
A Sunday bazaar in Kashgar — livestock, spice and a thousand conversations.
Half or full day on the southern axis — the altar of heaven and its cypress groves, a lunch house standing since 1738, and the gate that opens once a year.
Half a day on the northern axis at dusk — the bridge the canal still runs beneath, the fire god's temple, and the towers that kept the old city's time.
The pits in their quietest window, a figure of your own at the bench beside them, an emperor's hot spring at dusk — one line out of Xi'an and back.
Nine treasures in the morning, the music they were made for after lunch, and the mother river at dusk.
Hulatang at dawn, the 3,600-year-old walls, a century of dumplings, and the night market to finish.
Wukang Road's garden houses, the lanes of Anfu Road, a working street of shops and stalls, and the old plane trees of Fuxing Park — the Shanghai people actually live in.
See first, float second, eat in the middle, make after, listen last — one line through the old city, garden to song.
The Yungang grottoes, a monastery hanging from a cliff, the tallest wooden pagoda on earth, and the two Tang halls that hold the oldest timber in China.
The Buddha cliffs of the Northern Wei and the night city of the Northern Song — five hundred years, four days.
The porcelain capital in three days — the imperial kilns, the mountain its clay came from, and a cup you throw yourself.
Scent first, then rock — one leaf read two ways across five days and two cities.
A pharmacy still filling prescriptions, a ferry still crossing, a workshop still cutting leather — Canton, at work.
Drum towers, embroidered sleeves and villages that still sing.
Two lakeside nights and two plateau nights — Xizhou's morning market, Tiger Leaping Gorge and Songzanlin at 3,280 m, no permit needed.
Arrive on the plateau gently, and let Lhasa set the pace.
Oasis cities on the old Silk Road, from the bazaar to the grape valleys.
A loop through the Yellow River cradle — the Shang walls at Zhengzhou, the Shaolin valley, the Longmen cliffs and the Northern Song capital at Kaifeng.
From jade to ink: make your own ink stick, carve a She inkstone, and walk the mountain that taught Chinese painting what a landscape is.
Village to village through Guizhou — drums, indigo and mountain roads.
Chengdu and Chongqing — teahouses, hotpot and a city on two rivers.
Nine days from the Min coast to the tulou — a UNESCO City of Gastronomy, oolong at its origin and two nights inside the round houses.
Kunming, Jianshui, Yuanyang and Xishuangbanna — Yunnan's southern half.
Eight days across one province read in one line — a night inside a tulou, the four faiths of Quanzhou, and the lanes of Fuzhou at the end.
Six days across Lingnan, read west from Guangzhou — kilns still firing, a lion on the plum-blossom poles, gardens and water villages, towers in the rice fields, and the sea at the end.
Two old towns and their markets, three nights above the flooded Hani terraces, a pottery wheel, an indigo vat and a hot spring before the train home — fixed small-group departures, never more than eight.
A circle of northwest Yunnan — Dali, Shaxi and the Meili snow range.
A healing loop through northwest Yunnan — boutique retreats, quiet valleys and a golden sunrise on Kawagarbo, at the pace the mountains set.
Lhasa, Shigatse and Everest Base Camp — the classic Tibetan journey.
Kashgar, the Pamirs and the Taklamakan rim — southern Xinjiang.
Lingnan to the Min coast — Guangdong's kitchens to Fujian's temples.
The vertical city, then three days down the Yangtze through the gorges.
Chinese New Year and Tibetan Losar fall a day apart in 2027 — ten festival days through the valleys of northwest Yunnan.
The whole arc of the old tea and horse road — from the tea forests of Jingmai to the salt terraces of Yanjing and the teahouses of Lhasa, in twenty-three days.
Lhasa, Everest Base Camp and the full three-day kora around Mount Kailash — the pilgrimage of a lifetime, in fifteen days.
Tibet, the grand circuit — the long way round the plateau.
