East China & Taiwan: Shared Traditions, Distinct Cultures

With local people, culture and eco-systems in mind, responsible travel and sustainable tourism are at the core of Wild Frontiers. We believe that a successful trip not only delivers a unique and unsurpassable journey for our travellers but also benefits the people and places we visit.

When designing our tours, we actively seek out experiences that have a positive impact on the communities and precious environments we visit - from supporting social enterprises; resting our heads in rural homestays; and eating at locally owned restaurants; to helping fund conservation projects that protect wildlife and their habitats. 

Visit the Responsible Travel area of our website to read more, including the work of the Wild Frontiers Foundation through which we fundraise to aid community empowerment and education projects.

Reducing Single Use Plastic

We recognise the environmental issues and challenges around single-use plastic in many countries we visit and are actively working with our partners on the ground to reduce plastic waste on our tours and within the hotels and restaurants we visit. You can help to reduce your personal plastic waste by taking a refillable, filtered water bottle with you on your trip. Filtered water bottles can be refilled from water sources including your hotel room and restaurant taps, drinking fountains and refill stations. Every time you refill your bottle without the use of single-use plastic, you will be helping to reduce waste and protect the environment. Filtered Water Bottles | Wild Frontiers (wildfrontierstravel.com)

Bulau Bulau Village Visit

The Atayal people are one of Taiwan’s largest Indigenous groups, known for their deep connection to the mountains, ancestral weaving traditions, storytelling, and sustainable way of life. For generations, Atayal communities have lived in harmony with the surrounding forests and rivers, preserving cultural knowledge through music, food, craftsmanship, and oral history. Our visit to Bulau Bulau offers a rare opportunity to experience this living culture firsthand in an authentic community setting. The cost of the ticket for our visit to Bulau Bulau is re-invested back in to the village to sustain organic farming, provide Atayal cultural education and fund the tribe. The visit to Bulau Bulau is a public experience. The village only receives 30 guests max each day and we will visit in a group of no more than 15 guests.   

If you would like us to send you a quote for the suggested tour flights or on any alternative flight that may suit you better, please let us know, noting that for our US clients, we will most likely refer you to one of our preferred partners. For this trip our suggested flights from the UK (subject to change) are shown below.

If you wish to arrange your own flights you are completely free to do so and in this case we can arrange any transfers or supplementary accommodation that you may require. However please note that if you are planning on making your own flight arrangements, we recommend that you first check with us to see if the trip is guaranteed. We then suggest that you purchase flights that are flexible and ideally refundable as due to the nature of adventure travel, itineraries and destination accessibility can change at any time. For more information, please refer to our booking conditions.

For flights operated by Air China, the name on your booking must match your passport exactly, including any middle names. Missing middle names may result in check-in complications and/or delays. If you are booking flights through us, please provide your full name exactly as it appears on your passport.

Please also note that the Air China website does not currently support online booking management if flights have not been booked directly by the passenger. If you book, or have booked, flights through Wild Frontiers, you will be able to check in to your flight at the airport desk on arrival.

VISAS

Visas are necessary for many of the destinations we travel to and while we aim to provide you with the most up-to-date information, requirements frequently change and as such for the latest advice we advise that you check with the relevant embassies or contact a reputable visa agency. More details can be found here - https://www.wildfrontierstravel.com/visa

For this tour UK passport holders currently do not require a visa for Mainland China for up to 30 days. This visa-free policy is currently in place until 31st December 2026 and there are hopes that it will be continued beyond that date. However if it isn’t, then UK passport holders will require a visa. 

After finishing this tour in Taiwan if you wish to re-enter China you may require a double entry visa for China.  

UK passport holders currently do not require a visa for Taiwan up to 90 day. You must complete a Taiwan Arrival Card (TWAC) within three days before your arrival in Taiwan.

Passports should ideally be valid for a minimum period of 6 months from the end of your tour and have two blank pages for visas and stamping.

Non-UK passport holders or non-UK residents should contact the relevant embassies for individual requirements.

VACCINATIONS & ADDITIONAL TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS

There are no mandatory vaccination requirements for travellers to Mainland China and Taiwan.

A Yellow Fever vaccination certificate is a mandatory requirement for all travellers to China arriving/transiting from countries with a risk of yellow fever transmission.

For all destinations, please make sure you are up-to-date with any standard vaccinations (e.g. MMR, Hepatitis A, Tetanus) as recommended by your local health care provider. 

For the most up-to-date information on all vaccination requirements and the most suitable anti-malarial tablets, we strongly suggest that you seek advice from your local travel centre or consult an official travel health website such as www.travelhealthpro.org.uk

Covid Testing: No mandatory testing is currently required for vaccinated or unvaccinated travellers.

If necessary further details will be sent out to you upon booking, however ensuring that correct and valid visas & vaccinations are obtained remains the sole responsibility of the client.

If you have more time available, why not arrive early to adjust to a new time zone or just to get a feel for the country before your tour starts? Alternatively, you might choose to allow a few extra days after the tour to relax or to undertake some further exploration.

The choice is completely yours and we can usually arrange anything from simply additional accommodation and transfers to full tailor-made itineraries*. Please contact the office for more details and to discuss your requirements.

*Please note bespoke, tailor-made itineraries need to be a minimum of 7 days and we can only offer them in countries where we have a tailor-made expert

Many governments issue advice which highlights potential hazards their citizens might experience when travelling abroad. We strongly suggest you refer to your country’s particular advisory site before booking and contact us if you have any queries or concerns. Click to follow links to the advice of the British Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) or the US State Department.

Non-UK citizens should consult the travel advice of their respective governments.

