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We don't pay for posts. We host creators we already follow. Selection is editorial, not numerical — we look for craft, audience trust, and a real interest in private inbound China rather than influencer-style content.
Four to six trips per year. Selection in March (for April-September trips) and August (for October-March). Apply year-round.
We review applications quarterly. If your work resonates with our editorial team, we'll propose 2-3 trip options matched to your interests, season, and region preference.
Two years of walking taught Mr Xu what brochures never could — that the depth China rewards is not on the marquee circuit.
Our hosted-creator program isn't about reach numbers. We host writers, photographers, and filmmakers whose work we already read, watch, or follow — and who would genuinely benefit from a private inbound China experience they couldn't otherwise access.
Parent group operates outbound + inbound across 60+ cities; financial stability and supplier-level access.
Founder's two-year journey on foot defined the brand's commitment to slow, deep travel.
Four partners with complementary expertise. Every booking touched by all four functions.
Last 18 months: a Walker of the western desert long-read for The Atlantic; a Tea Horse Road retracing series for our journal; a Forbidden City photo book co-published with Aperture.
Between January 2014 and December 2015, Mr Xu walked solo across Yunnan, Sichuan, Tibet, Qinghai, and Inner Mongolia following the historical Tea Horse Road — the centuries-old corridor traders used to move Yunnan tea bricks into Tibet and beyond. 6,000 kilometres on foot. Some weeks twenty kilometres a day. Some weeks a tea-farming family hosted him for a fortnight while a storm passed.
What he learned shapes ChinaTourly today: that the master tea families south of Hangzhou will host visitors who arrive with the right introduction and the right patience. That a Tibetan monastery cook can sit with a curious guest for an afternoon and explain the entire iconography of the prayer hall. That none of this is on the public tourist circuit. That none of it can be commoditised. That the only operator who can deliver it is one with the supplier relationships and the cultural permission to ask.
Mr Xu's walk produced the supplier network that now anchors ChinaTourly's ICH master sessions and rural ethnic-minority itineraries.
Open Our ApproachWe don't ask creators to disclose. Some prefer credit, some don't. These are with permission.
Yes — UB Hua Zhi Guan International Travel Agency is licensed in Tianjin, with operating history since the early 2010s, ¥150M+ annual revenue, and full Chinese tourism-industry credentials. ChinaTourly is its dedicated inbound private-journey brand launched 2025.
All four partners operate from UB Hua Zhi Guan's Tianjin Tower (Tianjin World Financial Center, Floor 61) headquarters, with regional dispatch coordinators in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Kunming, Xi'an, and Lhasa.
Founder privacy choice. Full names available in formal contracts and signed booking documents. Surnames only in public-facing brand material — a small concession to the founders' preference for low public profile in exchange for product-first focus.
We're operated from inside China by Chinese partners with direct ten-year supplier relationships, not licensed white-labelled by a Western brand. This affects price (we eliminate the Western intermediary margin), depth (direct supplier means direct master access), and adaptability (decisions made in hours not days).
Send a one-paragraph brief: your publication or platform, the story you want to tell, your travel window, and any access requirements. We respond within 24 hours and open four to six creator slots per year.
Prefer to talk first? hello@chinatourly.com · WhatsApp +1 725 303 6645 · A real planner replies within 24 hours.
Private journeys through China, crafted by guides who have lived here for decades — we go where the crowd does not.
