China is where Bird-Photo-Tours ASIA began. Nick has lived and photographed here for more than fifteen years, has been to all 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, and has photographed more than 1,200 of the country's 1,400-plus species. That experience is why we can run nine different China tours, from a six-day crane trip on the Jiangxi wetlands to a 27-day traverse of the Tibetan Plateau, and why each of them is built around specific birds rather than around a general route.
The tours fall into four groups: the southern provinces in autumn and early winter, for Cabot's Tragopan, Hainan Peacock-Pheasant, Nonggang Babbler and the Yunnan hides; the Jiangxi cranes in December; the great pheasant journey in February; and the mountains and the plateau in May, June and July. Every departure is one to four photographers.
Pheasants, first. The family evolved with its centre in China and nowhere else offers so many: our 27-day pheasant tour alone works eighteen species of tragopan, pheasant and partridge, six of them endemic. Endemics, second: China has around 90, and Sichuan, Qinghai and the southern provinces each hold a cluster that can be photographed well in a fortnight. And hides, third: the Chinese bird-hide network, especially in Yunnan, Guangxi and Sichuan, is the most developed in the world, with feeding stations that bring a hundred species to within a few metres over a two-week trip.
Add the cranes of Poyang, the parrotbills of Sichuan, the snowfinches and rosefinches of the plateau, and the owls of Hainan, and China is a country a photographer can return to for a decade without repeating a trip. Our guide to hide photography in China explains how the bait stations work and what to bring.
October to December for the southern provinces and the Yunnan hides; December for the cranes; February to early March for the pheasant tour, when the birds are on bait and the northern forests are quiet; May for Sichuan; late June to mid July for Qinghai, the only window when the high plateau is snow-free and the endemics are singing.
China: South – 11 to 23 October 2026, 13 days · Easy · Liew
Guangdong for Cabot's Tragopan, Silver Pheasant, White-necklaced Partridge, Tawny Fish Owl and Scaly-sided Merganser; then Guangxi for Nonggang Babbler, White-winged Magpie, Indochinese Green Magpie, Blue-rumped Pitta, Spectacled Barwing and Bar-backed Partridge. Optional five-night extension to Hainan. Eight endemics. US$7,500 (2026).
The same provinces are also sold as three short modules, each easy and each led by a local specialist: Guangdong – 7 days, October to December for Cabot's Tragopan (US$4,100); Guangxi – 14 to 21 December 2026, 8 days for the Nonggang Babbler and the magpies (US$4,600); Hainan – 7 days, October to December for Hainan Peacock-Pheasant, Hainan Partridge, Hainan Leaf Warbler and five owls including Oriental Bay Owl and Eastern Grass Owl (US$4,100).
China: Yunnan – 2 to 14 December 2026, 13 days · Easy · Fan
The hide tour. Six nights in Baoshan and six in Dehong at feeding stations that deliver around a hundred species at portrait range: partridges, Silver Pheasant, Grey Peacock-Pheasant, the laughingthrushes, parrotbills, scimitar babblers, barbets, broadbills, thrushes, niltavas and sunbirds. Optional extension to Xishuangbanna for Blue-naped Pitta and the tropical forest birds. US$7,500 (2026).
China: Jiangxi – 3 to 8 December 2026, 6 days · Easy · Liew
The most important crane wintering grounds in China: Siberian, White-naped, Hooded and Common Crane together, with Oriental Stork, Swan Goose, Tundra Swan, Baer's Pochard, Reed Parrotbill, Marsh Grassbird and a chance of Tawny Fish Owl. US$3,500 (2026).
China: Pheasants – 8 February to 6 March 2027, 27 days · Easy · Nick
From Henan in the north through Guangdong, Hainan and Yunnan, concentrating on eighteen species of tragopan, pheasant and partridge, six endemic: Golden, Reeves's, Koklass, Silver, Kalij, Hume's, Lady Amherst's and Blood Pheasant, Grey and Hainan Peacock-Pheasant, Cabot's and Temminck's Tragopan, and six partridges. US$15,700 (2027), deposit US$5,000.
China: Sichuan – 12 to 24 May 2027, 13 days · Medium · Liew
Ten of China's seventeen parrotbills, three of them endemic (Three-toed, Grey-hooded, Spectacled), in Meishan and Aba Prefectures, plus Sichuan Jay, Chinese Grouse, Snowy-cheeked Laughingthrush, Père David's Owl and Przevalski's Nuthatch. US$7,500 (2027).
China: Qinghai – 19 June to 15 July 2027, 27 days · Medium · Liew
Three weeks across the northeastern Tibetan Plateau from Xining, past Qinghai Lake to Yushu and Nangqian, for ten endemics: Tibetan Rosefinch, Tibetan Bunting, Przevalski's Finch, Przevalski's Redstart, Przevalski's Partridge, White Eared Pheasant, White-browed Tit, Gansu Leaf Warbler, Tibetan Babax and Tibetan Snowfinch, plus six snowfinches, Henderson's Ground Jay, Bearded Vulture and Chinese Rubythroat. Optional extension to Golmud for Sillem's Rosefinch. US$15,700 (2027), deposit US$5,000.
All tours include guiding, ground transport, domestic flights, accommodation, meals, entrance and hide fees. Later-year prices are on each departure page. The short southern modules and the Jiangxi trip combine easily into a longer winter itinerary; ask us.
It depends on the region: autumn and winter for the south and the hides, February for the pheasants, May for Sichuan, midsummer for the Tibetan Plateau. Pick the birds first; the season follows.
Each departure page lists its targets by prefecture. The signature birds are Cabot's Tragopan (Guangdong), Hainan Peacock-Pheasant (Hainan), Nonggang Babbler (Guangxi), the four cranes (Jiangxi), the parrotbills (Sichuan), the plateau endemics (Qinghai) and the eighteen pheasants of the February journey.
Four at most. Private departures are possible on every itinerary, and China is where we run the most custom trips; solo travellers on a private trip pay a single-participant surcharge.
Yes, on most of the southern tours and throughout Yunnan. 400-600 mm covers the hides; the plateau and the cranes want 600 mm and a teleconverter.
Easy for the southern provinces, Jiangxi, Yunnan and the pheasant journey. Medium for Sichuan and Qinghai, mainly because of altitude and long drives; there is no trekking on any of them.
Guiding, ground transport, domestic flights, accommodation, meals, entrance and hide fees. Not included: international flights, visa, travel insurance, tips for local guides, personal items.
Ask about China · South · Yunnan · Jiangxi · Pheasants · Sichuan · Qinghai · Guangdong · Guangxi · Hainan
: Yunnan
