China Private Tour and Charter: Regions, Rail and Private Guides

China is not one destination. Yunnan's mountains and Xinjiang's deserts are further apart than most countries; the high-speed rail network connects the east coast at 300 km/h while the west still runs on mountain roads. A private tour is how you cover the distance without losing the days to logistics.

包車 — charter, car and driver

A charter gives you a vehicle and driver for the day or the week. It matters most where the rail does not go: the Yunnan loop between Kunming, Dali and Lijiang, the Sichuan mountains toward Jiuzhaigou, Xinjiang's Kanas road, Guizhou's village country. In the big cities, the metro is faster and the driver waits.

包團 — private tour, the route planned too

A private tour adds hotels, internal flights and rail tickets, restaurant bookings and a guide who can read the menu and the history. In China the guide is not a luxury: the difference between a ticket queue and a booked slot, between a tourist restaurant and the one locals use, is usually one phone call from someone local.

Regions we work in

• Southwest — Yunnan (Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, Shangri-La), Sichuan (Chengdu, Jiuzhaigou), Guizhou, Chongqing.
• Northwest — Xinjiang (Urumqi, Kanas, Kashgar), Gansu (Dunhuang, Zhangye), Qinghai, Xi'an and Shaanxi.
• South — Guangdong (Guangzhou, Chaoshan, Zhanjiang), Guangxi (Guilin, Yangshuo), Hainan.
• East — Shanghai, Jiangsu (Suzhou, Nanjing, Yangzhou), Zhejiang (Hangzhou), Anhui (Huangshan, Hongcun).
• Central — Hunan (Zhangjiajie, Fenghuang), Hubei, Jiangxi, Henan.
• Northeast — Harbin's ice festival, the Changbai mountains, Inner Mongolia's grasslands.

How a route gets built

You tell us the dates, the number of nights and who is travelling. We send a route with the internal flights and rail segments already priced into the plan, plus the driving times between stops. Only then do we quote — because a China itinerary is decided by the transport, not the hotels.

Entry requirements

Visa and visa-free rules change, and they depend on your passport rather than on where you are flying from. We keep separate guides on the current visa-free arrangements, the 240-hour transit rule and the port-by-port arrival options, and we tell you which one applies to your party before you book flights.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need a guide, or just a driver?

Both, usually. The driver solves the roads; the guide solves the language, the tickets and the ordering. In the cities you can do without a car but not without the guide.

Is high-speed rail better than flying?

Under four hours, yes — city centre to city centre, no airport time. Over that, fly. We price both into the route so the choice is visible.

How far in advance should we book?

Two to three months for spring and autumn, longer for national holidays, when trains and the good hotels sell out. Chinese New Year is the week to avoid unless you want to see it.

Do your guides speak English, Cantonese or Japanese?

We match the guide to the party. Tell us the language you need when you ask, and we confirm for your dates.

Can we combine China with Hong Kong?

Yes — the high-speed rail from Hong Kong West Kowloon reaches Shenzhen in 20 minutes and Guangzhou in under an hour, which makes a combined trip straightforward.