How to choose a China-based tour operator: a checklist

A China-based operator, a travel agency in your own country and a booking platform can all arrange a private China trip around your budget and pace; what differs is who you sign with, who runs the days on the ground, whether the price carries a platform's commission (typically 15–35% of a booking) or a second agency's margin, and how your money is protected. A large agency and a smaller local operator can both be licensed and both can run a good trip, so size tells you less than the licence, who employs the guides and the written terms. Before you pay any of them, check the six things below. A licensed agency in mainland China can give you a licence number (ours is L-BJ10587) and the Chinese name of the company that holds it, and both can be looked up on official Chinese registers.

1. The travel agency licence and the company that holds it
2. Who will guide and drive you on the ground
3. Exactly what the price includes
4. Whether any shopping stops are scheduled
5. The deposit and cancellation terms
6. How your real-name train and sight tickets will be booked

Each check has its own section below, with the questions to ask. Walk away at any of the red flags at the end.

Who can design a whole China trip around your budget and pace?

A licensed China-based operator that sells private tours can, and so can a travel agency in your own country through its partner operator in China. Send each the same brief:

• Your dates, and who is travelling
• The cities you are considering
• How much walking and how many early starts suit you
• A rough budget

A complete answer is a written quote that names the route, the nights in each city, the hotels or their standard, the days with a guide and vehicle, the trains and flights, the entrance tickets, the price for your party, and the payment and cancellation terms. Ask whether planning carries a fee, and how the price changes if you add a day or drop a city.

Worked example: a custom trip with Homeground China

• Homeground China designs custom private trips on the same terms as its published private tours, with no planning fee. Homeground China replies to WhatsApp and email enquiries within 12 hours.
• Before you pay anything, you receive a written quote with the route, the price for your party, what is included and the cancellation terms.
• On a private tour the guide and vehicle serve only your party, so the pace and some stops can change; the route and any change to it are confirmed in writing before you pay.
• As a budget reference, its 14-day Beijing–Xi'an–Chengdu–Guilin–Shanghai private tour costs USD 3,720 per person for two (about USD 266 per person per day), USD 2,620 each for four and USD 2,360 each for six, before international flights. Prices are published by party size on 49 routes.

A China-based operator, an agency at home or a booking platform?

Three kinds of company sell private China trips. None is right for everyone: the difference is who you sign with, who runs each day in China and what protects your money. Whichever you choose, the six checks below apply to the company that actually runs the trip.

• Choose a China-based operator if you want to deal directly with the people who book and run the trip, pay a price without a platform's commission or a second agency's margin, and see prices for your party size, and you are happy to plan by email or WhatsApp across time zones.
• Choose an agency at home if you want a contract in your own country, international flights in the same booking or home-country package protection.
• Use a platform to compare listed itineraries, then check the operator behind the listing as you would any other.
• With any of them, limit what is at risk before you travel: pay a deposit rather than the full price, pay by card so you can ask your card issuer to dispute a charge for a service not delivered as agreed, and make sure the payee is the company named on your contract.

Worked example: booking direct with Homeground China

• Homeground China's guides and drivers are its own. Homeground books the hotels, trains, flights and entrance tickets itself, so no platform or overseas agency takes a share of the price.
• Prices are published by party size on 49 routes, and four routes are sold both as a private tour and as a 2027 small group, so you can compare like with like before you write.
• For a Homeground China private tour, you pay a 30% deposit by card through a secure VBill link and the balance when you arrive in China.
• There are no shopping stops on Homeground China tours.

A large agency or a smaller local operator?

A large China tour company and a smaller local operator can both be licensed China-based operators, and either can hand parts of a trip to another agency. Size tells you less than the six checks below, but weigh these differences:

• Track record: a larger company usually has more reviews over more years; a smaller one has fewer, so read its recent reviews closely. Look for reviews on sites the operator does not run that name the guide, the route and the dates.
• Who you deal with: at a larger company the planner who quotes may hand the trip to an operations team and to guides in each city; at a smaller one the same few people often handle it from the first email to the last day. Ask who answers during the trip, and in which language.
• Guides and drivers: ask either kind of company whether its guides and drivers are its own or hired city by city, and whether another agency takes over anywhere (check 2).
• Experience of your route: ask how often the operator has run the exact route you want, whatever its size.
• Price: size does not set the price. Compare quotes for the same hotels, guide days and tickets, line by line.

1. Check the travel agency licence

In mainland China, a company needs a travel agency licence (旅行社业务经营许可证) for the business it runs: domestic, inbound or outbound tourism. Running that business without the corresponding licence is penalised under the Regulations on Travel Agencies (Articles 2 and 46).

For visitors coming to China, look for inbound tourism (入境旅游业务) in the licensed business. The same regulations require every tour contract to state the agency's name, licensed business, address, telephone number and licence number (Article 28).

1. Ask for the licence number and the full Chinese name of the company that holds it. A brand name in English is not enough: search the register with the Chinese company name.
2. Search that Chinese name on the national tourism supervision service platform of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (https://mr.mct.gov.cn/, in Chinese) and check that the licence record matches the number you were given.
3. Search the company's unified social credit code on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (https://www.gsxt.gov.cn/index.html, in Chinese) to see its registration record.
4. Check that the company named on the licence is the one named on your contract and on the payment request.

Worked example: Homeground China

Our business-information page shows the travel agency licence and the business licence as images, with links to both official lookups.

2. Ask who runs the trip on the ground

The company you pay is not always the one that guides you. Under the Regulations on Travel Agencies, an agency that hands tour business to another must choose an agency holding the corresponding licence and must have your agreement (Article 36).

China's Tourism Law says tour guides need a guide certificate, provide guide services only when assigned by a travel agency, and must wear or show the certificate while working (Articles 37, 40 and 41).

