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How we check
Where every figure on this site comes from, how often it is re-checked, and what we refuse to write.
We have not travelled these routes ourselves
That sentence is on the home page, on every guide, and here. It is the reason the rest of the method exists.
A great deal of travel writing rests on the author having been there. Ours does not, so it has to rest on something a reader can check independently. Every opening time, ticket price and journey length on this site is taken from the organisation that sells it, and carries the date we last read it.
Where each kind of figure comes from
- Opening hours and ticket prices
- The attraction’s own ticketing page or official reservation channel
- Train times and fares
- The operator’s booking system
- Visa and entry rules
- Chinese government and embassy publications only
- Queues, crowding, closures
- Public traveller reports, summarised and attributed
Where a figure is disputed between sources — and Chinese park tickets often are, because prices change between seasons and platforms — we say so and give the range rather than picking the number that reads best.
The date next to every figure
Each guide carries a check date. A green badge means the figures were confirmed on that date. The badge turns amber automatically once the guide passes its re-check interval, which is 180 days by default.
The badge changes on its own. That is deliberate: a freshness promise that depends on somebody remembering is not a promise.
What we do not publish
- First-person travel experience. No “when I visited”, no anecdotes, no photographs presented as ours.
- Undated figures. If we cannot source and date a price, it does not go on the page.
- Live news. Diplomatic developments and week-to-week policy churn are somebody else’s job and go stale in days.
- Affiliate-driven recommendations. Where we say a ticket is worth buying, no commission depends on the answer.
Tell us when a figure moves
Chinese ticket prices and park rules change, sometimes at short notice and sometimes without an English-language announcement. If you have just been somewhere we cover and found a different price or a different opening time, that is the most useful thing anyone can send us.
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