No. Australian passport holders can enter China without a visa for stays of up to 30 days. Nothing to apply for, nothing to pay, no consulate appointment.

The policy runs to 31 December 2026 and has been extended twice already. If it changes before you travel, we'll tell you straight away and handle the visa for you.

Yes, and more so than most first-timers expect. Violent crime is rare, petty theft is rare, and you can walk around a Chinese city at night without thinking about it.

The things that actually catch Australians out are practical, not dangerous: not being able to read a menu, not being able to pay for things, and not being able to get online. That's what your guide, your driver and this whole trip exist to solve.

Your Australian SIM will roam in China and — because it routes through your home network — Google, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook all keep working. Most people just turn roaming on and forget about it.

If you'd rather use a local eSIM for the data, get one with an international gateway. We'll walk you through the setup before you leave, and we'll test it with you.

Sometimes, but don't count on it. China runs on phone payments — almost everything is Alipay or WeChat Pay, including street stalls and taxis.

Both apps now accept foreign Visa and Mastercard, and it works well once it's set up. Setting it up for the first time is the fiddly part, so we do it with you before you fly rather than leaving you to work it out at a noodle stand.

Not a word. You have an English-speaking guide with you in every city, and your driver is with you between them.

For the hours you're on your own we give you a restaurant list for each city with photographed menus, and your guide will book a table for any of them. Point at the picture and it arrives.

Both. The pace is deliberately slower than a group tour — two things a day rather than five, and an afternoon off in every city.

Most group tours won't take children under 12 at all. Ours will, because it's your family's car and your family's guide — so an early night or a slow morning is your call, not a schedule you have to fight.

Because it's private, we can also split the group. If the kids want the toboggan at the Great Wall and grandma wants the cable car, everyone does what they want and you meet at the bottom. A coach tour can't do that.

For grandparents, the car gets as close to each entrance as it's allowed, and nobody walks further than they want to.

Tell us when you book. Vegetarian, halal, nut, seafood and gluten requirements can all be handled, but some of the included meals are set banquets, so we need notice rather than a mention on the day.

April, and late September into early October. Spring and autumn in China are clear and comfortable, and both line up with Australian school holidays.

We avoid 1–7 October — that's Golden Week, when the whole country travels at once. June and July work but are hot and humid. December and January are genuinely cold in Beijing, which some people love and some don't.

One to two months for the April and late-September windows — they go first. Shorter notice is often possible, but hotel and train availability gets tighter.

Me. I've been driving people to Melbourne airport for ten years and I run this from here in Melbourne. Our team on the ground in China has been looking after foreign visitors for twenty years.

When something goes wrong at 2am in Xi'an, you're not calling a hotline in another country.

A 25% deposit confirms your booking, and the balance is due 45 days before you leave. Everything is quoted and paid in Australian dollars, and the price is fixed once your booking is confirmed — no surcharges later.

Cancel within 14 days of booking and you get everything back, deposit included. Cancel more than 60 days before departure and we refund everything except a $300 administration fee. Closer to departure, charges apply on a sliding scale, set out in full in your booking confirmation. This is why we ask you to take out travel insurance the day you pay your deposit.