For Western travelers meeting China for the first time, and for those ready to look beyond Beijing and Shanghai. Small-group journeys through craft, industry, food, learning, and thoughtful exchange.
Fujian is the starting point for a more textured encounter with China: tea landscapes and port cities, family workshops and advanced manufacturing, living traditions and contemporary questions.
Guests know why a person, place, or process matters before they enter the room. New to China? The route lowers the temperature with clear context. Know Beijing or Shanghai? Fujian rewards the second look.
Workshops are designed for learning and exchange — not costume, spectacle, or a rushed photo stop. Meet makers, try the process, learn what changes when a tradition becomes contemporary.
Daily pacing leaves room for questions, informal conversation, and reflection. No forced shopping and no routine 6 a.m. bus calls. Ever.
Fujian changes as you move. The route should let you feel the difference — so every full journey begins in Fuzhou, the provincial capital, then crosses at least one regional line.
Walk Three Lanes and Seven Alleys, scent jasmine tea, and get your bearings in the city where every journey starts.
Pick tea at dawn with farming families, visit the Da Hong Pao mother trees, roast a small batch to take home.
Gulangyu's former international settlement, Quanzhou's Maritime Silk Road layer, tulou country inland — each a different language of food, architecture, and memory.
For a limited set of eligible founding cohorts, official programs, community partners, and other local incentives may reduce most specified group-program costs inside Fujian. Coverage is never assumed: every supported itinerary is confirmed in writing before any flights are booked.
Coverage is not guaranteed. We expect many well-matched applications to have a strong likelihood of approval, but the final decision and amount rest with each participating institution.
Students with limited means are warmly encouraged to apply. For other guests, this is not a zero-spend giveaway — we look for travelers who support local makers, bring Fujian goods home, and tell the story afterward.
Multi-city by design. Each begins in Fuzhou and continues to at least one other part of Fujian. Every route is a starting point — we build around you.
Fuzhou craft → Wuyi tea mountains → Xiamen studios. Jasmine scenting, lacquer fans, rock-tea roasting, cork painting.
Fuzhou → Gulangyu → tulou country → Quanzhou. Clan architecture, Piano Island, the Zayton port story.
A food-first route: Fuzhou night markets, Shaxian snack craft, Xiamen cooking class and noodle crawls.
The province is not a detour from Western history. Its tea, architecture, industry, and wartime bonds already sit inside stories many visitors know.
More than 240 of the 342 chests destroyed at the Boston Tea Party were Bohea — tea from Fujian's Wuyi Mountains.
Dehua's blanc de Chine reached European courts in quantity from the 1600s. Augustus II amassed over a thousand pieces; Meissen learned by imitating it.
Twenty household names — CEOs, champions, actors, creators — who keep coming back to China, in their own words. Start with the two who have already been to Fujian.
Author & model
Visited Xiamen's Nanputuo Temple on her 2023 China book tour; 600K+ Xiaohongshu followers. "China is so advanced in infrastructure. Always impressed when I visit."
Basketball legend
Opened a youth basketball training base in Xiamen in 2019 and coaches kids there himself. Three-time CBA champion. "China is my second home."
CEO, Tesla & SpaceX
"China is awesome. I strongly encourage people to visit." Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory is the company's biggest; he has visited Beijing and Shanghai repeatedly.
CEO, Apple
Three China trips in 2026 alone, opening Apple's largest China store in Shanghai. "Innovation is developing rapidly in China and I believe it will further accelerate."
Streamer
Livestreamed an 8-city China tour to 35M+ viewers in spring 2025 — praised by the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. for bridging cultures.
Philanthropist, Microsoft co-founder
Called an "old friend" by China's president in 2023; his foundation co-funds a Beijing research institute. Planning another visit, per Reuters.
Basketball legend
Visited China 16 straight years for Nike tours — his "home away from home" — and won Olympic gold in Beijing 2008. Said "I love China" in Mandarin.
Basketball star
Fifteen China visits since 2005; wrote a 2025 op-ed calling basketball "a bridge that connects us all," praising Chinese fans' kindness.
Football star
"I love this country… it's my second home," he said in Shenzhen in 2024. Touring China since 2003.
Actor
"I've been to China multiple times… I love ya back" — on his "extraordinary bond with the Chinese people." Record crowds in Beijing and Shanghai.
Actor & WWE star
Speaks Mandarin; lived five months in China filming with Jackie Chan. "I love and respect China and Chinese people."
Actor
His 2015 promo tour hit Beijing, Chengdu, and Shanghai — meeting Jack Ma at the premiere. A China opening-day box-office record.
Actor & former governor
Led a California trade mission to China in 2010, praising leaders' "extraordinary vision." Signed the Terracotta Army guestbook: "I'll be back."
Football icon
Global ambassador for Chinese football since 2013, touring Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing for the sport.
CEO, NVIDIA
Three China trips in 2025; on camera in Beijing: "I love China." Calls Chinese AI labs "world class" — and speaks Minnan, the language of Fujian.
Tennis legend
Two-time Shanghai Masters champion: "I got the most incredible support here in Shanghai and in China."
Basketball star
"My fan base in China is like no other." Annual tours since 2014; his 2025 Chongqing fan festival opened with a drone show in his honor.
Basketball star
Annual China tours since 2019; Guangzhou unveiled a 4,700-sq-ft court with his mural. "Every time I come here, the love is… crazy."
Food vlogger, "The Food Ranger"
Canadian vlogger living in Chengdu since 2014, filming hundreds of street-food tours across China.
Food documentarian
His China food documentaries — Xi'an, Shaanxi, Shanghai, Chengdu, Yunnan — draw tens of millions of views praising local cooks.
Start with the subject your group cares about most. The destination becomes more than scenery — it becomes part of the conversation.
Start your application