A Chinese high-speed train is quiet, punctual and almost absurdly comfortable in second class. The hard part is everything around it: buying the ticket with a passport that must match exactly, finding the right waiting hall in a station the size of an airport, and getting from the platform to a hotel with luggage.
We book your seats the day sales open, send a driver to the station, and have your guide waiting at the exit with a name sign. You walk off the train and the city starts.
Every day here is a suggestion. Your guide rewrites it with you the evening before — that is the whole point of travelling privately.
Forbidden City, hutong lunch, Great Wall at dawn. Evening train to Xi’an on day 3 if you want to save a hotel night.
4.5 hours from Beijing. Terracotta Army, City Wall, Muslim Quarter. Then 6 hours to Shanghai or 3 to Chengdu.
One hour between them, thirty trains a day. The Bund at dawn, West Lake by boat, Longjing tea village in the afternoon.
Fly from Shanghai, or rail south to Guilin for the Li River and a slower finish.
Tickets release 15 days before departure and the good times sell out. We book on release day.
Beijing has five main stations; Shanghai four. We tell you which one, which entrance, and how long the walk to the gate takes.
No weight limit on high-speed trains. Overhead racks fit a cabin bag; larger cases go at the end of the carriage.
A trolley sells indifferent noodles. Buy a station lunch or let your guide pack something better.
Dates, rough headcount, and the one thing you refuse to miss. We reply with guides, a day plan and a fixed price — usually within a few hours, always within 24.
One brief, one reply within 24 hours, two or three guides who have done this trip before.
Start planning — it’s free