China Deep Tours — China, properly.

A small company built for one job: showing you the real China

We started with a simple observation. Western travellers aren't avoiding China because they've lost interest — interest is surging, fuelled by creators showing night markets, high-speed trains and cities that feel like the future. They're held back by a wall of friction and a picture of China that stopped being accurate years ago.

So we build trips the opposite way to the classic tour industry: food first, history told as a story, culture you take part in rather than watch — and a team whose real job is removing everything that makes China feel hard, from the visa route to the first taxi ride.

We're a new, deliberately small operation, now taking enquiries for our first pilot departures. Because operating tours in China requires a licensed travel agency, trips are operated on the ground by a licensed local partner — named and confirmed in writing before you book — with vetted English-speaking guides, so the storytelling and route design are ours and the operation is properly licensed locally.

Who we design for

Curious first-time and returning travellers from the UK, Canada, Australia, Europe and beyond — people who saw the real China online and want that version, without the logistics headache.

How we work

Tell us where you're drawn to and how you travel. We draft a route, send pricing personally on enquiry as a written itemised quote, revise it with you, then handle bookings, guides, trains and the pre-trip setup pack.

What we won't do

No commission shopping stops, no 40-person buses, no hidden extras after you commit, no sights ticked off from behind glass.

The fundamental focus: three layers, every place

Every stop on every route we design is built the same way. If a place can't give you all three, it doesn't make the route.

01 · What you eat

Food is the story spine, not fuel between sights. The dish a city is famous for, where locals actually eat it, and how to order, eat and enjoy it like you've lived there a year.

02 · What happened here

Solid historical context, told as narrative — who built this, why, what it cost, and how it still shapes China today. Guides who can answer the follow-up question.

03 · The culture behind it

The living layer: teahouse afternoons, morning tai chi, mahjong in the park, craft by hand, festivals and everyday rituals you're invited into, not shown.

Your visa route, checked30-day visa-free or 240-hour transit — we map your exact entry and exit, in writing, before you commit to anything.
Payments that work on day oneAlipay and WeChat Pay set up and tested before you fly. No standing at a till with a dead card.
Phone, maps & apps sortedeSIM and VPN arranged pre-trip, plus the apps that actually work in China — because Google Maps there will confidently send you to the wrong place.
Trains & transfers handledHigh-speed rail booked against your passport, stations navigated, airport pickups arranged. You just show up.

What we do

Four services, one standard: small, story-led, and priced properly on enquiry — every quote written and itemised before you commit.

Signature small-group journeys

Our ready-made story routes — like the Beijing → Shanghai → Chengdu → Chongqing pilot — run with a maximum of 8 guests and a storyteller guide throughout.

Pricing on enquiry — a written, itemised quote before you commit
Most meals included, chosen for the food
Best-timing windows that avoid peak crowds

Fully tailor-made private trips

Start from the destinations and interests below and we design the route around you — pace, food, history depth, comfort level and budget.

Built from your message, not a catalogue
Private guide, driver and pacing
Revise the draft route and its quote with us before you commit

Food & culture immersions

Short, deep add-ons inside any trip: market walks with a local cook, a cooking session, tea country visits, calligraphy, opera backstage and craft workshops.

Run by practitioners, not performers
Small, hands-on, in real working places
Dietary needs handled in Chinese

Friction-free travel support

The unglamorous part that decides whether a China trip feels easy: visa-route check, payments, eSIM and apps, passport-linked train bookings and transfers.

Set up and tested before you fly
A written pre-trip pack for every guest
On-trip help in English, every day

How we're different from most of the market

Most China tours sold to Western travellers fall into two camps: big-bus checklist circuits, or quote-only luxury private tours. We built the missing middle.

Typical market offerWith us

Group sizeTypical market25–40 on a bus, sights at a distanceWith usMax 8 on signature trips — or fully private

FoodTypical marketHotel buffets and “tourist menus”, few meals includedWith usFood is the spine: local places chosen for the food, most meals in

GuidingTypical marketDates and facts read from a scriptWith usStorytellers who explain what happened here — and why it matters

PricingTypical marketA low headline price, then extras, upgrades and shopping stops do the real workWith usNo public price list — pricing on enquiry, then one written, itemised quote with inclusions stated plainly before you commit

Shopping stopsTypical marketCommission stops built into the dayWith usNone. Ever. Places are chosen for you, not for kickbacks

LogisticsTypical marketYou're handed a voucher and wished luckWith usVisa route, payments, apps and trains sorted before you leave home

The places travellers ask us about most

These are the destinations that come up again and again in traveller conversations, videos and wish lists right now — organised the way trips actually fit together: by area, with every city in each area in the discussion. Tap Add to my trip on any destination — your picks flow straight into the enquiry form below.

