Upstream to the Sea

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 — the remaining items have to be settled first. One, Two, the ground arrangements for the October to December 2026 season, which include hotel allocation, guides and vehicles, rail ticketing and the three timed museum reservations. Three, the departure calendar. Until those items are settled we take no orders and no deposits. Tell us your dates and we will write to you on the day the route opens.
• Three timed reservations — the Forbidden City, the National Museum of China and the Shanghai Museum each need a timed reservation, and their booking systems sit poorly with overseas mobile numbers. Who books each one for your order, and by when, is stated in writing in your quote. The admissions themselves are in the base price either way.
• Site shuttles and mountain transport — named one by one so that nothing is read in by implication. The Terracotta Warriors site shuttle, the panda base internal shuttle, the Dujiangyan site shuttle, and the Mount Qingcheng cableway and lake boat are each confirmed for your month and stated in writing in your quote: whether it is running, and whether it sits inside your price. The only ascent transport already inside the base price on this route is the cable car or chairlift at Mutianyu.
• The Great Wall ascent in November and December 11 — the ascent at Mutianyu is by cableway and open chairlift, and snow or ice closes them. We do not yet hold the operating rules for those two months. Quotes in November and December state the ascent arrangement for your departure in writing before you pay.
• The city wall in November and December 11 — the wall-top cycling is the longest unsheltered outdoor stretch on this route. The arrangement for it in those two months is written into your quote.
• Departure dates — no departures between October 1 and October 7, the national holiday week: the Terracotta Warriors site runs at its heaviest load that week and all four cities sit inside their no-go window. Dates are also set so that day eight never falls on a Monday, when the Forbidden City closes; if your dates would put it there, days eight and nine swap and the Great Wall moves to day eight.
• The day ten start — day ten holds Tian'anmen Square, the Temple of Heaven and the National Museum of China, and then the afternoon train to Shanghai. Entry to the square runs through security screening. The start time for the day and the allowance for the screening queue are written into your quote for your departure.
• The departure morning — the former French Concession walk and the Huangpu River ferry sit on the morning of day twelve, before the airport. We check them against your departure flight at quoting. If an early flight leaves no room for both, the written quote says which one comes out and prices your order that way, before any deposit is taken.
• Reaching Chengdu — Shanghai on the way out has nonstop service from all our source markets; Chengdu on the way in does not. Direct service into Chengdu is full from the UK, from France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, from Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece, and from Australia and New Zealand. From Nordic countries, Central Europe and Ireland, from the US and from Canada it is thin: one point each, at Vienna, Los Angeles and Vancouver. If you do not start at one of those, you reach Chengdu on a connecting itinerary, which is an international flight and sits outside the base price, as does any hub-city night it forces. We check your full inbound itinerary and state the connection in writing before your order is taken.
• 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 20, 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 12 days is longer than the ten-day visa-free transit policy allows, so every US guest on this route holds a Chinese tourist or business visa, tourist or business, including ten-year multiple-entry. First-time applicants attend a consulate appointment in person, so allow processing time before your departure date. We confirm visa status before any payment. Guests already in China on the ten-day transit policy cannot take this trip, and we say so rather than work around it.
• Confirmation and changes — the confirmation-time commitment and the change and refund terms are being finalized 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 movements and three timed reservations, so a date change touches rail inventory and reservation inventory at once.