Twelve days travelling backwards in time — from the oracle bones of Anyang to the first spade of 1926 at Xiyincun, with a specialist.
Seventeen days downstream along one river — clear at Lanzhou, yellow past the loess, roaring at Hukou, and at Kaifeng running ten metres above the streets.
Four days moving camp by packhorse through the pastures above Ringha, two days of monasteries and a Tibetan cookstove, one day at a black-pottery wheel — and not a single metre of the trail done in a vehicle.
Five days on the Minnan coast — the port the medieval world called Zayton, and the island harbour it grew into.
Half or full day on the southern axis — the altar of heaven and its cypress groves, a lunch house standing since 1738, and the gate that opens once a year.
The axis at its centre: the Forbidden City walked at your own pace, then Jingshan at golden hour for the whole city in one view.
Half a day on the northern axis at dusk — the bridge the canal still runs beneath, the fire god's temple, and the towers that kept the old city's time.
The pits in their quietest window, a figure of your own at the bench beside them, an emperor's hot spring at dusk — one line out of Xi'an and back.
Nine treasures in the morning, the music they were made for after lunch, and the mother river at dusk.
The granite banks of the 1920s, two yuan across the river by ferry, and the glass towers of the 1990s — one line along the water, both cities at once.
Four unhurried days on Beijing's Central Axis — the altars, the palace, a day on the Great Wall, and the lakes and towers of the north, with a seated hour every afternoon and three nights inside the old city included.
The walled capital where the Silk Road began — the buried army, a warrior you make yourself, and a night on a mountain stage.
The Buddha cliffs of the Northern Wei and the night city of the Northern Song — five hundred years, four days.
Three cities stacked on top of each other — the walled Ming county town, the creek that kept the factories, and the museum shore built on an old airport and a coal dock. One layer a day, nothing repeated.
The porcelain capital in three days — the imperial kilns, the mountain its clay came from, and a cup you throw yourself.
The Mogao caves — a thousand years of painting in the desert.
Three unhurried days on the 7.8-kilometre line that orders Beijing — the altars and the market to the south, the palace at its centre, the lakes and the towers to the north — with taiji and tea woven in, and two nights inside the old city included.
Beijing, then the Buddhist north — 51,000 Buddhas in the cliffs and the timber halls of the Liao.
A loop through the Yellow River cradle — the Shang walls at Zhengzhou, the Shaolin valley, the Longmen cliffs and the Northern Song capital at Kaifeng.
Two ancient capitals, one continuous story: Chang'an and Luoyang.
The Hexi corridor and the Yellow River — desert, grottoes and the Great Wall's end.
The Northern Wei moved its capital in 493 and the imperial masons moved with it — Yungang and Longmen are the two ends of one story.
Eight days across one province read in one line — a night inside a tulou, the four faiths of Quanzhou, and the lanes of Fuzhou at the end.
Six days across Lingnan, read west from Guangzhou — kilns still firing, a lion on the plum-blossom poles, gardens and water villages, towers in the rice fields, and the sea at the end.
Eight days, three Chinas — the Ming order of Beijing, the Tang depth of Xi'an, and the China living now in Shanghai.
China's great first journey — the Bund, the Li River, the buried army and the Great Wall, in one unhurried arc.
Twelve days south to north through Shanxi — Hukou's falls, Pingyao's walls and the Buddhist north.
Where China met the world — the whole Silk Road in one journey, Xi'an to Kashgar.
Twelve days travelling backwards in time — from the oracle bones of Anyang to the first spade of 1926 at Xiyincun, with a specialist.
Chinese architecture with a specialist — from the Han to the Qing.
The Silk Road and the Dunhuang caves, with a specialist.
Ten days travelling backwards in time — the Buddhas of Yungang, Pingyao's walls, the Terracotta Army and the oracle bones of Anyang, closing with a day of field archaeology with Mr. Zhang.
The political centre of China moved north over two thousand years — Chang'an, Luoyang, Datong and Beijing, walked in the order history wrote them.
