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A breakfast picnic crew up on the Great Wall
22–35Designed for young Asian professionals, 22–35. Open to all.

China trips · Asian diaspora · 22–35

China trips for Asian Americans who never saw China their own way.

Second-gen, English-first, family dialect that stalls somewhere around food words? This is the small-crew trip back to the motherland that your parents' tour never was — ten days, Beijing to Shanghai, with people who get the assignment.

Book now — US$300 depositSee the full 10-day itinerary

30-minute seat hold · price locks at deposit · non-refundable unless the departure is cancelled, in which case every payment comes back.

The origin story

We love our parents. We're just not booking their tour.

Every second-gen kid knows the photos: the flag umbrella, the coach, the jade-factory "shopping stop", the buffet at dawn. Our parents crossed an ocean so we could complain about their vacations — and they were right about exactly one thing: you should see China.

So we built the version we'd actually book. A small crew of young Asian professionals, all 22–35, designed around arriving alone. Nights out written into the itinerary. The annoying logistics — payments, train tickets, entrance tickets — handled before you land. And a group chat that's still going a year later.

What's different

When everyone gets the family stuff, nothing needs a footnote.

01

No explaining

Nobody asks why you're photographing the dumpling stall for your mom, or why the name on your passport doesn't match your Instagram. The context is shared by default.

02

The China the bus skipped

Night markets, high-speed rail, midnight hotpot and neon streets — plus the big sights early, before the crowds and the flag groups arrive.

03

Language: whatever you've got

English-speaking guides in all three cities and an English-first crew. Fluent, kitchen-level or nonexistent Mandarin all work here.

04

Friends-of-the-group welcome

Partners and best friends who don't get the family stuff but love hotpot are welcome. Designed for 22–35, open to all.

Who it's designed for

Diaspora kids from the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.

For the ones raised on stories of the motherland who never saw it their own way. For the ones whose closest friends are scattered across three time zones. For anyone who has ever been the only person at the table who knew what the dish was called — and for the partners and friends who just want the hotpot.

The route

10 days: Beijing · Xi'an · Shanghai

The Motherland Starter Pack — the classic first trip, done the way you'd do it with friends: the Wall at golden hour, the Terracotta Army, Mount Hua's ridgeline, the Bund after dark, a canal town, and the maglev out. 4★ hotels, high-speed rail, the Xi'an–Shanghai flight, entrance tickets and English-speaking guides are in the price; international flights aren't.

  1. Day 1Beijing — Landing day
  2. Day 2Beijing — The big ones
  3. Day 3Beijing — Wall day
  4. Day 4Beijing → Xi'an — Hutongs, then 300 km/h
  5. Day 5Xi'an — The Warriors + the Quarter
  6. Day 6Xi'an — Mount Hua
  7. Day 7Xi'an → Shanghai — Tang dynasty to Bund lights
  8. Day 8Shanghai — The classic loop
  9. Day 9Shanghai — Water town + shikumen lanes
  10. Day 10Shanghai — Maglev out
Full day-by-day itinerary

When it's happening

  • Nov 1 – 10, 2026

    Crew of 20 · hard cap

    US$300 deposit

    US$2,199 per person · double occupancy

  • Mar 15 – 24, 2027

    Crew of 20 · hard cap

    US$300 deposit

    US$2,199 per person · double occupancy

  • Deposit today, balance later — the total locks before any balance is due. Both are non-refundable unless the departure is cancelled.
  • Your seat is held for 30 minutes while you check out.
  • Hard cap of 20. When it's full, it's full.
  • Don't book flights yet — we confirm the departure in writing first, and every payment comes back in full if it doesn't run.

Planning reading

Thinking about a heritage trip?

A roots trip and a first trip aren't the same thing — but they can share a crew. These guides cover ancestral-village research, getting in without a visa, and the safety question your parents will ask.

Questions

The ones people actually ask

Yes — same seats, same terms, no questions asked. We design around the second-gen Asian diaspora experience because that's the trip we wished existed, and that's the crowd it tends to draw — but nobody's heritage gets checked at the door. If ten days of night markets, bullet trains and a very active group chat sounds like your trip, it's your trip.

Bring your person. Partners and friends of any background book on the same terms and land in the same group chat — most of the family stuff translates just fine over a boiling pot. One honest flag: this is a crew trip, so expect the two of you to get absorbed into the group, not left as a table for two.

Completely. Second-gen here is an experience, not a bloodline quiz — this trip is built for people who grew up between cultures, whether the other side of that hyphen is Seoul, Saigon, Manila or a second continent entirely. China is the venue; seeing it with people who don't need the backstory explained is the point.

You're the typical guest here, not the exception. Most of the crew grew up mostly in English, with a family dialect that stalls somewhere around food words. English-speaking guides cover every city, a travel eSIM keeps your translate app alive, and half the fun of a night market is ordering by pointing. If you do speak Mandarin or Cantonese, you'll simply become everyone's favorite person by day two.

No — designed for 22–35, open to all. The age range describes who the trip is built around, not who's allowed to book: anyone can reserve a seat on the same terms, no questions asked. It just means the itinerary, pace, and nights out are designed for that life stage, so that's who tends to show up — and day one feels like a reunion instead of a networking mixer.

Very unlikely — most people signing up are coming solo. Solo is the default here, not the exception. The group chat starts weeks before the flight, so nobody walks into a room of strangers.

Depends on the passport, and the news is mostly good. Canadian, British and Australian passports currently enter visa-free for up to 30 days (through Dec 31, 2026) — no application at all. US passports aren't on that list yet, but China's 240-hour (10-day) visa-free transit covers a full trip when you fly out to a third country or region — Hong Kong counts — and a standard tourist visa is the no-routing-games fallback. We walk every crew member through the route that fits their passport before anyone books flights. Policies change, so always verify current rules with the Chinese National Immigration Administration or your nearest consulate. Read the full 2026 entry-rules guide →

Street-level? Remarkably. Violent crime against travelers is rare, big cities are busy and well-lit late into the night, and losing your phone to a pickpocket is less likely there than in most of Europe. The realistic annoyances are crowds, queue chaos and the occasional tourist-price attempt at a market. Standard travel sense applies — but this is not the trip your parents' evening news prepared them for. One honest line, because it matters: travel carries risk nobody can remove, and you take part at your own risk — the booking terms spell out what that means, and it's why travel insurance is required. Read the full honest safety guide →

Every question, answered →

Same motherland. Different itinerary.

Booking a seat on departure #1 is what makes you founding crew — launch pricing locks in writing before any balance is due.

Book now — US$300 deposit

Looking for the age-band angle instead? See the page for young professionals.