The Middle Kingdom — 5,000 years of civilisation, megacities that build themselves overnight, and the country where the rest of the world is doing its homework.
7,300 km of fortifications stretching across northern China. Mutianyu and Jinshanling sections give the great views without the Badaling crowds.
Beijing’s imperial palace — 980 buildings, 720,000 square metres, 24 emperors over 500 years. A morning is barely enough.
8,000 life-sized warriors and horses guarding Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s tomb. Discovered by a farmer in 1974. Still being excavated.
19th-century European architecture facing 21st-century Pudong skyscrapers. The most striking skyline contrast in any city on earth.
Three Gorges cruise on the Yangtze, bamboo raft down the Li past Guilin’s karst peaks. The China of classical paintings.
Sichuan numbing heat, Cantonese delicacy, Beijing duck, hand-pulled noodles in Lanzhou, dim sum in Guangzhou. Eight major cuisines, infinite variation.
Mild, dry, dramatic skies. Spring brings cherry blossom in Beijing and the south; autumn gold across the country.
Shoulder months. Lower rates, fewer guests, increasingly variable weather.
Bitter cold in winter (–10° in Beijing), brutal heat and rain in summer. Chinese New Year (late Jan/early Feb) closes much of the country.
Mutianyu, Jinshanling, Simatai sections — better than Badaling.
Beijing’s 980-building imperial palace complex.
Xi’an — 8,000 warriors guarding an emperor’s tomb.
The Bund’s colonial architecture against Pudong’s skyline.
Karst peaks rising from the Li River.
The Giant Panda Breeding Centre — most reliable wild-ish encounter.
Three Gorges cruise — China’s classical landscape.
The Potala Palace and the rooftop of the world.
Classic Beijing–Xi’an–Shanghai circuit (10-12 days), Yangtze cruise extension, deeper south to Guilin, or specialist Silk Road / Tibet itineraries. We design around your time and interests.
Officially Beijing time everywhere. In Xinjiang in the far west, that means sunrise at 10am and sunset at midnight in summer. Locals quietly run on ‘Xinjiang time’ (2 hours behind).
40,000+ km of high-speed track. Beijing to Shanghai (1,318 km) takes 4.5 hours at 350 km/h. The trains are spotless, the food trolley arrives on time.
Legend says Emperor Shen Nung had a leaf blow into his boiling water. Today China produces and consumes more tea than the next four countries combined.
Tell us what calls you — the Wall, the food, the rivers, the rail network — and our consultants will build the itinerary around it.