Two Rivers, Two Thousand Years

Special Notes

A few things on this route follow the calendar, the season, or a booking system. Here they are, told straight.

• Bookings are not open yet — three points on this route take a timed name-registered reservation, and how those slots get booked is not settled. Until that arrangement is in place, written into the included list and priced, we take no orders and no deposits. Tell us your dates and we will write to you on the day it opens.
• The three timed reservations — the Forbidden City on day 8, the National Museum of China on day 10 and the Shanghai Museum on day 11. Admission to all three is included in the price. The reservation systems are name-registered and hard to use on an overseas mobile number, and the Shanghai Museum booking pages are only partly in English. Your quote states in writing who books each slot and what it costs. Where a slot cannot be secured for your date, we tell you before you pay and rearrange that day rather than sell you a closed door.
• Departure days — no Monday departures, because day 8 falls on the same weekday as day 1 and the Forbidden City closes on Mondays. No departures October 1 to 7, the national holiday week, when the Terracotta Warriors site and the Chengdu panda base run at their most crowded.
• December departures and the two outdoor items — the Mutianyu cable car and open chairlift on day 9 and the Xi'an City Wall ride on day 6 are outdoors, and their winter operating rules are being confirmed with the sites. For a December departure your quote states in writing what happens to each of those two items if the site suspends it on your day.
• Group — Private, just your party. From 1 guest. No fixed maximum party size.
• Cabin class — the cabin class of the four high-speed rail legs and the one domestic flight is being finalised for this route. Until it is fixed, the cabin class of each leg for your order is stated in writing in your quote, and we take no order without it.
• Day 14 timing — The final day includes Foshan morning tea, Haixinsha, and your flight out of Guangzhou Baiyun. We check this against your departure time before confirming your dates; if the flight is too early, the morning tea moves to day 13 and day 14 remains within Guangzhou.
• Security screening — everyone is screened to enter Tian'anmen Square on day 10, and the queue takes half an hour to an hour. It is budgeted separately on that day, on top of your time on the square.
• Visa window — the 30-day visa-free policy currently runs through December 31, 2026. This is a 14-day plan, so departures on or before December 18, 2026 finish inside that window; 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 14 days is longer than the 10-day visa-free transit policy allows, so every US guest on this route holds a 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 already in China on the transit policy — If you entered China under the 10-day visa-free transit policy, this route does not work for you, because 14 days is longer than that policy allows. We say so before payment, with no workaround.
• 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. This route holds four rail legs and one flight, so a date change touches rail and airline inventory as well as hotels.