Tour Style
Our two tour styles, Ultimate China and China Escapades create different kinds of travel experiences. This page outlines the two different kinds of customer to which they are relevant, their key difference and then describes some of their common effects.
Two Distinct Ways to Experience
China, Both Exceptional
On our Ultimate China tour, as well as a Chinese guide and driver, you are accompanied by a China Host, a western, Chinese-speaking traveling concierge. He or she will provide continuous service and customization throughout your journey. This is for those who appreciate immediate reassurance and pre-emptive service.
Our China Escapades service offers the same high-quality hotels, restaurants and experiences within the conventional structure of a 9am – 5pm guide & driver as well as a “virtual concierge”, a phone call away. This suits clients who wish to interact more directly with China. For such people, connecting the dots in a foreign environment is an enjoyable aspect of travel.
The Ultimate china customer
You have worked hard and successfully. Now you want to enjoy the best of the best. When you travel, you want to unwind and let everything unfold effortlessly and flawlessly. Your focus is on savoring the experience, on learning and discovering what matters to you. And because travel can sometimes bring delays or unexpected issues, you don’t want to be the one dealing with them. You want to have someone you trust handle it all. You want a journey with absolutely no hassle, and to return home completely rested.
The china escapades customer
The joy of travel comes from immersing yourself fully in a foreign culture. You want to experience it completely—whether navigating a train station, dealing with a foreign language menu in a local restaurant, or learning directly from a knowledgeable guide. You willingly step into unfamiliar situations because that’s where real understanding begins. Those moments of unpredictability hold the greatest potential for discovery, offering new insights into a culture and its people.
Itinerary adjustments
As the China Host travels with guests and learns of their interest, trust develops. As a result, the China Host may suggest and include additional sites & activities to deepen guests’ experience. Alternatively, guests might wish to emphasize one aspect of an itinerary over another and the China Host can immediately adjust the itinerary to accommodate this.
Guides, who change at every destination on a route, are tasked with taking guests to sites on pre-designed itineraries developed with clients and their agents through the sales process. These are typically executed as contractually planned.
traveling through airports
The China Host accompanies guests from check-in through an identity check and security into the waiting hall and to the gate, taking care to check that there have been no last-minute gate changes. If a plane has been delayed, the China Host will immediately be working out how long the delay is likely to be and whether switching to alternative flights make more sense.
Guides will help guests check in, after which as at any airport, guests advance on their own through security and identity check to the correct gate. Public airport announcements are commonly made in a number of languages. Gate changes are often announced and updated on information screens. If a plane is delayed at the last minute, the guide will inform our office and plans and communications will be coordinated further.
Ordering food at restaurants
The China Host eats with guests ensuring optimal seating, service and comfort. Although all meals have been pre-designed, the China Host will take care of ordering and further customize this according to guest enjoyment of previous meals.
Clients are provided with menus in Chinese and English. Over the course of a trip, these are designed to expose visitors to a full range of appropriate local and regional dishes (in line with dietary preferences).
traveling through train stations
The China Host accompanies the guests through the train station, ensuring guests are at the right place at the right time. Also, the China Host can help with last minute food purchases and rest room visits.
At train stations private porters will be engaged to transport guests’ bags to and from their carriages. Guides will drop guests off at the ticket inspection, and from there guests will navigate to the correct waiting hall and from there they will board the train.
shopping
As the China Host becomes familiar with guest interests during the trip he or she is better informed to suggest good shopping venues, particularly in Beijing and Shanghai.
Guests can discuss their shopping requirements with their virtual concierge and guide, who can provide potential shopping venues.
Understanding china
The China Host is as familiar with guests’ culture as with China’s and is thereby able to act as a cultural bridge, helping guests interpret events and statements that only make sense with a deeper awareness of how China works.
Imperial Tours aims to provide a cross-section of knowledgeable guides from different regions and generations. It is hoped that this will provide a wide range of views with internal contradictions that will develop travelers’ nuanced understanding of this fascinatingly complex country and culture.
Safety and reassurance
The traveler benefits from the reassurance of a friendly face, as intimately familiar with China as their cultural background, to provide reassurance and security, and help reconcile the apparent contradiction of so many citizens living contentedly in a country that is often dismissed as a dictatorship in Western media.
A sense of adventure characterized by the excitement to engage with the unknown drives this client to jump headfirst into the foreign locale, fully aware that though China may be exotic it is also highly cosmopolitan and sophisticated with a history of friendlily welcoming overseas visitors since the time of Marco Polo.
China Inquiry
Complete our inquiry form and someone will get back to you shortly. We make every effort to tailor your China holiday to your unique travel style, needs, interests and preferences. The more detailed information you can give us now, the better we can help design the perfect bespoke itinerary for your China holiday.
General Inquiries
china@imperialtours.net