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Thirteen routes · all of them real
The itineraries we actually run
Not fourteen-day fantasies assembled for a website. These are the routes our own guides walk, with the hotels we actually book and the trains we actually catch — and the day-by-day published here so you can see what you are buying.
YunnanOur home ground. We are based in Kunming, and these are the routes we run most weeks of the year.
8 days8-Day Yunnan: Kunming, Dali, Lijiang & Shangri-La
Our most-booked Yunnan loop, and the one we would send a first-time visitor on. Four cities, eight days, one long mountain drive and a great deal of eating.
7 days7-Day Yunnan: Kunming, Dali, Lijiang & Shangri-La
A tighter cut of the classic loop. You still sleep in all four cities, still climb to the glacier, still end on the Tibetan plateau. What you lose is a rest day in Kunming.
8 days8-Day Yunnan: Xishuangbanna Rainforest & Pu’er Tea Country
The route we run for people who have already seen Dali and Lijiang, or who simply want the warm, green, southern end of the province. It is the least Chinese-looking part of China.
China loopsLonger journeys that join the big set pieces by high-speed rail — with a driver waiting at every station.
12 days12-Day China: Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu & Chongqing
Our shortest loop that still feels like a whole country. Beijing for the empire, Xi’an for the beginning of it, Chengdu for the food, Chongqing for the future.
13 days13-Day China: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Suzhou & Hangzhou
Beijing is stone and scale. The Yangtze delta is water, gardens and money. Thirteen days is enough to feel the difference rather than just be told about it.
14 days14-Day China: The Grand Loop, Beijing to Shenzhen
This is the itinerary we hand to families who say “we are coming once, we want to see everything”. It is long, it is fast, and it works — because every leg is booked in sequence.
15 days15-Day China: Beijing to Shanghai
Fifteen days lets you slow down in the places that deserve it: two nights in Zhangjiajie country, a full day on the Li River, and a proper afternoon in a Suzhou garden.
Sichuan & ChongqingFood, pandas and karst, in the two cities that argue about which of them invented Sichuan cooking.
TrekkingGuided walks in northwest Yunnan, from a two-day lake to a 5,396 m summit. Small groups, real guides.
2 days2-Day Haba Black Lake Trek
Short, high and genuinely wild. You gain 600 m on the first afternoon, sleep in a tent or a wooden cabin with the snow peak in front of you, and reach Black Lake the next morning.
3 days3-Day Haba Black Lake & Tiger Leaping Gorge Trek
Day one is forest and pasture. Day two is the lake. Day three is the gorge, with the view from HALFWAY and the Longdong waterfall, then back to Lijiang by five.
4 days4-Day Haba Snow Mountain Summit (5,396 m)
Haba is 5,396 m and does not require technical climbing, which is exactly why it is the standard first summit in China. It is still 1,300 m of ascent from Base Camp in one push, and we do not pretend otherwise.
4 days4-Day Yubeng Pilgrimage
Yubeng is the trek Chinese hikers save up for. You walk in through a canyon, sleep in a village under Kawagebo, climb to a lake at 3,900 m, and walk out the way you came.
5 days5-Day Yubeng Pilgrimage & Sacred Waterfall
The five-day version adds the Sacred Waterfall and a second full day in Upper Yubeng. It is the one we recommend if you are coming this far: the walk in is hard, and you should not turn round the next morning.
None of these quite right? They are starting points, not packages.
Most of what we design never appears on this page: six days in Yunnan, a golf week, a honeymoon with one mountain in it, a three-week version of the grand loop. Tell us who is travelling and when, and we will draw one from scratch.
