Hello everyone, I’m Edward, the founder of ChinaRoadtrips. I’ve been in the inbound tourism industry for 13 years, working as a department manager and partner in some well-established Overland tour companies.

Before getting to know us better, I would like to share, based on my years of experience in the industry, the current situation of China Overland Tours and the pain points for guests who come to China for an Overland tour.

The Chinese government has relaxed visa restrictions and limitations on foreign-related hotels in the past one or two years, hoping to welcome more foreigners to travel and understand the diverse aspects of China. This is beneficial for many independent travelers, such as backpackers and cyclists.

However, China’s overland tours still face some challenges that hinder the pace of many overlanders exploring China. Based on my years of experience operating China overland tours and feedback from guests, I have summarized the following current situation and consumer pain points.

Firstly, about the high costs

The need for a travel agency’s help for a China Overland Tour makes the expense quite high, which deters many overlanders and even leads some to give up on China. I find this regrettable because China’s diverse landscapes and cultures from north to south and west to east make it a paradise for overlanders.

Now, overlanders coming to China are not just retired or well-off middle-aged and elderly people as they were 5-15 years ago. A clear change is that more young people are hitting the road in old cars or RVs to live life and experience the world. They don’t care about the age of their vehicles or the amount of savings they have. I admire this group of travelers who love freedom, are brave to explore and experience, and have limited budgets.

Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, some give up on China altogether, while others have to wait for a large group to form to reduce costs. The larger the group, the higher the profit for the travel agency, but the overlanding experience suffers. To wait for a convoy of more than 5 or even 10 vehicles means spending more time helping the agency promote and attract more overlanders to share the costs. If there aren’t enough vehicles, the wait is longer, and if the number falls short, the costs are higher. Even if the expected number of vehicles is met, more vehicles mean less flexibility. Due to differences in vehicles and the varying habits and interests of the members, your overland travel experience may not be great. The more vehicles in a group, the more compromises each member has to make, which I believe our previous guests have experienced.

Additionally, for tour groups that do not provide a passenger seat for the guide, the travel agency will also dispatch a separate vehicle to carry the guide, and this significant cost will be apportioned among every member. Even if there is a seat provided for the guide within the group, the overlander offering the seat will undoubtedly sacrifice their own freedom and comfort.

Secondly, regarding the homogenization of services

The homogenized, procedural, and oversimplified services of many travel agencies fail to provide tourists with a deeper experience of China. Due to Chinese policy restrictions, overlanders entering China by land must seek assistance from travel agencies for vehicle customs clearance, obtaining driver’s licenses, submitting documents for departmental permits, and so on. Additionally, there are not many Chinese travel agencies capable of handling inbound overland tours. Early entrants in this industry have been making easy money, largely due to the spread of overlanders on social media, and of course, they prefer to do as little as possible, not going out of their way to provide extra services.

For example, to reduce costs, itineraries are quite tight, mostly focused on traveling, with only 1-3 days reserved for non-driving activities throughout the entire trip.

The travel agency’s services typically end with helping guests enter and exit China smoothly, and the guide’s role is to assist with navigation, ticket purchases, hotel bookings, and finding restaurants. However, such monotonous and dull service content doesn’t differ much from a bus tour, aside from the fact that the guests are driving themselves. I believe that since travel agencies charge high fees, they should offer a richer range of services, making guests feel that their money is well spent, rather than it being a reluctant choice.

Lastly, on the topic of monopoly

The first few Chinese travel agencies to offer overland tours have gained wider dissemination and have formed a de facto monopoly. Travel agencies that do not have sufficient competition and hold a dominant market position have no incentive or desire to offer price reductions or improve services. The most evident manifestation is that all travel agencies require full payment before guests enter China, and there are no clauses for compensating consumers for substandard services. These are all coercive terms due to a lack of competition. This also leads to many tourists choosing only one or two travel agencies with a reputation on social media to ensure the safety of their funds. Due to the information gap, there are very few travel agencies in this business to begin with, and as a result, overlanders coming to China, driven by a herd and cautionary mentality, will almost exclusively choose the one or two most well-known agencies. This makes it difficult for new travel agency brands to survive. Therefore, this leads to the two current situations I mentioned being hard to change, and for overlanders, it enters a vicious cycle where you hardly have any “bargaining power.”

However, in the face of these unavoidable realities, ChinaRoadtrips is born to be a “disruptor.”

