Axis to Kitchen Table

Special Notes

A few things on this route follow the calendar, the season or a supplier's confirmation. Here they are, told straight.

• Bookings are not open yet — one thing has to be real first. A bookable connecting or family room type, confirmed in Beijing, Xi'an and Chengdu and named in writing. Three generations in separate rooms on separate floors is not this trip, so until those room types are secured we take no orders and no deposits. Tell us your dates and we will write to you on the day it opens.
• Departure dates — no departures between October 1 and October 7, the national holiday week. The terracotta pits and the Forbidden City both run at holiday-week crowd levels then, and this route is paced to the slowest member of your party. Dates are also set so that day two never falls on a Monday, when the Forbidden City closes: on a 12-day plan that means we do not take Sunday departures, and a requested Sunday date is moved rather than re-sequenced.
• Winter at the Great Wall — Mutianyu is the only climb on this route and the lift section is what makes it workable for three generations. Part of that lift service runs open-air, and open-air service stops in high wind, snow and ice, with shorter operating hours in winter. The operator has not yet given us a written statement of this season's operating days and wind-stoppage rule, so for November and December departures we promise no enclosed cabin: your quote states in writing which way up the wall your order uses. If the lift is not running on the day, your guide re-plans the day and the ticket cost of the unused section is refunded to you.
• Screening at the square — everyone is screened to enter Tian'anmen Square. At least half an hour of queue is budgeted separately, on top of your time on the square, so the palace reservation still lands on time.
• Two rail legs — this route moves by high-speed rail rather than by air, so a date change touches rail seat inventory as well as hotels and reservations. The 2026 Q4 timetable on both legs is verified against your dates before anything is charged, and the seat class for your order is written into your quote.
• Flying home out of Chengdu — Chengdu has full direct service to the UK, Australia and New Zealand. In western Europe it flies direct to France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. In southern Europe the direct points are Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. To North America, and to Nordic, Central European and Irish points, direct service out of Chengdu is thin. If there is no direct option for your city you connect through another hub, and that connecting leg is not in the base price: we book it on request and quote it separately. North American families are usually better served by the 14-day version that ends in Shanghai, a separate product with its own itinerary and its own terms.
• Visa window — the 30-day visa-free policy currently runs through December 31, 2026. Because this is a 12-day plan, departures on or before December 19, 2026 finish inside that window with a day of margin for flight delay; later departures are quoted only after the official renewal is announced.
• US passports — the US is not on the 30-day visa-free list, and 12 days is longer than the 10-day visa-free transit policy allows, so every US guest on this route holds a valid Chinese tourist or business visa, ten-year multiple-entry included. Allow processing time before your departure date. We confirm visa status before any payment. Guests who entered China under the 10-day transit policy cannot take this trip, and we say so before payment rather than looking for a workaround.
• Group — Private, just your party. From 1 guest. No fixed maximum party size.
• Confirmation and changes — the confirmation-time commitment and the change and refund terms are being finalised with our ground partners. Until they are settled, each quote states in writing its own confirmation deadline and its change and refund conditions.