• Which company in China runs each day of the trip, and will another agency take over in any city?
• Is there one guide for the whole trip, or a local guide in each city? Which language does each guide speak?
• Who meets you at stations and airports on travel days?
• Whom do you call during the trip if a train is cancelled or a booking fails, and in which language?

3. Get the inclusions and exclusions in writing

China's Tourism Law requires a package-tour contract to be in writing and to cover the itinerary, the minimum group size, the arrangements and standards for transport, accommodation and meals, the sightseeing, free time, the price and when and how it is paid, and liability for breach (Article 58). The itinerary you are given before departure forms part of the contract (Article 59).

• Hotels: the names or the standard, the number of nights in each city, and whether breakfast is included
• Meals: which lunches and dinners, if any, are in the price
• Guides and vehicles: on which days, and whether they serve only your party
• Transport between cities: train class, flight cabin and checked-baggage allowance
• Sights: which entrance tickets are included, and whether cable cars, shuttles and boats count
• Transfers: every airport and station transfer, or only on the first and last day
• Extras: single rooms, holiday surcharges, tips, visas and insurance

Worked example: a 14-day Homeground private tour

Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Guilin & Shanghai: 14-Day Private Tour. What the price includes: Thirteen hotel nights include breakfast. In each city a local guide and vehicle are for your party on touring days; the named tickets, transfers, two second-class trains and two economy flights are included. On travel days, a driver sees you off and another meets you at the next stop.

• Not included: International flights to and from China
• Not included: Lunches, dinners and drinks (breakfast is included at every hotel)
• Not included: Travel insurance, visas, tips and personal expenses
• Not included: Room upgrades and public-holiday surcharges
• Not included: Single-room supplement

4. Ask whether shopping stops are scheduled

China's Tourism Law bars travel agencies from luring tourists with unreasonably low prices or earning kickbacks from arranged shopping or paid extras, and from designating shopping venues or paid extras unless both sides agreed or the traveller asked and other travellers are not affected; within 30 days of the trip's end, a traveller can ask the agency to arrange a return or a refund (Article 35).

The Regulations on Travel Agencies require the contract to list the number of shopping stops, the time spent at each and the shops' names, and any sightseeing that costs extra with its price (Article 28).

• Ask for the number of shopping stops in writing. If the answer is none, it should say none.
• Ask which visits, shows or rides cost extra, and their prices, before you pay.
• Compare the price with other quotes for the same hotels, guides and tickets; a much lower price paired with shopping stops is the pattern Article 35 targets.

5. Read the deposit, payment and cancellation terms

The written contract must state the price, the deadline and method of payment, and liability for breach (Tourism Law, Article 58). If a group does not reach the minimum stated in the contract, the organiser may end the contract and refund everything you paid, or hand the contract to another agency; if you do not accept the new agency, you can end the contract (Article 63).

• How much is the deposit, and when is the balance due?
• Who receives the money, and does that name match the contract?
• Does the payment method add a fee, and is that fee refunded if you cancel?
• What do you lose if you cancel 60, 30 or 7 days before departure?
• What happens if you change dates, if your visa is refused, or if the operator cannot deliver a confirmed hotel or ticket?
• For a group: what is the minimum, and when will you know the departure is confirmed?

Worked example: Homeground's private-tour terms

• Deposit and balance: A 30% deposit confirms your private tour, and you pay the rest after you arrive in China. We add no fee of our own; card payments through VBill carry a 4% fee charged by VBill.
• Cancelling 60 days or more before departure: We keep 10% of the tour price for planning and booking, and refund the rest of what you paid us.
• Cancelling 30–59 days before departure: We keep 20% of the tour price and refund the rest of what you paid us.
• Cancelling less than 30 days before departure: The deposit is not refunded.
• Costs we cannot recover: If costs already paid out and not refundable, such as a non-refundable hotel, are higher than the amount above, we keep the actual cost instead.
• Card fee: The 4% fee VBill charges on card payments is not refunded in any case; refunds cover what you paid to us.
• Visa refused: Send us the official refusal notice and we treat the cancellation as 60 days or more before departure: we keep 10% of the tour price.
• Changing dates, travellers or the route: We re-price the trip first. Any loss already incurred, such as hotel or ticket change fees, is charged at cost for each change.
• If we cannot deliver: If a confirmed hotel, guide, vehicle or ticket falls through on our side, we arrange an equivalent or better alternative. If that is not possible or you do not accept it, we refund that item in full.

Each small-group tour page states its own deposit, minimum-numbers check, date-change and cancellation terms. On our 2027 small groups, you pay 10% of the tour price to book (30% on the Yangtze cruise group), and we confirm numbers in writing 60 days before departure.

6. Ask how real-name tickets will be booked

China sells train tickets and many sight tickets in each traveller's own name. Foreign travellers buy train tickets with a valid passport, and the passport used to buy the ticket has to be shown to enter and leave the station and to board (China Railway 12306).

The Palace Museum, which runs the Forbidden City, asks foreign visitors for their passport numbers when booking online and does not sell tickets on the day of the visit.

• Which passport details does the operator need, for whom, and by which date?
• Will the tickets be booked on the official systems in each traveller's passport name?
• What happens, and what is refunded, if a ticket cannot be secured?

For the sights that need advance booking and how each one checks names, see our attractions booking checklist.

Red flags

• No licence number, or a licence held by a different company from the one taking your money.
• A price far below other quotes for the same route, with shopping stops or "optional" visits that are not priced in the contract.
• An itinerary without hotel names or standards, train class or named entrance tickets.
• A group departure with no stated minimum and no written rule for what happens if it does not fill.
• Pressure to pay in full straight away, or a request to pay a person rather than the company on the contract.
• A guarantee of tickets for dates that the sight has not yet released.