How it works
From one message to a route you can read.
Nothing here is a fixed departure and nothing is sold off a shelf. An enquiry becomes a reply, a reply becomes an outline, and only a finished outline gets a price. This page is the whole sequence — what we ask, what comes back, and how long each part takes.
Start a route brief ↗Six stages, in the order they happen.
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01
You send the brief.
About two minutes
The form asks for your name and email, where you are travelling from, when you would like to travel, how many of you there are, what the journey should include, and one open question about what is drawing you to China. Dates, group size and that last sentence are the ones that matter.
If you already have a document, a route list or a long explanation, write to inquiry@chinadventure.com instead. It reaches the same inbox.
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02
The first reply.
One business day
The reply is not a proposal and it is not a template. It is the questions that change a plan: what the season does to access, how high the route sleeps, how far you are willing to walk in a day, and where a route is harder than its photographs suggest.
If your dates cannot work, that comes back in the same message rather than after a week of silence.
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03
A route outline.
Depends on the brief
Day by day, with the moving parts named: where you sleep, how you get from one place to the next, what is guided and what is yours to arrange. The routes published on this site are outlines in the same sense — they show the shape of a journey so you can judge whether it fits before anyone talks about dates.
A named route moves faster than a blank page. Arrive with a fortnight and no plan beyond being outdoors, and the first version will be a proposal rather than a transcription.
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04
Dates, pace, nights.
Until it matches
This is the part that takes the longest, and it is the point of the whole exercise. Dates move. A day gets cut. A night shifts from a lodge to a camp, or the other way round. Some travellers end up changing the month rather than the route, because the season decides more of a journey than the itinerary does.
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05
The cost.
Once the shape is fixed
A number goes against a route only when its shape stops moving. Quotes move with the season, the size of the group, the standard of the nights and how much of each day needs a guide — two travellers in May and four in October on the same route are looking at very different numbers.
That is why nothing on this site carries a price, and why the form asks so much before anyone quotes.
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06
On the ground.
The outline is the promise
What the outline calls guided stays guided; what it calls yours to arrange stays yours. If a route needs permits or a park entry, they are named in the outline before you commit, rather than discovered at a gate.
What the brief needs.
Not a wish list — the five things that decide what is possible.
- Travel dates, or the month you are aiming for
- How many people are coming, and whether any of them are children
- The landscape or activity that made you open this site
- Any walking, altitude or cycling experience worth knowing about
- Anything already fixed — flights, a permit window, a date you cannot move
What comes back.
Four things, in this order. Nothing else is sent to you in the meantime.
- A reply within one business day, in English, from the person who will plan the journey
- A day-by-day outline naming where you sleep, how you get there, what is guided and what is yours
- An honest read of the season: what your dates allow, and what they rule out
- A costed itinerary, once the shape stops moving
The questions that arrive before the first reply.
- How quickly will I hear back?
- Within one business day, in English. If your dates sit inside a permit window or a national holiday, say so in the brief — it changes the first answer, not the speed of it.
- Do I need to know which route I want?
- No. Some travellers arrive naming a mountain; others arrive with a fortnight and no plan beyond being outdoors. Both are workable starting points, and the first reply tells us which one you are before anything is proposed.
- Can you work with fixed dates?
- Yes, and dates usually decide more than the wish list does. If a route cannot work inside your window, we say so in the first reply and describe what can.
- Why is there no price anywhere on this site?
- Because a number before the shape is a guess. Season, group size, the standard of the nights and the amount of guiding move a quote more than distance does. The cost arrives with the itinerary, once the outline stops changing.
- What if my plans change after the quote?
- Say so. Dates, group size and the standard of the nights all change the number, and the earlier they are on the table, the less of the plan has to be rebuilt.
- I am not sure I am fit enough. What then?
- Say that in the brief. The reply will talk about daily walking hours, pack weight and sleeping altitude rather than fitness in the abstract, and the outline names the days that are genuinely hard. Nobody is talked into a route they cannot enjoy.
- Can a journey combine two of the areas on this site?
- Usually, yes. A trek can end with two days of village cooking; a desert crossing can open with a night train and a city breakfast. The order is decided by the season rather than by geography.
- What happens to the details I send?
- They are used to answer the enquiry, which is exactly what the form asks your consent for before you send it. You get a copy of your own message by email at the same time.