Seventeen days downstream along one river — clear at Lanzhou, yellow past the loess, roaring at Hukou, and at Kaifeng running ten metres above the streets.
Every visitor sees Beijing's great imperial landmarks. But beyond the grand avenues and monumental architecture lies another city — one shaped by waterways, measured by ancient timekeepers, and lived in through narrow lanes and courtyard homes.
Half or full day on the southern axis — the altar of heaven and its cypress groves, a lunch house standing since 1738, and the gate that opens once a year.
The axis at its centre: the Forbidden City walked at your own pace, then Jingshan at golden hour for the whole city in one view.
The granite banks of the 1920s, two yuan across the river by ferry, and the glass towers of the 1990s — one line along the water, both cities at once.
See first, float second, eat in the middle, make after, listen last — one line through the old city, garden to song.
Four unhurried days on Beijing's Central Axis — the altars, the palace, a day on the Great Wall, and the lakes and towers of the north, with a seated hour every afternoon and three nights inside the old city included.
The Yungang grottoes, a monastery hanging from a cliff, the tallest wooden pagoda on earth, and the two Tang halls that hold the oldest timber in China.
Three cities stacked on top of each other — the walled Ming county town, the creek that kept the factories, and the museum shore built on an old airport and a coal dock. One layer a day, nothing repeated.
Gardens built for one family, canals built for a city, silk built for the world.
A pharmacy still filling prescriptions, a ferry still crossing, a workshop still cutting leather — Canton, at work.
Three unhurried days on the 7.8-kilometre line that orders Beijing — the altars and the market to the south, the palace at its centre, the lakes and the towers to the north — with taiji and tea woven in, and two nights inside the old city included.
Beijing, then the Buddhist north — 51,000 Buddhas in the cliffs and the timber halls of the Liao.
Water towns, gardens and a lake — the classic Jiangnan triangle read slowly: Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou in seven days.
The Northern Wei moved its capital in 493 and the imperial masons moved with it — Yungang and Longmen are the two ends of one story.
Eight days, three Chinas — the Ming order of Beijing, the Tang depth of Xi'an, and the China living now in Shanghai.
Twelve days south to north through Shanxi — Hukou's falls, Pingyao's walls and the Buddhist north.
Chinese architecture with a specialist — from the Han to the Qing.
Ten days travelling backwards in time — the Buddhas of Yungang, Pingyao's walls, the Terracotta Army and the oracle bones of Anyang, closing with a day of field archaeology with Mr. Zhang.
The political centre of China moved north over two thousand years — Chang'an, Luoyang, Datong and Beijing, walked in the order history wrote them.
Twenty kilometres of karst, seen from forty centimetres above the water.
One lake, a Song capital's old ground, and benches where you make things yourself.
A clifftop bookstore, a golden village at sunset, and a night above the cloud line — Songyang and Yunhe in three slow days.
Four days on a single mountain — cable cars up, two nights above the cloud sea, and a sunrise that gets two chances instead of one.
Three days and three waters — the terraces that hold the water, the small river you pole through, and the great one you float — with the first night spent inside the terraces, after the last bus has gone.
Three thousand quartz pillars, and a glass bridge if you dare.
Two lakeside nights and two plateau nights — Xizhou's morning market, Tiger Leaping Gorge and Songzanlin at 3,280 m, no permit needed.
Arrive on the plateau gently, and let Lhasa set the pace.
A city stacked on two rivers — lights, bridges and a skyline you climb.
Shanghai's lanes and Zhangjiajie's pillars — a city and a mountain range.
From jade to ink: make your own ink stick, carve a She inkstone, and walk the mountain that taught Chinese painting what a landscape is.
The cloud-sea sunrise of Huangshan, the drying racks of Wuyuan and seven hundred layers of terraced field — one line through the hills south of the Yangtze, read slowly.
Six days, two ridges and one river — the stone path between the terrace villages walked whole, and half the Li on foot.
