Three years of opening doors in China.
We are a small studio of designers, guides, and sinologists based in Shanghai. We don't do tours. We build introductions to a country that rewards patience.
We came for a year. We never left.
Silk Star was founded in 2023 by two travellers who met in a guesthouse outside Pingyao — a language teacher from Milan and a photographer from Edinburgh. They had both intended to spend a year in China. Three years later, they're still here.
What began as a shared blog about off-road itineraries became a small travel company when friends of friends started asking for help planning their own trips. Today we are a team of eight, but we have kept the same founding rule: no journey leaves the studio until all of us would be happy to take it ourselves.
“The best moments in China are never the ones on the brochure. They're the ones that happen because someone who actually lives here knew to be in that place at that time.”
We work exclusively with independent travellers and small groups — never coach tours, never fixed departures. Every itinerary is designed from scratch, shaped around who you are and how you like to travel.
Three things we will never compromise on.
Access that takes years to earn
After three years, our guides are trusted faces in the communities we visit — the monk who opens the back gate, the chef who saves the best table. These relationships cannot be manufactured, and we do not sell what we do not have.
Pace over spectacle
We build time into every day. Time to sit, to wander, to return to something that caught your eye. A day with three sites, done properly, is worth more than six sites done at a run. We have seen what rushing costs.
A single point of contact
From your first message to the day you leave, you deal with one person who knows your trip inside-out. No call centres, no handoff to a local operator. If something shifts on the ground, we know about it before you do.
The people who design your journey.
Small enough to know your name. Experienced enough to know the road.
Arrived from Milan in 2010 to teach Italian for a year and never quite left. Sofia now shapes every itinerary’s pace and tone before it reaches a client.
A photographer from Edinburgh who first came to document the Karakoram Highway. Three years later he still handles every permit personally.
Born in Kunming and trained as a Sinologist, Mingxia designs the routes through Yunnan, Tibet, and the Silk Road that the rest of the team defers to.
Hotels and associations who trust us.
Hotel, guide association, or local operator in China?
We're always open to working with properties and partners who share our standard for private, thoughtfully-paced travel. Tell us about your organisation and we'll get back to you.
Get in touchWe'd love to hear from you.
Tell us where you want to go, and we'll tell you how we'd get you there.