CLI partners with faculty leaders, schools, universities, and organizations to design flexible, academically grounded travel programs across China and the broader Chinese-speaking world, with deep roots in Guilin and reach across mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao.
As China’s importance in the world increases daily, understanding China matters more than ever. Our keystone mission at CLI is to build bridges between China and the rest of the world, and our custom travel programs are one of the many ways we achieve this.
Each year, CLI partners with schools, universities, associations, and organizations from around the world to create and host unforgettable short- and long-term study excursions in China for students of all ages.
Every program is faculty-led and fully customized. From our home base in Guilin, CLI designs and leads programs throughout mainland China and can support itineraries involving Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao.
At CLI, we believe language is an essential key to truly understanding a culture, yet language learning must be paired with a comprehensive, on-the-ground understanding of the country in question.
CLI’s custom travel programs help students understand China by taking them to little-known countryside villages, to world-renowned natural landscapes that over the course of centuries have come to symbolize China, and to China’s global metropolises complete with towering skyscrapers, high-speed bullet trains, a dazzling array of city lights, and some of the highest GDPs in the world.
Since 2009, CLI has partnered with schools, universities, and organizations around the world to design and lead customized study excursions throughout China, supported by our language center in Guilin and our long-standing partnership with Guangxi Normal University.
CLI never starts with cookie-cutter templates. We start with your goals, your students, and your curriculum, then design, plan, and lead the program with you from the first conversation to the flight home.
Your program begins with an in-depth conversation about your students, interests, and academic goals. Whether you’re a seasoned sinologist or planning your first trip to China, you think it and we make it happen.
With broad-based connections across dozens of Chinese cities, CLI organizes lectures, business visits, university exchanges, and cultural interactions that most groups could never arrange on their own.
As a Mandarin school first, CLI can weave Chinese language study into any itinerary, including daily lessons with experienced teachers and guided, real-world practice in markets, villages, and city streets.
CLI’s long-standing partnership with Guangxi Normal University opens doors to campus life, Chinese student interaction, and university coursework that can support college credit for language study or content courses on China.
Housing, meals, in-country transportation, guides, bookings, and activities are covered as part of your program, allowing faculty leaders to focus on teaching rather than coordinating.
CLI’s bilingual international team supports your group around the clock, with contingency plans and connections to China’s most reputable medical facilities anywhere your program travels.
CLI has been partnering with schools around the world to lead students and faculty on custom China programs since 2009. Our extensive network and deep resources allow us to help students understand China from virtually any academic perspective.
One of our most commonly requested program themes is international business. CLI has introduced students to a variety of leading businesses in China, as well as dozens of small and medium-sized companies and factories in every industry from manufacturing to software to education. Over the years, CLI has drawn on its China network to organize academic and professional discussions and lectures with representatives from major Chinese corporations, government bureaus, and other key entities, including:
CLI students visit local kindergartens and high schools, chat with Daoist monks over herbal tea, practice qigong with lifelong adherents, and join round-table discussions with highly successful entrepreneurs. Ultimately, it is the interests of our students and the vision of our faculty leaders that guide CLI’s capabilities.
CLI has extensive professional, academic, and logistical resources across all of China, with the capacity to lead students to virtually any part of the country, as well as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao.
As the birthplace of CLI, Guilin is where our roots run deepest. It is the center of our community engagement and the headquarters of our language-learning resources.
When Guilin fits your program goals, we recommend it with confidence: our community, language resources, GXNU relationship, staff support, and local network are strongest here. With relatively few Westerners, Guilin also encourages students to use Mandarin every day outside the classroom, which is one of the reasons returning faculty leaders choose it year after year.
China’s political and cultural capital, home to imperial history, corporate headquarters, and top universities.
A global financial metropolis ideal for business visits, urban studies, and China’s modern story.
The ancient Silk Road capital, home to the Terracotta Warriors and millennia of Chinese history.
Gateway to China’s southwest, with teahouse culture, innovation hubs, and giant pandas.
China’s technology and manufacturing engine, perfect for business and innovation themes.
Karst landscapes, rice terraces, and countryside villages within easy reach of Guilin.
A world city at the intersection of East and West, finance and culture.
Centuries of Portuguese-Chinese heritage in one of Asia’s most distinctive cities.
CLI's Director of Custom Programs is based full-time in Taiwan. Our team is well-versed in delivering custom programs on the island.
Where should your program go? CLI’s deepest roots are in Guilin, where our language-learning community and local support network are strongest. We also design and lead custom programs throughout China, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. Many groups combine Guilin with two or three additional cities.
读万卷书，行万里路
Read ten thousand books, travel ten thousand miles
“Having worked with so many other institutions in China, I can confidently say that the staff and administration here at CLI, given their own personal experience in China and their experience with Guangxi Normal University, brings a lot to the experience for universities trying to develop customized programs.”
Kirk Martin, Drake University
We never start with cookie-cutter templates. Every CLI program begins with an in-depth conversation with the faculty leader, then takes shape step by step around your students and your curriculum.