I have been dedicated to route design and team operations, focusing more on customers’ travel experiences in China. I have led foreign student teams on numerous volunteer activities in remote Chinese schools, taken foreign tourists on hikes through China’s snow-capped mountains and grasslands, and guided overlanders from many countries on driving tours across China. With years of experience, I have traveled through various parts of China, understanding the landscapes and cultures, as well as the needs of our guests. I am passionate about my industry and wish for more foreign visitors to experience the real, hidden China. To this end, I have often waived visa application assistance fees and consultation fees for budget-conscious backpackers and cyclists.

I know the current market situation is not friendly to consumers or new travel brands. I am willing to do my part to change the status quo, allowing more overlanders to drive their own vehicles and appreciate China’s beautiful landscapes and local customs. Therefore, I established ChinaRoadtrips last year, giving me the autonomy and ability to be a disruptor for the benefit of consumers and to ensure ChinaRoadtrips’ survival in this unequal market.

ChinaRoadtrips promises to provide the following service terms. All service terms are based on ChinaRoadtrips’ slogan: Easy, Affordable, and Extra Fun!

1. Our prices are 10%-40% lower than all other travel agencies for the same routes and equal vehicle numbers (group sizes), with a higher level of service. (Routes passing through Tibet are 10% lower). Feel free to compare prices with other agencies.
2. The maximum number of vehicles in our overland group is 5, balancing guest comfort, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. (For most routes, the unit price for our 5-vehicle group is roughly equivalent to the unit price for other agencies’ 8-10 vehicle groups)
3. For passengers entering with the vehicle (quotes include driver costs), we only charge a minimal cost fee, without any profit, except for routes passing through Tibet. (For family travel, we waive all costs for minors under 18 years old)
4. Except for routes passing through Tibet, the company will provide a free vehicle with a guide for all teams. Of course, if guests prefer to communicate more with the guide and are willing to share a seat, the company offers a $300 discount.
5. Before guests enter, we only charge a symbolic deposit of $100, with the full payment due after entry (as long as the vehicle can enter, it means the travel agency has legal procedures and operational capabilities). If our service is unsatisfactory during the trip, we will refund 10% to 30% of the full payment based on the degree of dissatisfaction.
6. Most of our itineraries are 2-3 days longer than similar itineraries in the industry, allowing customers to stay and explore interesting places rather than just rushing. It also gives some guests enough time to service and maintain their vehicles.
7. Under the terms of not including meals in the quote, to better let guests experience the local specialties of China, we will treat all guests to local specialty meals in three different places. (Some guests may have limited budgets and hesitate to spend much on food every day, thus missing out on some culinary experiences. Therefore, we decided to use this method to give everyone a basic experience of Chinese cuisine)
8. We will also provide all members (including passengers) with Chinese SIM cards and sufficient data, as well as VPN services. Some guests may have international roaming cards and are reluctant to spend extra money on a Chinese phone card, or two people may share one Chinese phone card. What I want to say is that roaming cards do not have stable signals in China. Moreover, scanning codes for payments, shared bikes/motorcycles, online car-hailing, and food delivery all require verification with a Chinese phone number. Therefore, to enhance the guest experience, we will uniformly provide phone cards for everyone for free.
9. Our staff will guide and assist guests in traveling and living like the Chinese. This includes how to register and use scanning codes for payments (restaurants, small shops, toll stations, gas stations), scanning codes for online car-hailing, scanning codes to buy subway tickets (in big cities, we recommend taking a taxi or the subway), and even scanning codes to ride shared bikes, to fully experience the Chinese way of life. The key is convenience, no cash is needed throughout the journey, no need to look for ATMs that can withdraw money.
10. To make the entire journey more interesting, we will also set up some challenging tasks during the trip. If all challenge tasks are completed, we will prepare a surprise for those who complete the tasks.

There are many other service details that other travel agencies do not have. Due to space limitations, I will not elaborate. In short, for the industry, ChinaRoadtrips may be a catfish, a “disruptor,” which may attract resentment from peers. However, ChinaRoadtrips will firmly move forward and ask for your support to provide you with better quality services, making your overland tour in China: Easy, Affordable, and Extra Fun!

From now on, ChinaRoadtrips is open for reservations for the 2025 China Overland Tour. As long as you submit the reservation information, you will enjoy an additional 5% discount on the total price.