Experiences
Eight things worth building a trip around. Most of them are not on a standard itinerary, and two of them are the reason people come back.
In short
Beyond the famous sights, a China trip can be built around spa and bathhouse days, classes for adults and children, private workshops, and access to gardens and palaces outside opening hours. Families can also book companion guides who mind and tutor children, which frees up part of the day for the adults.
Head spas, foot treatments, full-body massage, sound baths and yoga. China does this at a standard and a scale that surprises people, including the twenty-four hour bathhouses you may have seen online and assumed were exaggerated. They are not. This is usually the day people ask to do twice.
Companion guides are not tour guides, and the category barely exists in the US. For children: university-educated young guides who mind them, play with them and tutor them if you want that. They will take the children out for an afternoon while you sit down and drink a coffee while it is still hot. For adults: someone at your side who handles the day as it changes. You decide at four that you would like a foot massage, and they find the right place rather than the nearest one.
Most China itineraries stop at hotels and the big five sights. There is far more: Sichuan face changing, tai chi, calligraphy, sleight of hand, cooking, even modelling if that is your child. These are the afternoons people describe when they get home, and they are almost never on a standard itinerary.
Regional kitchens, private dining rooms, a wet market at six in the morning, and tea with the person who grew the leaves. Peking duck done in a private room rather than a queue.
Porcelain, silk, ink, lacquer and jade, in studios that do not sell to tourists and are not open to the public. You get in because someone we know vouched for you.
Gardens, palaces and collections outside public hours. The Forbidden City releases tickets seven days ahead, one per passport, and it is closed on Mondays. Getting in at the right hour is a booking problem, and it is ours.
The Li River at dawn, the rice terraces at Longsheng, the karst country around Yangshuo. Seen from a private boat or a quiet path, at the hour when nobody else is there.
A design studio in the old French Concession, a young chef reworking a regional canon, the Shanghai skyline at dusk. The country as it is this year, not as the guidebooks left it.
Someone who spends the day with you and absorbs the logistics as they change, rather than walking you between monuments. For families, a companion guide minds and entertains the children, and tutors them if you want that, so parents get part of the day to themselves.
Yes. Companion guides for children are university educated, young, and used to working with families. They are booked by the day or the afternoon and are always arranged through people we know rather than an agency listing.
Head spas and foot treatments are the two most travellers have never tried and immediately rebook. Full-body massage, sound meditation and yoga are widely available, and the large bathhouses run around the clock in most major cities.
Yes. Cooking, calligraphy, tai chi, sleight of hand and face changing all run for children as well as adults, usually as a half-day. They are booked in advance because the good teachers have limited slots.
You do not need a finished idea. Say which two or three of these sound like your trip and roughly when you might travel, and we will tell you what fits in the time you have.