Chengdu and Chongqing — teahouses, hotpot and a city on two rivers.
Kunming, Jianshui, Yuanyang and Xishuangbanna — Yunnan's southern half.
The mountain city and the karst — night skyline, stilt houses, Wulong's sinkholes.
Two old towns and their markets, three nights above the flooded Hani terraces, a pottery wheel, an indigo vat and a hot spring before the train home — fixed small-group departures, never more than eight.
Chengdu to Lhasa by road — 2,000 kilometres of the old G318.
Chengdu to Lhasa the long way — Daocheng Yading, the great rivers, Ranwu and Shigatse, in fifteen unhurried days.
Chengdu to Lijiang across the sky road — 4x4, oxygen aboard, gentle by design.
Lhasa, Shigatse and Everest Base Camp — the classic Tibetan journey.
Ngari and Mount Kailash — the far west of Tibet, for the patient traveller.
The Tianshan and the Ili grasslands — lakes, herds and high summer.
China's great first journey — the Bund, the Li River, the buried army and the Great Wall, in one unhurried arc.
Five cures — water, body, herb, food and mind — in the only Chinese city officially named a land of longevity.
The vertical city, then three days down the Yangtze through the gorges.
Twelve days south to north through Shanxi — Hukou's falls, Pingyao's walls and the Buddhist north.
Chinese New Year and Tibetan Losar fall a day apart in 2027 — ten festival days through the valleys of northwest Yunnan.
To the source of the great rivers — across Qinghai and Tibet.
Lhasa, Everest Base Camp and the full three-day kora around Mount Kailash — the pilgrimage of a lifetime, in fifteen days.
Tibet, the grand circuit — the long way round the plateau.
Twenty kilometres of karst, seen from forty centimetres above the water.
Four days on a single mountain — cable cars up, two nights above the cloud sea, and a sunrise that gets two chances instead of one.
Three days and three waters — the terraces that hold the water, the small river you pole through, and the great one you float — with the first night spent inside the terraces, after the last bus has gone.
Three thousand quartz pillars, and a glass bridge if you dare.
Shanghai's lanes and Zhangjiajie's pillars — a city and a mountain range.
Six days, two ridges and one river — the stone path between the terrace villages walked whole, and half the Li on foot.
Chengdu to Lijiang across the sky road — 4x4, oxygen aboard, gentle by design.
Four days moving camp by packhorse through the pastures above Ringha, two days of monasteries and a Tibetan cookstove, one day at a black-pottery wheel — and not a single metre of the trail done in a vehicle.
Teahouses, Sichuan opera and a morning with the pandas.
Chengdu to Lijiang across the sky road — 4x4, oxygen aboard, gentle by design.
Lhasa, Shigatse and Everest Base Camp — the classic Tibetan journey.
The Tianshan and the Ili grasslands — lakes, herds and high summer.
Chinese New Year and Tibetan Losar fall a day apart in 2027 — ten festival days through the valleys of northwest Yunnan.
To the source of the great rivers — across Qinghai and Tibet.
Tibet, the grand circuit — the long way round the plateau.
The walled capital where the Silk Road began — the buried army, a warrior you make yourself, and a night on a mountain stage.
Oasis cities on the old Silk Road, from the bazaar to the grape valleys.
The Mogao caves — a thousand years of painting in the desert.
Two ancient capitals, one continuous story: Chang'an and Luoyang.
The Hexi corridor and the Yellow River — desert, grottoes and the Great Wall's end.
Chengdu to Lhasa by road — 2,000 kilometres of the old G318.
Chengdu to Lhasa the long way — Daocheng Yading, the great rivers, Ranwu and Shigatse, in fifteen unhurried days.
Ngari and Mount Kailash — the far west of Tibet, for the patient traveller.
Kashgar, the Pamirs and the Taklamakan rim — southern Xinjiang.
The vertical city, then three days down the Yangtze through the gorges.
