Private China travel, answered honestly.

Yes. Panda Journeys is the international brand of 成都光大国际旅行社 (Chengdu Everbright International Travel Service Co., Ltd.), a licensed Chinese travel agency operating since 1987. Travel licence L-SC-CJ00008, registration 915101002019807384 — both publicly verifiable in China’s national enterprise registry. Every booking comes with a signed service contract and official receipts, and the licence documents themselves are on our About page.

From guests of journeys operated by our licensed Chengdu agency, which has run trips since 1987 — the international brand is newer than the operation behind it. We publish feedback with first names and trip details only, we never write or buy reviews, and every image on the site is labelled either concept visual, guest photo or licensed document — we don’t blur those lines. If you’d like more than a webpage, ask to be connected with a past guest, or for a video call with the team before booking.

Three separate layers. You pay a 50% deposit only after approving the full itinerary and quote and signing the contract, with the balance due one month before travel. Every booking runs on a signed service contract with a licensed agency. And Chinese tourism law requires us to hold a government-supervised quality deposit (质量保证金) that exists to protect travellers. If you pay by credit card or PayPal, their buyer protections apply on top of all that. Bank transfers go to the licensed agency’s corporate account under the same name as the licence — 成都光大国际旅行社 — never to a personal account.

Honestly: it depends, and anyone who quotes a fixed price before knowing your dates is guessing. Season, route, hotel level and party size all move the number. One thing we can say plainly — we design at the comfortable-to-luxury end; we’re not the cheapest way to see China, and we don’t try to be. Once we know your brief, you receive an itemised proposal with inclusions and exclusions clearly listed.

In order: you send a brief, we reply with a first direction, and we refine it together until it’s right. Then comes an itemised proposal with everything listed — a signed service contract and a 50% deposit secure the booking, and the balance is due one month before travel. We accept credit card, PayPal, bank transfer, Alipay and WeChat Pay, and every payment comes with an official receipt.

Dates, hotels and activities can usually be adjusted — travel plans move, and we plan for that. Where a change touches a third-party or non-refundable cost, we explain it before you approve anything, not after.

Yes — on the sliding scale written into the national-standard tourism service contract you sign with us. Cancel more than 7 days before departure and we refund everything except third-party costs already irrevocably committed (issued tickets, hotel penalties, permits), itemised line by line. Within 7 days the contract sets fixed retentions: 7–4 days before departure, 30% of the trip price; 3–1 days, 50%; on departure day, 80% — or the actual committed costs if higher, never more than the total. Refunds are returned within 10 working days. For force-majeure events (natural disasters, border closures, epidemics) all unspent costs are refunded and we prioritise free rebooking. And if we ever had to cancel within 7 days of departure, the same contract obliges us to refund you in full plus compensation of 5–20%.

The same WhatsApp thread you booked through becomes a 24/7 line while you travel, answered by your named planner and our operations desk in Chengdu. If a hotel, driver or guide falls short of what was agreed, we fix or replace it on the spot at our cost — and if a booked service genuinely cannot be delivered, that part of the plan is refunded. This is also what the government-supervised quality deposit exists for.

No — and we’d rather say that plainly than bury it. We strongly recommend comprehensive travel insurance covering medical care and trip cancellation, bought in your home country before departure. For high-altitude routes such as Jiuzhaigou or western Sichuan, check that your policy covers activities above 3,000 metres.

Quite possibly. As of 2026, travellers from fifty countries — including the UK, almost all of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Canada — can enter visa-free for 30 days; the only admin is an online e-arrival card before your flight. US passport holders can use the 240-hour visa-free transit with an onward ticket to a third country or region; Hong Kong counts. The rules do shift, so treat our visa-free guide as the current picture and re-check close to departure — we confirm the position for every booking before travel.

Then we help with the visa itself: invitation letters, itinerary confirmations, hotel booking proofs, and step-by-step guidance for your local application. We’ve walked travellers from India, the Philippines, Indonesia and many other countries through the process.

We never sell seats on a shared tour — no bus, no strangers, no fixed departures. A private group of your own is a different thing entirely: a company retreat, an incentive trip or a study visit is planned with the same tailor-made care, just at your group’s scale. See business & group travel.

Nationally licensed, English-speaking guides we have worked with repeatedly — most for years — briefed on your family or party before you land. Drivers are professionals with recent-model vehicles sized to your group (a 7-seat MPV such as a Buick GL8 is typical for families), and child seats are fitted on request and confirmed before arrival.

Comfortable to luxury, chosen with a reason — from design-led boutique houses to international five-star names, matched to each stop rather than one chain throughout. Every hotel is named in your written proposal before you commit, so nothing is generic and nothing is a surprise.

A few things do most of the work. Alipay and WeChat Pay, linked to an international card before you arrive — it’s how nearly everything is paid for. An eSIM or local SIM, ordered before you fly. A power bank, because your phone becomes wallet, map and translator. And a short list of apps we’ll send you. Every guest receives a detailed pre-trip checklist after booking.

Effectively the whole trip. Hotels, private cars with drivers, rail tickets, English-speaking guides and interpreters, translation where you need it, restaurant reservations, photography, celebration details, and on-trip support throughout — one plan, one thread, one team accountable for all of it.