The classics — capitals & icons

The first names on almost every list: the imperial capital and the ancient capital where China began. The backbone of most first trips — Beijing also opens our signature pilot route.

Beijing

3–4 days

North · Capital · Imperial power, hutong life

The first name almost everyone asks for — the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and whether hutong neighbourhoods are really still lived-in. They are, and that's where we start.

Best for: First-timers, history lovers

Xi'an

2–3 days

Shaanxi · Ancient capital · Where China began

The Terracotta Army pulls people in; the Muslim Quarter's 1,300 years of Silk Road food is what they talk about afterwards.

Best for: History, Silk Road food

Jiangnan — Suzhou, Hangzhou & Shanghai

China's refined south-of-the-Yangtze region: classical gardens, canal towns, West Lake tea country and silk — with Shanghai, Jiangnan's great gateway city, as the way in.

Shanghai

2–3 days

East · Gateway city · Old lanes, future skyline

Travellers are intrigued by the contrast: colonial-era Bund and shikumen lanes on one bank, one of the world's great skylines on the other — plus China's best museum and café scene.

Best for: City lovers, design, nightlife

A classical Suzhou garden pavilion beside a canal

Suzhou & Hangzhou

3 days

Jiangnan · Gardens & West Lake · Gardens, canals, silk & tea

The refined counterpoint to the megacities — classical scholar gardens, canal towns, Longjing tea fields above West Lake, and silk craft still made by hand.

Best for: Gardens, tea, gentle pace

Canton area — Guangdong

Guangdong — the Canton area, all four stops in the conversation: Guangzhou, the Cantonese capital famous for dim sum and local food; Shunde, home of chefs and utterly famous crispy roast duck; Shenzhen's future-city energy in the Pearl River Delta; and Shantou on the Teochew-speaking Chaoshan coast, where some of China's finest food and gongfu tea come from.

Guangzhou

2–3 days

Guangdong · Canton capital · Dim sum & the home of Cantonese food

The capital of Cantonese cooking and the city dim sum comes from. Mornings start with yum cha — har gow, siu mai, cheung fun and tea poured for the table — then roast meats, wonton noodles, herbal soups and late-night local food. Add Shamian Island, the Chen Clan Academy and the Canton Tower over the Pearl River.

Best for: Dim sum, Cantonese food, local life

Shunde

1–2 days

Guangdong · Foshan — Shunde · Utterly famous crispy roast — and chefs' hometown

Shunde is where Guangzhou's chefs come from — a UNESCO-recognised home of Cantonese cooking famous for its utterly crisp-skinned roast duck and goose, double-skin milk, silky fish dishes and Fengjian water town lanes. Travellers who care about food put Shunde on the list by name.

Best for: Serious food lovers, Cantonese cooking

Shenzhen

2–3 days

Guangdong · Next to Hong Kong · The future, built in one lifetime

A small border city transformed after becoming China's first Special Economic Zone in 1980, now a megacity of tech giants, design districts and some of China's most inventive Cantonese food. Travellers ask what China's next chapter looks like — this is it, an hour from Guangzhou and minutes from Hong Kong.

Best for: Tech, architecture, city energy

Shantou

2–3 days

Guangdong · Chaoshan coast · China's quiet food capital

Chefs across China rank Chaoshan cooking among the country's finest — beef hotpot cut to order, braised goose, oyster omelettes and gongfu tea, which was born here. Add a treaty-port old town of arcade streets and a slower coastal pace.

Best for: Serious food lovers, tea culture

The Southwest — Chengdu, Chongqing & Guizhou

One connected region, three characters: Chengdu's slow food capital, Chongqing's vertical mountain megacity, and Guizhou's Miao and Dong mountain villages. Spice, teahouses and deep-country culture.

Chengdu

3–4 days

Sichuan · Food capital · Eat slowly, live slowly

Asked for by name after food videos go viral — real hotpot, mapo tofu where it was invented, pandas, and teahouse afternoons that run the city.

Best for: Food lovers, relaxed pace

Chongqing

2–3 days

Southwest · Mountain city · The 8D mountain megacity

The city Western social media can't stop posting — trains through buildings, cliff-side Hongyadong lit at night, and hotpot in its fiercest hometown form.

Best for: Photography, food, wow-factor

Xijiang Miao village at dusk in Guizhou, wooden houses climbing terraced green hillsides

Guizhou — Xijiang & Libo

3–4 days

Southwest · Miao & Dong country · Mountain villages & emerald rivers

Xijiang, the largest Miao village, with a thousand wooden houses climbing the hillside; Libo's emerald Xiaoqikong rivers; Huangguoshu, one of Asia's great waterfalls; and sour-soup fish, embroidery and festival culture throughout. It pairs naturally with Chengdu and Chongqing as the Southwest's deep-country chapter.

Best for: Village culture, nature, slow travel

Mountains, rivers & coast

The great landscapes travellers add once the cities are covered: floating pillars, karst rivers, Yunnan's old towns and lakes — and the northern coast, where Dalian and Qingdao pair up for seafood, sea air and, in Qingdao, Tsingtao beer in its hometown.

Zhangjiajie

2–3 days

Hunan · National forest park · The 'Avatar' mountains, for real

The floating Hallelujah Mountains were inspired by these sandstone pillars. Travellers ask if it looks like that in person — in morning mist, it does.

Best for: Nature, photography, hikers

Karst peaks along the Li River near Guilin and Yangshuo

Guilin & Yangshuo

3 days

Guangxi · Li River · The classic Chinese landscape

The river-and-karst scenery on the 20-yuan note. A Li River cruise, bamboo rafts, rice terraces and village cycling — the China of paintings, still working farmland.

Best for: Scenery, families, cycling

A lakeside old town in Yunnan at the foot of green mountains

Yunnan — Dali & Lijiang

4–5 days

Southwest · Old towns & lakes · Old towns, lakes, minority cultures

For travellers who want to slow down: Bai and Naxi old towns, Erhai Lake, tea country, and some of China's most distinct regional cultures and cuisines.

Best for: Culture, slow travel, tea

Dalian

2–3 days

Liaoning · Northeast coast · Sea air, squares & seafood

The north's seaside city — sweeping squares, a cliff-hugging coastal road, Russian- and Japanese-era streets from its layered past, and seafood as the main event. Cooler summers make it a natural escape when the south swelters. Pairs naturally with Qingdao for a northern-coast seafood route.

Best for: Coast & scenery, seafood, summer trips

Qingdao

2–3 days

Shandong · Yellow Sea coast · Tsingtao beer & seafood by the sea

Home of China's best-known beer — Tsingtao, brewed here since 1903 — plus Zhanqiao Pier, a German-era old town of red roofs, Laoshan mountain rising from the sea, and seafood as the main event: clams, prawns and beer-hall tables by the water. The natural partner to Dalian on a northern-coast trip.

Best for: Beer, coast & scenery, seafood

Your trip so far:

Our signature pilot: Beijing → Shanghai → Chengdu → Chongqing

10 days · max 8 guests · pricing on enquiry — contact us for a written, itemised quote · most meals included. Imperial capital → treaty-port metropolis → slow food capital → vertical mountain megacity: four cities, four very different Chinas, told as one story. The southwest finale pairs Chengdu and Chongqing deliberately — Chengdu slow, Chongqing after dark.

Beijing

Days 1–3

The imperial capital, at street level

Eat —: Peking duck done properly, a hutong breakfast with the neighbours, dumplings in a family-run spot tourists don't find.
What happened —: Forbidden City and the Great Wall — with the story of who built them, why, and what it cost, not just dates.
The culture —: Morning tai chi in the park, tea poured the slow way, and how hutong life actually works today.

Shanghai

Days 4–6

Treaty-port past, future skyline

Eat —: Xiaolongbao where it was perfected, shengjianbao hot off the pan, and old-lane breakfast stalls in the former concessions.
What happened —: The Bund's colonial-era trading houses facing Pudong's towers — how a fishing town became a global port, then a financial capital.
The culture —: Shikumen lane life, the museum and café scene, and an evening on the river that shows both Shanghais at once.

Chengdu

Days 7–8

Slow down in the food capital

Eat —: A real Sichuan hotpot (with a mala survival guide), mapo tofu where it was invented, and street snacks chosen stall by stall.
What happened —: Pandas first thing before the crowds, then the teahouse culture that has run this city for centuries.
The culture —: Mahjong in a park teahouse, Sichuan opera face-changing, and Chengdu's famously unhurried way of life.

Chongqing

Days 9–10

The mountain megacity finale

Eat —: Hotpot in its fiercest hometown form, small noodles for breakfast, and riverside night-market skewers.
What happened —: A wartime capital and river port rebuilt vertically — cliff-side Hongyadong, trains through buildings, and bridges over two great rivers.
The culture —: Cable cars, stacked streets you navigate by level not street name, and the city's after-dark energy as the trip's closing chapter.

