Are you looking for China Tours Subsidized by Chinese Government? They don’t exist!
Before COVID-19, there were several tour companies peddling “China tours subsidized by Chinese government” all over the internet even though such subsidized tours never existed. The cheating companies all went belly up in the wake of COVID-19. However, it is almost certain that those “entrepreneurs” behind the scheme would resurface somewhere under different corporate identities to take advantage of gullible consumers again because there’s money to be made doing so.
The unscrupulous merchant sells you a China tour package below cost and tells you it is all because the trip is sponsored or subsidized by the Chinese government. Being someone who speaks no Chinese and knows very little about China, you accept what you are being told, thinking what a bargain you’ve just gotten yourself.
What really happens afterwards goes like this. The guide and driver at destination buy you from the tour company for the right to “serve” you. Once you are in their hands, you’ll be put through endless shopping stops and scams disguised as immersive activities (tea ceremony, jade appraisal, herbal medicines, you name it) throughout the trip. Instead of visiting historical landmarks and learning about Chinese culture, you end up spending most of your time fending off aggressive sales pitches. You say, well, I’m not going to open up my wallet no matter what. But what about the time wasted?
These companies like to tell you that they take you to the stores because the government owns them and your trip is being subsidized by the Chinese government. Of course, this is a lie. A government so busy running the world’s second largest economy while sitting on a huge reserve of foreign currencies simply has no need to allure in foreign tourists for their dollars. The Chinese government privatized its last batch of retail shops known as “Friendship Stores” decades ago. To think that the Chinese government owns these tourist stores is just crazy.
You may have read somewhere that all China tour companies include shopping stops in their tours. Such misinformation is understandable if it comes from credulous tourists. When this nonsense comes from a tour company, you know you are dealing with a dishonest business.
To sum up, China tours subsidized by Chinese government simply don’t exist and now you know why.