Where China met the world — the whole Silk Road in one journey, Xi'an to Kashgar.
The whole arc of the old tea and horse road — from the tea forests of Jingmai to the salt terraces of Yanjing and the teahouses of Lhasa, in twenty-three days.
Lhasa, Everest Base Camp and the full three-day kora around Mount Kailash — the pilgrimage of a lifetime, in fifteen days.
Twelve days travelling backwards in time — from the oracle bones of Anyang to the first spade of 1926 at Xiyincun, with a specialist.
The Silk Road and the Dunhuang caves, with a specialist.
The political centre of China moved north over two thousand years — Chang'an, Luoyang, Datong and Beijing, walked in the order history wrote them.
Seventeen days downstream along one river — clear at Lanzhou, yellow past the loess, roaring at Hukou, and at Kaifeng running ten metres above the streets.
Four days moving camp by packhorse through the pastures above Ringha, two days of monasteries and a Tibetan cookstove, one day at a black-pottery wheel — and not a single metre of the trail done in a vehicle.
Tea hills where Longjing is grown, a Hangzhou table at midday, and the temple in the hills — one day above West Lake.
Tea, a bamboo chair and an afternoon that has nowhere to be.
Five days on the Minnan coast — the port the medieval world called Zayton, and the island harbour it grew into.
Market first, wok second — a Sichuan kitchen in one morning.
Breakfast on the locals' street, hand-pulled biangbiang at the noodle bench, paomo you tear yourself, and the night grills at lantern-light.
Dim sum at dawn, then a Shunde kitchen where the fish is the point.
Half a day on the northern axis at dusk — the bridge the canal still runs beneath, the fire god's temple, and the towers that kept the old city's time.
The pits in their quietest window, a figure of your own at the bench beside them, an emperor's hot spring at dusk — one line out of Xi'an and back.
Hulatang at dawn, the 3,600-year-old walls, a century of dumplings, and the night market to finish.
See first, float second, eat in the middle, make after, listen last — one line through the old city, garden to song.
Four unhurried days on Beijing's Central Axis — the altars, the palace, a day on the Great Wall, and the lakes and towers of the north, with a seated hour every afternoon and three nights inside the old city included.
The walled capital where the Silk Road began — the buried army, a warrior you make yourself, and a night on a mountain stage.
Three cities stacked on top of each other — the walled Ming county town, the creek that kept the factories, and the museum shore built on an old airport and a coal dock. One layer a day, nothing repeated.
One lake, a Song capital's old ground, and benches where you make things yourself.
Scent first, then rock — one leaf read two ways across five days and two cities.
A pharmacy still filling prescriptions, a ferry still crossing, a workshop still cutting leather — Canton, at work.
Teahouses, Sichuan opera and a morning with the pandas.
A city stacked on two rivers — lights, bridges and a skyline you climb.
Oasis cities on the old Silk Road, from the bazaar to the grape valleys.
Three unhurried days on the 7.8-kilometre line that orders Beijing — the altars and the market to the south, the palace at its centre, the lakes and the towers to the north — with taiji and tea woven in, and two nights inside the old city included.
Chengdu and Chongqing — teahouses, hotpot and a city on two rivers.
Nine days from the Min coast to the tulou — a UNESCO City of Gastronomy, oolong at its origin and two nights inside the round houses.
Two old towns and their markets, three nights above the flooded Hani terraces, a pottery wheel, an indigo vat and a hot spring before the train home — fixed small-group departures, never more than eight.
Lingnan to the Min coast — Guangdong's kitchens to Fujian's temples.
Ten days travelling backwards in time — the Buddhas of Yungang, Pingyao's walls, the Terracotta Army and the oracle bones of Anyang, closing with a day of field archaeology with Mr. Zhang.
Water towns, gardens and a lake — the classic Jiangnan triangle read slowly: Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou in seven days.
Eight days, three Chinas — the Ming order of Beijing, the Tang depth of Xi'an, and the China living now in Shanghai.
Lhasa, Shigatse and Everest Base Camp — the classic Tibetan journey.
China's great first journey — the Bund, the Li River, the buried army and the Great Wall, in one unhurried arc.
Where China met the world — the whole Silk Road in one journey, Xi'an to Kashgar.
Tibet, the grand circuit — the long way round the plateau.
Tea hills where Longjing is grown, a Hangzhou table at midday, and the temple in the hills — one day above West Lake.
Tea, a bamboo chair and an afternoon that has nowhere to be.
A Miao village up close: the market, the kitchen, the evening songs.
Wukang Road's garden houses, the lanes of Anfu Road, a working street of shops and stalls, and the old plane trees of Fuxing Park — the Shanghai people actually live in.
Four unhurried days on Beijing's Central Axis — the altars, the palace, a day on the Great Wall, and the lakes and towers of the north, with a seated hour every afternoon and three nights inside the old city included.
Gardens built for one family, canals built for a city, silk built for the world.
A clifftop bookstore, a golden village at sunset, and a night above the cloud line — Songyang and Yunhe in three slow days.
Rapeseed in spring, white walls in autumn — China's most painted countryside.
Three unhurried days on the 7.8-kilometre line that orders Beijing — the altars and the market to the south, the palace at its centre, the lakes and the towers to the north — with taiji and tea woven in, and two nights inside the old city included.
Water towns, gardens and a lake — the classic Jiangnan triangle read slowly: Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou in seven days.
The cloud-sea sunrise of Huangshan, the drying racks of Wuyuan and seven hundred layers of terraced field — one line through the hills south of the Yangtze, read slowly.
A circle of northwest Yunnan — Dali, Shaxi and the Meili snow range.
A healing loop through northwest Yunnan — boutique retreats, quiet valleys and a golden sunrise on Kawagarbo, at the pace the mountains set.
Five cures — water, body, herb, food and mind — in the only Chinese city officially named a land of longevity.
A Sunday bazaar in Kashgar — livestock, spice and a thousand conversations.
The axis at its centre: the Forbidden City walked at your own pace, then Jingshan at golden hour for the whole city in one view.
One lake, a Song capital's old ground, and benches where you make things yourself.
Rapeseed in spring, white walls in autumn — China's most painted countryside.
Four days on a single mountain — cable cars up, two nights above the cloud sea, and a sunrise that gets two chances instead of one.
Three days and three waters — the terraces that hold the water, the small river you pole through, and the great one you float — with the first night spent inside the terraces, after the last bus has gone.
Drum towers, embroidered sleeves and villages that still sing.
Three thousand quartz pillars, and a glass bridge if you dare.
A city stacked on two rivers — lights, bridges and a skyline you climb.
Shanghai's lanes and Zhangjiajie's pillars — a city and a mountain range.
From jade to ink: make your own ink stick, carve a She inkstone, and walk the mountain that taught Chinese painting what a landscape is.
Six days, two ridges and one river — the stone path between the terrace villages walked whole, and half the Li on foot.
Village to village through Guizhou — drums, indigo and mountain roads.
The mountain city and the karst — night skyline, stilt houses, Wulong's sinkholes.
Chengdu to Lhasa by road — 2,000 kilometres of the old G318.
Chengdu to Lhasa the long way — Daocheng Yading, the great rivers, Ranwu and Shigatse, in fifteen unhurried days.
The Tianshan and the Ili grasslands — lakes, herds and high summer.
Chinese New Year and Tibetan Losar fall a day apart in 2027 — ten festival days through the valleys of northwest Yunnan.
A few ways in — no enquiry form required.
A journey to China is a big decision — of budget, of time, of imagination. We would rather you arrive curious than hurried, so we put the reading before the booking.
Every journey starts with a conversation. Tell us who is travelling and what draws you — we reply within one working day with first thoughts, route ideas and honest advice.