Ground Handling in China for Overseas Student Travel Agencies

PreeChina acts as the ground travel agency for everything inside China, from airport pickup at arrival to drop-off at departure:

• Itinerary. Designed together with the agency, day by day, with the tight days and the optional parts marked.
• Bookings. Hotels, museums, attractions and other venues, booked as groups.
• Transport inside China. Coaches, high-speed rail and transfers between cities.
• Airport pickup and drop-off. At the arrival and departure airports.
• English-speaking guides. With the group during the trip.
• Local coordination. Chinese-language coordination with hotels, venues, restaurants and instructors while the group is travelling.

International flights, travel insurance, personal shopping and upgrades are not part of the ground service.

The agency sends a brief: the dates, the group size, the ages, the number of adults, the arrival city and flight, and the course or interests the trip should support. PreeChina replies with a draft route, the agency comments, and the two sides revise it until it fits the agency's client. PreeChina then checks the hotels, the group bookings and the transport, reports the answers, and issues a priced itinerary and an invoice.

The how it works page lists the six steps, and the sample itinerary shows what a draft route looks like.

The agency pays PreeChina a ground service fee per person, about USD 100 to 150. The fee depends on the length of the programme in China.

For 30 people on a seven day programme, the ground fee is 30 × USD 150 = USD 4,500. That is PreeChina's service fee only. It is not a package price.

The ground fee covers the English-speaking guides, the ground service, and PreeChina's coordination of the hotel bookings, the transport and the meals.

The ground fee does not cover the cost of the hotels, the meals, the transport or the attraction tickets. The group pays those, directly to the suppliers or through PreeChina, which can coordinate the payment and pay on the group's behalf, with no handling fee. The priced itinerary lists each of them as a separate line, so the agency can see all the costs before it quotes its own client.

No price includes international flights, travel insurance, personal shopping or upgrades to a higher specification than the one agreed.

The ground fee is a service fee, and it is listed in the priced itinerary. Everything else in the budget follows the route.

• A service fee, listed. PreeChina's ground-handling charge is purely a service fee, and it is listed separately in the proposal.
• A budget from real costs. PreeChina prepares the itinerary together with a budget based on the route and its actual costs. Some transport, hotels and attractions must be booked and paid in advance, and the proposal lists each of them.
• Costs during the trip. Transport, meals, hotels and attractions that arise once the group is in China can be paid by the group directly, or paid through PreeChina, which coordinates the payment and can pay on the group's behalf.
• Currencies and payment methods. PreeChina supports several currencies and payment methods. For returning clients, PreeChina can advance funds to book a China trip, and the client brings cash to China to settle on delivery.

As a licensed travel agency with long-standing partners, PreeChina usually receives trade rates that individual travellers and one-off groups do not. The savings stay in the group's budget.

• Hotels. Typically USD 10 to 40 less per room per night.
• Restaurants. City restaurants typically give 10% to 20% off, and the restaurants at Disney resorts 20% off.
• Attractions and activities. 5% to 30% off, depending on the season and how popular the site is. PreeChina also holds long-term memberships at well-known attractions.
• Coaches. PreeChina works directly with partner drivers. For a 50-seat coach this is typically USD 50 to 100 a day below a rental company or an agency.

Example: a group of 36 students and leaders from Russia, 7 days and 6 nights.

• It saves money. The trade rates above, which an individual group would not receive.
• It saves time. Days are planned so that sights are grouped by location, transfers are short and the order of stops avoids dead time, with no wrong turns and no detours to places that do not repay the trip.
• It stays flexible and under control. PreeChina has local partners across many regions and knows the situation on the ground in each city. When a road closes, the weather turns or the group needs a slower day, the plan changes on the spot.
• It is backed up when things go wrong. A group member who was separated from the party at Disney was found and reunited, and a traveller who found at home that a phone had been left on a coach got it back. The team stays on call before, during and after the trip.

• 30% deposit of the ground service fee, to hold the dates.
• Advance bookings. Hotels, transport, attractions and other items that must be booked in advance are paid in advance, for the amount actually booked.
• 70% balance of the ground service fee, on the schedule set out in the Terms and on the invoice.

Payment methods, accepted currencies, refund conditions and the other commercial terms are the same as for PreeChina's private custom tours, and are set out in the Terms. PreeChina charges no handling fee for paying suppliers on the group's behalf. Account details are sent with the invoice and are not published on this site.

• Not for individual students or families. Student group tours are planned for groups.
• Not a fixed catalogue. Each route is drawn for the group, then confirmed in writing, then priced.
• Not a cover for international flights, which stay with the agency.
• Not a study abroad, exchange, scholarship or degree programme, and not a long-term language course.

Send the brief through the proposal request and PreeChina replies with a draft route. The draft is not a quotation. A Russian language school has returned with a larger group each year since 2025, and the case study describes how that route was built.