How we do things

Find out more about what we do and how we do it.

Safe and enjoyable

One of our guidelines is that hikes and trips with us must be safe and enjoyable. Safe is first, because if you don’t feel safe, you’re not going to have a very good time. Enjoyable comes next, because we want you to come back again!

We started off quite casually, as a club where socialising was perhaps just as important as the hiking, and we think that’s one of the best things about our hiking club: you’ll meet all sorts of people from all over the world and you’ll easily find someone to talk to about almost anything. We’ve heard some great stories from our hikers, and we’ve made great friends with many as well.

Hassle-free and friendly

Maybe you’ve got a high-pressure job in Beijing, and you only get one day off a week. Maybe you’re on your big adventure all around the world, and you’ve got a tightly planned schedule. You need to spend your free time wisely.

We understand your time is precious and we won’t waste it: we use all our experience to get you to the right place at the right time, the right way. And definitely no sneaky shopping side-trips!

Positive effects

Local friends: We make a big effort to get to know the people who live in the places we visit on hikes: hiring them to help lead our hikes, teaming up to find and maintain trails, and visiting their guesthouses for meals. You can imagine what it would be like if we didn't get to know them – all these unknown people walking through their fields and villages, and no benefit to them at all.

Environmentally friendly: We apply the ‘take only photographs, leave only footprints’ philosophy, and we try to avoid leaving footprints as well! We run clean-up hikes every year, and aim to set a positive example for people that we meet while we’re out hiking.

Good company: You know how you feel when you have friends visiting – some of whom haven’t met before – and you want to be sure they’ll all have a good time? We feel the same way!

Our hikes and trips are a good way to meet people and make friends—you know you’ll have hiking as a common interest at least, and maybe more!

After each of our hikes we eat and drink a bit; if not a big meal of country-style Chinese cooking at a local restaurant, then the famous Beijing Hikers picnic setup – snacks, tea, coffee, and plenty of beer!

No commissions, no kickbacks, no payola

We are proudly independent, and don’t accept commissions or any other sort of kickbacks. There’s no need to worry that you’ll be taken on a detour to shop for jade ornaments. And if we take you to a restaurant, it's because we've tried and liked the service and food there, not because we’re getting a cut of the profits from the owners.

Reliable private transportation

We hire our buses from the same bus company that the government uses to transport their people to and from conferences and meetings. As it's a big company, the buses are regularly serviced and cleaned, and older vehicles are replaced instead of being run into the ground.

Having our own bus for the hike means that we can get where we want to go more quickly – no unscheduled stops along the way, and no time wasted on public transport and negotiating prices with the local taxi drivers that we'd need to use to get from the bus stop to the beginning of the hike. And no need to worry we'll miss the last bus home!

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