These are short tours with a specific focus. They are designed with the expat in mind, although a temporary visitor to China is welcome to participate.

Magical Mystery Tours will most often be less than 5 days duration. The minimum will be 10 participants, 16 is the maximum. Some tours will be by train, some by private bus and occasionally, some will be by air.

Each tour will be designed to take you to a “cool spot” rather than a “hot spot”, (hot spots being heavily visited tourist destinations).

Each tour will have a particular focus. “Crazy about pots” would focus on pottery. “Gasping for Grottos” would be for people who enjoy Buddhist or Daoist caves and rock carvings. “Climb another mountain!”, “Have another cuppa?” …well, what do you think?

This is how a Magical Mystery Tour works:

We advertise a Magical Mystery Tour for a particular date as in the following way.

Join us for a Magical Mystery Tour called “Gasping for Grottos”.

This private bus tour will take you to a neighboring province of Beijing municipality. You should wear comfortable shoes, a hat, sunscreen, be prepared to climb, have a sense of adventure and a certain amount of cultural sensitivity. This trip will give you the opportunity to take some great pictures, see some unknown and relatively intact grotto carvings. You will visit an old city with an interesting history. The hotel is 3 star but perfectly satisfactory for 2 nights. Breakfast will be “no great shakes”, but we will produce a couple of special surprises to tide you over. Departure and return point will be Qijiayuan Residential Compound (beside the Friendship Store on Jianguomenwai). Taxis are easily available from there. The all-inclusive cost of this trip is the price per person. A non-fundable deposit of RMB500 is required to hold your spot. The remainder is due 7 days in advance of departure.

That’s all there is to it. You trust us and we do our utmost to help you enjoy your free time in China. We do not take you to “hot spots”. We appreciate that you would prefer to find some unnoticed destinations where you will have a true sense of China where it is still developing. We know you might like to soak up some Chinese culture without a lot of effort. We know you might just like a weekend out of town without a lot of hassle. We have a small group of people who frequently travel with us in this way. We hope you will join us.