Your own licensed English-speaking guide. Your own private car. One group — yours. Start in any city in China, and leave everything on the ground to us.
Most companies sell you a seat on someone else's schedule.
We don't sell seats. We build journeys.
Every trip is private. No strangers, no fixed dates, no coach. Book for two people, and it's two people.
A licensed English-speaking guide and a private car with a professional driver, in every city, all day.
Hotels, tickets, permits, reservations, translation, payment apps — you travel, we sweat the details.
A custom China tour means you decide the cities, the pace and the details — and we handle everything in between. No two itineraries we write are the same, because no two travelers are.
Start in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu or any of 20+ gateway cities. Add the places most tours skip: Yunnan's stone forests, the Silk Road's desert, the Tibetan plateau. One-way routes welcome.
Two sights a day or five. Late breakfasts, a day at the teahouse, a hotel you never want to leave. Your schedule is yours — and we change it mid-trip if you want to.
Only your party. Your own vehicle, your own guide, in every city. Families with young kids, photographers, hikers, honeymooners — the itinerary is written for the group in the car.
How the process works, what you control, what we take off your plate, and what a custom China itinerary actually costs.
Read the full guideNot sure where to begin? Browse six private China tours, then tell us what to keep, what to drop and what to add.
See the six tripsThese are starting points, not fixed departures. Open any trip for the full day-by-day, then tell us what to change — every one is fully customizable.
The great hits, without the group-tour rush. The Great Wall at sunrise, the Terracotta Army, pandas, and the Bund at night — with your own guide and car the whole way.
Pandas before breakfast, the floating mountains of Zhangjiajie by afternoon, and a bamboo raft down the Li River at dawn.
Follow the old trade route west — desert dunes, painted cave temples, and bazaars at the edge of the map.
Neon skylines, classical gardens, tea hills and granite peaks — all connected by trains doing 350 km/h.
Two imperial capitals, then a river cruise through the gorges that Chinese painters spent a thousand years trying to capture.
Ride the highest railway in the world onto the roof of the world — turquoise salt lakes, prayer flags and monasteries at 3,600 metres.
Pandas, kung fu, dumpling-making and a bike ride on a 600-year-old city wall. Built for kids, paced for parents.
China's great western road trip: Qinghai Lake's turquoise, the mirror of Chaka Salt Lake, Dunhuang's painted caves and Zhangye's rainbow mountains — one clean loop.
From beef noodles on the Yellow River to the desert's edge, following the Gansu corridor by high-speed rail — Han tombs, the Wall's western end, and 492 painted caves.
Every itinerary is fully customizable — change the cities, the length, the pace or the hotels. Nothing is fixed until you say it is.
China grants visa-free transit of up to 240 hours — ten days — to travelers from more than fifty countries. Even a six-hour connection is enough for a guided half-day, if someone who knows the airport sets it up. Send us your flight numbers and we'll build a short tour that fits between them.
A private car on standby, a guide who watches the clock, and a visit chosen so a delay on the road can't cost you your flight.
Leave the airport, see the one thing you'd have regretted missing, and be back for your connection. Great Wall, the Bund, pandas, or the Terracotta Army.
A night in the city, a second morning before the crowds arrive, and a route built backwards from your onward flight.
Most layover plans come back the same day. No deposit, no obligation.
20+ gateway cities and every province in between. Open any city for what to see, when to go and how many days it deserves.
Not a promise — a Tuesday. A few of the things your trip designer and guides arrange while you're simply traveling.
Four steps, no pressure, and nothing to pay until you're genuinely happy with the plan.
Two minutes by email. Your dates, the places you want to see, and anything you'd rather avoid.
Within 24 hours a real trip designer sends a day-by-day plan with hotels, travel times and a clear price.
Swap a city, add a day, upgrade the hotel. We revise as many times as it takes. You pay nothing yet.
Guides meet you at every airport and station. Your designer is on WhatsApp 24/7, and fixes anything before you notice.
Three ways to see China, side by side. Read it before you book anything, with anyone.
| A private trip with us | A coach group tour | Booking it all yourself | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who you travel with | Just your party | 20–45 strangers | Just your party |
| Guide | Yours alone, all day | Shared with the bus | None — or a one-hour walk |
| Vehicle | Private car and driver | Motorcoach | Public transport and taxis |
| Departure dates | Any date you choose | Fixed, twice a month | Any date |
| Daily pace | You set it | The bus sets it | You set it |
| Change plans on the road | We adjust the same day | Not possible | You're on your own |
| When something goes wrong | We're there in minutes | The leader calls the office | You handle it |
| Language | Fluent English, Spanish or Portuguese | Group briefing | Translation apps |
| Who plans it | Someone who lives in China | A brochure | You, for 40+ hours |
| Start in any city | Yes — 20+ gateways | No, fixed joining point | Yes |
You're not paying for a more expensive seat. You're paying for a trip that belongs to you — and for someone in China whose only job that week is making sure it goes right.
We were two people, and we never once felt like tourists on a schedule.
Eleven days, four cities, and not a single wasted morning. Our guide in Xi'an rearranged day three on the spot when it rained, and we ended up at a noodle shop we'd still fly back for.
Sarah M., Austin, Texas · Classic China, 11 daysOur guide in Chengdu spoke perfect Portuguese — that mattered more than we expected.
My parents came with us and they don't speak English. Having a Portuguese-speaking guide for the panda base meant they actually understood what they were looking at.
Marcelo F., São Paulo, Brazil · Family Trip, 10 daysI've planned trips myself for thirty years. I'm not doing that again in China.
The rail tickets, the permits, the airport pickups, the restaurant reservations — all of it just appeared. All I had to do was show up with a suitcase.
Daniel R., Lisbon, Portugal · Silk Road, 11 daysThey answered at 2 a.m. when our flight was cancelled.
New flight booked, driver re-routed, hotel told us they were expecting us late. We found out afterwards. That's what you're actually buying.
Emily & Tom H., Manchester, UK · Rail Trip, 9 daysYou don't have to start in Beijing. Fly into Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Kunming, Xiamen or any of our 20+ gateway cities and we'll meet you there — sign in hand, car outside, hotel already confirmed.
From that first hour your route is mapped, your trains are booked and your guides are expecting you. And if your trip ends somewhere different from where it started, that's fine too — one-way routing is normal for us.
Ask about your arrival cityNo forms to fill in, no call centre. Email us directly and a real trip designer in China will reply within 24 hours with a first draft itinerary and a clear price.
hello@joyotour.comCopy this into your message and fill in what you know. Missing pieces are fine — we'll ask the right questions.