Included in the pilot

9 nights in hand-picked, well-located hotels
Most meals, at places chosen for the food
All ground transport, high-speed trains & internal flights between the four cities
Storyteller guide throughout, entry tickets & activities
Pre-trip friction pack: visa route, payments, eSIM, apps

Pricing for this departure is provided on enquiry — send us an enquiry below and we'll reply with a written, itemised quote before you commit to anything.

Not included

International flights to Beijing / from Chongqing
The few meals left free for your own exploring
Travel insurance (required — we send recommendations)
Personal spending and tips, at your discretion

More routes we love building

Starting points for a tailor-made trip, not fixed departures — tell us which story pulls you and we'll shape it around your days, pace and appetite. Each button loads that route into the enquiry form so you can ask for pricing on it directly.

7–8 days

The Canton Food Pilgrimage

Guangzhou → Shunde → Shantou → Shenzhen

An argument, eaten over a week: that “Chinese food” is a fiction. Dim sum mornings in Guangzhou, Shunde — the chefs' hometown, famous for its utterly crispy roast duck — then Shantou, where Chaoshan cooking breaks every expectation, and Shenzhen to close: heritage to future in four stops.

6–7 days

Jiangnan: The Scholar's Delta

Shanghai → Suzhou → Hangzhou

Where the signature route is about power, Jiangnan is about refinement — the region that supplied China's scholars, silk, tea and garden aesthetics. Shanghai as the gateway contrast, then gardens, canals and West Lake tea country at a genuinely slower pace.

5–6 days

The Northern Coast

Qingdao → Dalian

Two port cities, two colonial-era layers, one table of seafood after another. Tsingtao beer in its hometown and Zhanqiao Pier in Qingdao; Xinghai Square, the coastal road and colder-water seafood in Dalian. China's coast as a contact zone — short, delicious, and easy to add to a Beijing start.

8–9 days

The Southwest

Chengdu → Chongqing → Guizhou

Intensity in three registers: Chengdu's food capital and teahouse pace, Chongqing's vertical night-time megacity, then Guizhou's Miao and Dong mountain villages — sour-soup fish, embroidery and emerald rivers far from the standard circuit.

11–13 days

Deep Southwest Slow Route

Chengdu → Yunnan → Guilin & Yangshuo

The anti-signature: no capitals, no megacity finale — pace is the product. Chengdu as the soft landing, Yunnan's old towns, lakes and tea country in the middle, and the Li River's karst landscape to close, taken slowly by river, village and bicycle.

Good to know before you enquire

Getting in: your visa route

Many of our travellers — including UK, Canadian and Australian passports — currently enter on China's 30-day visa-free scheme, which is scheduled to run to 31 December 2026. If it isn't extended, we sell 2027 trips as visa-free if extended, visa-assisted if not — and we map your exact route in writing either way. US passports aren't on the 30-day list, but most routes can be run under the separate 240-hour visa-free transit; we'll check yours before any commitment.

When to come

The best windows for most routes are April to early May and mid-October to November. We steer departures around Golden Week, May Day and the July–August heat and rain — and we'll tell you honestly if your dates fight the route you've chosen.

Why pricing is on enquiry

Every trip we run is small — at most 8 guests — or fully private, and priced around your route, dates and comfort level. So instead of a public price list, you get one written, itemised quote after a short conversation: what's in, what's out, and what it costs, before you commit to anything. No payment is ever taken through this page.

Plan my trip — tell us what you're dreaming of

Leave us a message and we'll design your route around it. Here's how it works:

1 · You tell usDestinations, interests, dates, pace and travel style — in the form below, in your own words.
2 · We draft your routeWithin a few working days you get a day-by-day draft plus pricing on enquiry: a written, itemised quote — no obligation.
3 · We refine it togetherSwap cities, slow the pace, add a food immersion. We revise until it feels like your trip.
4 · We run everythingYour licensed local operating partner (named before you book), guides, trains, hotels and your pre-trip setup pack — handled end to end.

Your enquiry is ready to send.

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What are you enquiring about?

Fully tailor-made tripDesign a route around my destinations and interests. Signature pilot departureBeijing → Shanghai → Chengdu → Chongqing, 10 days, max 8. Contact me with pricing and dates. Not sure yetI'm interested in China and want help choosing.

Where do you want to go?

Pick as many as you like — we'll tell you honestly if it's too much for your days. Somewhere else in mind? Name it in your message.

What are you most into?

Your name

Email

Home country (your passport)

When would you go?

Trip length

Who's travelling?

Comfort level — we'll price it on enquiry

We don't publish prices — tell us the comfort level and we'll send a written, itemised quote.

Travel style

Your message — tell us about your trip (the more real, the better the route)

No payment, no obligation. Preparing your enquiry formats it ready to send — nothing is stored on this page.