About GoTravelChina

Meet the people behind GoTravelChina

A native cultural lead, a field researcher with 15+ in-country trips, and a historian from the University of Geneva. Three founders, one editorial standard, and a promise of honest, first-hand China travel advice.

15+

Chinese destinations visited

100%

Guides personally interviewed

0

Sponsored articles, ever

The founding team

Every city guide, every cultural note and every recommendation on this site is written or reviewed by one of these three people. No outsourced content farms. No AI-generated filler.

Portrait of Qianyi L., Co-founder & Cultural Lead

Qianyi L.

Co-founder & Cultural Lead

Nationality
Chinese
Languages
Mandarin (native), English (fluent), Wu (dialect)

Born and raised in Wuxi. A lifelong student of Chinese literature and history — and the reason this platform exists.

Qianyi grew up in Wuxi, Jiangsu, in a family that treated classical literature and Tang poetry as daily reading. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Nanjing before relocating to London, where she spent several years working in consulting and international hospitality.

Living abroad was the catalyst for GoTravelChina. She saw Western friends arrive in China with outdated guidebooks, landing in cities that had been reshaped three times over since those books went to print — missing the country she knew, and settling for tourist-trap itineraries that neither reflect modern China nor respect its history.

She founded GoTravelChina in 2024 with one goal: publish the China travel resource she wished existed when she was introducing friends to her country — honest, culturally literate, and deeply local.

“China is not a theme park. Quality, authenticity and honesty — that's the minimum we owe every traveller who trusts us with their trip.”
— Qianyi L.

Credentials

  • Bachelor of Science, Nanjing (China)
  • Native Mandarin speaker — Wuxi dialect
  • Over two decades of lived experience in Jiangsu and the Yangtze Delta
  • Regular contributor to editorial standards and city deep-dives

Responsible for

  • Editorial direction and cultural accuracy review
  • Final sign-off on every published city guide
  • Relationships with our Chinese guide network

Areas of expertise

Chinese classical literature & historyJiangsu, Zhejiang & Shanghai cultureTea ceremony, Jiangnan cuisine, Kunqu operaTier-1 & tier-2 city daily life
Portrait of Adrien R., Co-founder & Head of Guide Network

Adrien R.

Co-founder & Head of Guide Network

Nationality
Switzerland
Languages
English (native), French (native), Mandarin (working)

Has travelled to over 15 destinations across China in the last three years — and personally vetted every guide on this platform.

Adrien is the on-the-ground half of GoTravelChina. Over the last three years he has travelled to more than 15 destinations across mainland China — from well-trodden Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an to the mountain villages of Guizhou, the tea terraces of Fujian, the deserts of Gansu and the Tibetan grasslands of Sichuan.

He built and runs the guide network. Every Local Expert listed on GoTravelChina has been interviewed in depth — often over multiple sessions — to verify their Chinese National Tour Guide Licence, their knowledge of their region, and critically, the philosophy with which they guide. No anonymous sign-ups, no pay-to-list, no affiliate pipelines.

His background is in operations and product. He brings the same standards to our guide vetting that you would expect from a reputable hospitality brand: documented, auditable, and repeatable.

“I don't list a guide I haven't spoken to at length. If I wouldn't send my own family to travel with them, they don't make it onto the site.”
— Adrien R.

Credentials

  • 15+ Chinese destinations visited in 3 years
  • Personal interviews with every Local Expert before they are listed
  • Verifies National Tour Guide Licence for every guide
  • Operations background in hospitality and product

Responsible for

  • Recruiting, interviewing and vetting Local Experts
  • Quality-control site visits with new guide partners
  • Traveller enquiry triage and matching

Areas of expertise

Guide recruitment & vettingWestern Chinese regions (Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu)Long-route itineraries & logisticsCross-cultural communication
Portrait of Jeremy R., Chief Editor

Jeremy R.

Chief Editor

Nationality
Swiss
Languages
English (fluent), French (native), German (working)

Historian by training. Holds a Bachelor's and a Master's in History from the University of Geneva.

Jeremy sets the editorial bar. Trained as a historian at the University of Geneva — where he earned both his Bachelor's and Master's in History — he brings academic rigour to a field (travel content) that is rarely held to one.

His remit is fact-checking, source verification, and making sure the history we publish about dynasties, monuments and cultural practices is accurate enough to stand in front of a specialist. Every city deep-dive and every cultural article on GoTravelChina passes across his desk before it goes live.

He is also responsible for our anti-AI-slop editorial policy: no machine-generated articles, no recycled Wikipedia paragraphs, and no claim published without a verifiable source.

“A travel guide that gets the history wrong isn't a travel guide — it's a postcard. Our readers deserve better.”
— Jeremy R.

Credentials

  • MA in History, University of Geneva (Switzerland)
  • BA in History, University of Geneva (Switzerland)
  • Trained in primary-source research and historiography
  • Leads editorial review on every published article

Responsible for

  • Final editorial sign-off on all published content
  • Source-verification protocol and style guide
  • Historical accuracy on destination pages

Areas of expertise

Chinese dynastic historySource verification & fact-checkingHistorical site context & interpretationEditorial standards

What we stand for

Our editorial principles

We treat travel advice the way a good newsroom treats reporting: every claim has a source, every recommendation has a reason, and every article is reviewed by a human who knows the subject.

Authenticity

We publish the China our team actually lives in and travels through — not a sanitised, postcard version.

Expertise

A native cultural lead, a historian-editor and a field researcher with 15+ in-country trips under his belt. Every article is written or reviewed by one of them.

Verified guides

Every Local Expert is personally interviewed by Adrien. We check their National Tour Guide Licence before they appear on the site.

No sponsored content

We do not accept paid reviews, affiliate pipelines or pay-to-list arrangements with hotels, guides or tour operators. If we recommend it, we recommend it on merit.

How we work

Every article, every time

A four-stage process that every piece of content on GoTravelChina goes through before it's published.

1

Research

Every article starts with on-the-ground reporting (Adrien), native cultural context (Qianyi) or primary-source research (Jeremy). No AI-generated first drafts.

2

Cultural review

Qianyi reviews every piece for cultural accuracy — names, etiquette, regional nuance — before it reaches the copy stage.

3

Historical fact-check

Jeremy cross-references historical claims against academic sources. Dates, dynasties and attributions are verified, not paraphrased.

4

Publish & update

Every article carries a last-updated date. When a visa policy, app or price changes, we revise the page — we don't leave stale advice online.

Questions about our team or our methodology?

We're happy to talk sources, review processes, or anything else. Transparency is part of the job.

Get in touchMeet our Local Experts