CLIMATE

The weather in East Mainland China has four distinct seasons. Summers are often hot, humid and showery whereas winters are relatively dry and cold. Spring and autumn are often mild and comfortable and the best time to visit. Taiwan has a more year-round warmth. Summers are hot, humid and wet and winters are often chilly in the south with more overcast weather in the north. Spring and autumn again are generally warm, comfortable and the best time to visit.

IS THIS TRIP FOR ME?

It may sound obvious, but not all Wild Frontiers tours are the same, and it is important that you choose a tour which is suitable for you. To help you decide and ensure you choose a suitable tour, please refer to our helpful guide here. As a minimum, you should make sure that you read the day-by-day itinerary and the Key Aspects to Consider sections carefully. Should you still have any concerns about your ability to partake in any aspect of the tour, then please contact us.

KEY ASPECTS TO CONSIDER

Anyone in a reasonable state of health, with an open mind and a sense of adventure should be perfectly able to cope with this tour.

Please note when visiting Huangshan, we will take a cable car up part of the mountain from where we will walk approx. 50 minutes to our hotel. On this day, we recommend taking an overnight bag so that your main luggage can be transferred to your hotel in Hongcun for your arrival the next day. The walk from the cable car to the hotel is scenic however if you do not wish to take part in the walk, there are sedan chairs available for a small fee. We will also do this walk the next day to return to the cable car for our onward journey.

We have included some moderate hiking in Huangshan in Mainland China and light walking in Yangmingshan and Alishan in Taiwan. Please ensure you wear appropriate walking shoes for these activities. At Sun Moon Lake, if you do not wish to take part in the cycling experience, there is an alternative option to enjoy a walk along the lake with our local guide.

The exhibits at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall are highly somber and include graphic historical depictions of wartime atrocities. It can be an upsetting experience.

We have created this itinerary to really showcase these two destinations and as such, some of the touring days are quite full with activity and travel.

RECCE TOURS

As we all know, the world is a constantly changing place - destinations & routes that were once cutting-edge now regularly find themselves appearing in mainstream brochures. Coming up with truly original tour ideas is a constant challenge but at Wild Frontiers we are committed to offering you a real alternative to the mainstream and each year we run a handful of new and original adventures. These are our so-called Recce Tours and since the very beginning have proven incredibly popular with those of you who like to act as our “guinea pigs” and join us on these tours. Fantastic fun and highly rewarding, Recce Tours will assuredly not go 100% to plan and it is not uncommon for clients to take an active role in tweaking the itineraries along the way. More challenging than our normal tours, these will often require a greater degree of flexibility...they will not be for everyone.

THE NATURE OF ADVENTURE TRAVEL

We feel that it’s worth pointing out that while we will always strive to stick as close to the stated itinerary as possible, it may be necessary from time to time to make changes to our itineraries or services (due to weather, political and religious influences etc.) and this can happen with little or no notice. This unpredictability can be one of the most exciting aspects of adventure travel and for many of our clients often leads to unexpected highlights as the tour-leader necessarily adapts the tour to the changing conditions. However we are aware that this lack of assuredness may not suit everyone. As such, with the greatest respect, if you are someone who needs to know that everything will happen exactly as planned, we would kindly suggest that perhaps our tours are not for you. Adventure travel can be infectious and once you’ve caught the bug, it is likely to never leave you, but especially if this is your first such tour we would strongly urge you to give us a call if you have any concerns whatsoever about your suitability for this trip.

TRAVELLING SOLO AND SINGLE SUPPLEMENTS

As a company approximately 70% of our clients are solo travellers, so it’s very unlikely you’ll be alone!

Our prices are typically based on twin-share accommodation but single supplements are not compulsory for any Wild Frontiers tour. If you prefer not to pay a single supplement we’ll pair you with someone else of the same sex for you to share with throughout the trip. On this trip, if you do opt to pay for a single supplement then please note that it will cover you for all nights of the tour.

Please note that paying a single supplement entitles you to lone occupancy of a single room. In many cases these rooms will be of the same size as a double/twin room, but in some cases they may be smaller.

INSURANCE

Insurance that provides cover for emergency repatriation in case of a medical emergency is compulsory for all tours. You should be aware that due to some of the geographical areas visited and some of the activities included on certain of our trips some standard insurance policies may not always provide adequate cover. As such we strongly recommend that you purchase a policy that adequately covers your trip. Please see the Insurance section for more details.

TOUR PRICE

All our tours are priced on a land-only basis, giving you maximum flexibility when deciding how to get to and from your tour.

DEPOSIT

A 10% deposit is required to confirm your booking.

PROTECTION FOR YOUR MONEY

For further details please see our travelling with peace of mind page

WILD MILES

This tour will earn you 11254 Wild Miles

WHAT'S NOT INCLUDED

We believe in a completely transparent approach to pricing with no hidden extras. As such, please note that the following are not included in the cost of the tour.

Visas & Travel Insurance: Visas will always be tour/nationality dependent but travel insurance is mandatory
Tips: Always optional but some guidance will be given in the pre-departure information documents
International Flights: Please ask us for an obligation-free quote for flights which originate in the UK
Airport Transfers: We include complimentary transfers if arriving/departing on the suggested group flights
Beverages & any costs of a personal nature: This will include items such as laundry and souvenirs

WILD FRONTIERS COMMUNITY

If you’re still not sure if this trip is right or just want to see get some different perspectives, then why not have a look at the wide variety of resources we have on our website? Browse our community section to read our blogs, watch videos and find out about our events. 

WHY WILD FRONTIERS?

We are frequently asked what makes Wild Frontiers different from other tour operators. Visit our Why Wild Frontiers page to find out.