ABOUT JADEDAYS

A child of both worlds

I was born in China and came of age in Australia. I've spent my adult life between the two — fluent in both, at home in both, and never quite able to stop noticing the gap between them.

Because here is what I kept seeing: China is one of the most extraordinary places on earth to travel — layered, vast, endlessly surprising — and most of the world barely knows it. I've travelled all my life, across dozens of countries, and I still spend part of every year exploring three or four Chinese cities I haven't seen properly yet. The mine never runs out. Yet the China most travellers are shown is a thin slice of it.

JadeDays exists to close that gap.

Being of both worlds is not a slogan; it's the entire method. I know China the way you can only know a place you're from — which tea hills matter in which week of spring, which lane to eat in, which "famous" stop is worth skipping. And I know Australia the way you can only know a place you grew into — what Aussie travellers actually expect from comfort, honesty, pacing and a fair deal.

Most China travel is run by one side or the other: local operators who know the ground but not the guest, or Western agencies who know the guest but not the ground. JadeDays is built, deliberately, in the middle.

Why we built it this way

Both sides of the bridge
Chinese enough to know the real thing; Australian enough to know what you're hoping for. Every journey is designed by someone who has stood on both sides.
A network built in person
Our guides, drivers and partners across China weren't found in a directory. They're a network we built and tested ourselves — region by region — so each journey is matched to people we trust.
Honesty as policy
We'd rather tell you a season is rainy, a site is crowded, or a route isn't right for you than sell you a postcard. You'll see that honesty across our guides and FAQs — it's the standard we hold ourselves to.
Private means private
Your own guide, your own vehicle, your own pace — never a coach, never strangers. It's the only format that lets a journey bend around the people actually on it.

Jade Days China support team assisting travellers on arrival

The China gap

China may be the most under-travelled great destination on earth. Australians cross the world for history, food and landscape — and yet the country with three thousand years of all three is often left off the list, half from unfamiliarity, half from outdated assumptions.

The irony is that there has rarely been an easier moment to go. Australians currently enter visa-free for stays of up to 30 days, the high-speed rail network makes distances feel small, and the practical frictions travellers worry about — payments, apps, language — are exactly the things a well-built private journey quietly removes.

That's the gap JadeDays was founded to close: between how extraordinary China is, and how little of it the world gets to see.

How we run a journey

Every JadeDays journey is shaped twice: once in Australia, where we plan with you in your language, your time zone and your consumer-law protections — and once in China, where our own network on the ground carries it out. Before you fly, the practical side is already handled: entry paperwork, payments, connectivity, packing for the season. From the moment you land, your guide and our team stay reachable throughout.

The details of how all this works — visas, money, food, fitness, what happens after you book — live in our FAQ and our China travel essentials guide, kept honest and up to date. If your question isn't there, ask us directly; a founder reads every message.