A China-based team, not a reseller with a website
Zhongyu Travel started in Zhangjiajie in 2011 with three guides and one Land Cruiser. Fifteen years later we run local teams in ten cities, work with more than 180 English-speaking specialists, and have taken over 10,000 travellers around a country we grew up in.
2011
Founded in Zhangjiajie
10+
Local offices in China
180+
English-speaking experts
10,000+
Travellers hosted
How we work
Most travel companies selling China are based somewhere else. They take your enquiry, pass it to a partner in Beijing or Shanghai, and add a margin. It works until something goes wrong, at which point nobody can make a decision quickly.
We do the opposite. Our head office is in Zhangjiajie, our operations team is in China, and every itinerary we sell is delivered by people we employ or contract directly. The specialist who answers your first email is the one who briefs your guide the week before you arrive.
That structure is why we can do things a reseller cannot: hold a room in a sold-out Zhangjiajie hotel in October, get a Potala Palace ticket when the official site shows zero availability, or move your whole itinerary when a flight is cancelled at 6am.
What we are good at
First trips to China, family trips with children, photography-led itineraries, and the slightly awkward combinations — a week of work in Shanghai plus a week in the countryside, or three generations travelling together with very different ideas about pace.
We are less interested in selling you a package than in getting the details right: the guide who is good with a bored nine-year-old, the hotel with a proper bath, the restaurant that can handle a nut allergy, the train that leaves at a civilised hour.
Four promises we have kept since 2011
We are the operator, not the middleman
We own our itineraries, contract our own guides and hold our own hotel agreements. When something needs fixing at 11pm in Guilin, the person fixing it works for us.
Small groups, private by default
Almost everything we sell is private: your own guide, your own driver, your own pace. We run a handful of small-group departures each year, and never more than twelve people.
Honest about what China is like
Long queues, ticket systems that require a Chinese ID, restaurants with no English menu. We tell you before you book, and then we remove the friction for you.
No shopping stops, ever
Some operators subsidise tours with commission stops at jade factories and silk markets. We do not. The price you are quoted is the price the trip costs.
Talk to someone who lives there
Tell us roughly when you want to travel and what you would like to see. We will reply within one working day with a draft plan.