The first step in creating your custom program is to contact CLI to chat about possibilities. You’ll be put in touch with one of our Program Managers to start a conversation about your background and the interests and needs of your students.
Once we understand the components that need to be considered in creating your unique China experience, we’ll work with you to start visualizing your custom travel program.
Questions are the key to creating the perfect China experience for you and your students. Each program starts with the following questions:
Some of our partners have a very clear idea of how they would like to structure their program. Others don’t. Whatever your starting point, the CLI Team will support you every step of the way, from planning to execution, and we’ll make sure your experience turns out exactly how you envision it.
Once we have a clear picture of your interests and background, we’ll start working with you to design your unique itinerary.
We remain attentive to your thoughts and feedback throughout this process, and we never finalize an itinerary without additional email exchanges and video calls to make sure it meets all of your needs and expectations.
Once we’ve finalized your itinerary, we’ll send you your comprehensive pre-departure to-do list. This will be your road map for taking the steps necessary to ensure all the proper pieces are in place before your trip to China.
From creating communication materials to assisting with visas to organizing and booking your international flights and in-country travel logistics, we cover all the bases so you can focus on what’s most important: communicating with your students and preparing them academically for their upcoming China experience.
With your finalized itinerary and custom Pre-Departure Checklist, you’ll be ready to make sure you have your desired number of students on board.
CLI provides complimentary assistance with communication by designing posters and pamphlets that will help you share your program information with the right students. If we have a CLI representative available in your area, we are happy to host an information session at your school to inform students and parents about your upcoming trip.
CLI believes a faculty leader’s full attention should be free from unnecessary distraction. From the moment you land in China until the moment you board your flight home, the full cost of all in-country travel logistics is completely covered as part of your program fee.
Planning and executing the logistics that underlie educational programs in China can be time-consuming and tedious. CLI makes sure all in-country travel logistics are completely covered, so your skill set stays focused on what truly counts: maximizing the learning aspects of each student’s China experience.
From booking accommodations and activities to making restaurant reservations, we’ve got it all covered. Your program fee includes but is not limited to:
Reaching your desired student enrollment allows for a more dynamic student experience as well as additional cushion in your budget. We’ll help you design posters and pamphlets so you can easily share information about your program with the right students, and we’ll assist each student through the enrollment process to completion with our comprehensive pre-departure materials.
CLI has a strong network in China that includes the country’s most reputable medical facilities. Our contingency plans equip us to handle any eventuality, anywhere in the country, and CLI’s international staff is available 24/7 to provide program participants with emergency assistance for the full duration of your program.
We are happy to help you avoid processing and service fees on your round-trip international airfare by giving you the option of purchasing international group airfare through CLI as a free courtesy.
Every program includes a customized pre-departure checklist covering visas, flights, packing, communication materials, and academic preparation, so faculty leaders and students arrive in China confident and ready to learn.
“Traveling with CLI was perhaps one of the most unique and unforgettable experiences I have ever had. My trip was enriched so much by the vast array of experiences I had as a result of CLI’s connections.”
Grace Cleland · Custom Program ParticipantAnswers to the questions faculty leaders ask most when planning a custom program with CLI.
Whenever works best for your group. Staying true to the CLI philosophy of customizing our programs to suit the individual needs and interests of each group we work with, we don’t use cookie-cutter templates to create our custom programs. Based on your vision for your program and CLI’s extensive resources, your group’s itinerary will be completely unique, and thus can start and end on any dates of your choosing.
The per participant program fee for CLI’s custom programs is based on a multitude of factors, including program length, number of participants, extent of domestic ground and air travel, choice of hotels, number of cities to visit, and types of activities, to name a few.
We work closely with our faculty leaders to make sure program fees always fall within the desired budget. Contact us to create your itinerary proposal and program fee.
CLI has extensive professional, academic, and logistical resources across all of China and is equipped to lead students to virtually any part of the country, from Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi’an to Chengdu, Shenzhen, and beyond. We can also support programs involving Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao.
As the birthplace of CLI, Guilin is where our roots run deepest. It is the center of our community engagement and the headquarters of our language-learning resources. Guilin has relatively few Westerners, which encourages students to use Mandarin every day outside the classroom, and our long-standing affiliation with Guangxi Normal University opens doors to university interaction and credit-bearing language study. That said, we’re glad to design programs anywhere in China that fits your goals.
CLI partners with schools, universities, associations, and organizations worldwide, and our programs serve students of all ages, including undergraduate and graduate students, high school groups, professionals, alumni groups, and mixed audiences. Each itinerary is built around the participants who will actually be traveling.
Yes. Chinese language classes can be woven into any custom program, from daily survival-Mandarin sessions to structured small-group instruction with CLI’s teaching team. Through CLI’s affiliation with Guangxi Normal University, faculty leaders have also facilitated college credit for language courses completed during their programs, as Virginia Tech’s program did for three consecutive years.
You think it; we make it happen. Tell us about your group, and a CLI Program Manager will help you shape an itinerary built around your curriculum.
Tell us what you’re hoping to build. CLI’s team can help you think through destinations, timing, academic goals, language study, student support, and logistics across Guilin, mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao.