Sources over vibes.

What this is

China Tailor Made is an independent travel desk for people visiting mainland China. It is not a tour operator, a visa agency or a booking site. The free guides and city files are the core; the paid desk is for the decisions that are too specific for a guide.

The site is written and maintained by an independent editor. It is not sponsored by a tourism board, a hotel group or a tour company. If that changes, it will be disclosed on the page where it applies.

How we check rules

Entry, payment and transport advice is checked against primary sources first: the National Immigration Administration for visas, China Railway for trains, and the payment providers for wallet rules. When a primary source is unclear or silent, we use established guides and label them as secondary.

Every practical guide carries a “last checked” date and a source list. A date is not a guarantee. Policies change, ports are added, fees move. If your trip depends on a rule, confirm it with the official source before you pay for anything non-refundable.

What the city score means

The Trip Desk index is an editorial assessment, not a survey. Each city is scored from 1 to 5 on four dimensions:

• English: how far you can get with English signage, menus and hotel staff.
• Payments: how reliably foreign-card-linked Alipay and WeChat Pay work, and how much cash you still need.
• Transit: airport and station connections, metro signage, and how painful the first arrival is.
• First-timer ease: the overall friction of doing the obvious things without a guide.

Scores are relative to a first-time visitor, not a resident. They are updated when we revisit a city, and they are never sold.

How we make money

The desk charges flat fees for route reviews and itinerary planning. There are no booking markups, no pay-for-placement in city guides, and no fake reviews. If we add affiliate links for trains, eSIMs or insurance later, they will be labelled and will not change the editorial ranking.

Corrections

If something is wrong, tell us. Send the page and the source. We will fix factual errors and update the checked date. Email hello@chinatailormade.com.

What we do not do

• We do not sell tours or pretend to operate them.
• We do not guarantee visas, entry, weather, train seats or opening hours.
• We do not publish invented reviews, ratings or “as seen in” logos.
• We do not sell reader data or leads.