Private tours for families and first-timers, English-speaking guides by the day, and sourcing trips for Australian importers. Small groups, no shopping stops, prices in Australian dollars.
The good private tours of China were all sold from China. The ones sold from Australia were coach tours. We built the thing in between: an Australian company that owns the delivery in Shanghai instead of reselling someone else's.
days visa-free in China on an Australian passport
business day to reply with a line-by-line quote in AUD
commission shops, tea houses or factory outlets on any tour
Shanghai to Beijing by high-speed train, first class, tickets done
For families visiting relatives, stopovers, and work trips with a free day. Guide only or guide with a private car, priced per group so a family of four pays the same as a couple.
Hotels, high-speed trains, guides, cars and tickets handled. Two to six people, your dates, your pace, and the Forbidden City booked under your passports before you land.
Yiwu market trips, factory visits across the Yangtze Delta and trade fair support, with bilingual coordinators who have imported themselves. No supplier commissions.
Your guide is at arrivals with your name. By the time you reach the hotel the SIM works, Alipay works, and dinner is booked. The Bund is a ten-minute walk when you are ready.
Early into Yu Garden while it is quiet, the Bund on foot, the ferry across the river, and lunch where the locals queue. The afternoon in the former French Concession, at your pace.
A private car to Suzhou's classical gardens and canal lanes, with the passport-only garden bookings already made. Back in Shanghai for dinner.
First-class seats, tickets under your passports, no check-in queue. Met at Beijing South and driven to a hotel in the hutongs.
Ninety minutes by private car to the restored section the coach tours skip. Cable car up, toboggan down if you want it, lunch in the village, the Temple of Heaven at sunset if you still have legs.
Most private China tours are sold by companies in China. Your money, your contract and your refund rights all sit overseas. With us they sit in Melbourne, under the Australian Consumer Law.
Our Shanghai team briefs every guide and driver, holds the bookings and is a phone call away while you travel. Problems get fixed the same day.
Museums, the Forbidden City and high-speed trains need passport-registered bookings that foreign cards often cannot complete. We do that part before you land.
Every quote lists hotels, transport, guide days, tickets and meals line by line. Nothing appears later as a surprise.
I run a warehouse in Melbourne full of goods bought in China, and I kept being asked the same two questions: can you help me visit my supplier, and can you show my family Shanghai properly. Mandarin Route is the answer to both.
A short form or a phone call. We reply within one business day.
In AUD. Hotels, guide days, cars, trains and tickets listed, with what is excluded spelled out.
Balance due 30 days before travel. Australian tax invoice, card or bank transfer.
Real-name tickets and trains done before you fly. Your guide is at arrivals with a sign.
We reply within one business day with an itemised quote in Australian dollars, listing exactly what is included and what is not.