We are witnessing a paradigm shift in global interest around China.
For many years, China was only understood through the lens of a “big market.” Tales and books were written about how foreign executives came to China seeking the adventure of “one billion consumers.”
Today, after a brief shutdown of communication channels during the COVID years, China has suddenly emerged as something else — a technologically advanced, economically alternative, and socio-politically complex entity that defies any single line of definition.
Most importantly, for the first time in many hundreds of years, China once again appears to be somewhere that the world can learn something from.
To learn, does not mean to follow blindly. Learning about something unfamiliar involves understanding it in its own terms and reflecting on which parts of it will apply, or not apply, to one’s own condition. In China, we have an exact concept about it, called 借鉴 Jiejian: using someone else as a mirror to look at oneself.
This is what we thought about when we launched the Baiguan China Tour last year. It is not about showing off China’s strength, nor do we shun its many weaknesses. But to really use China as a mirror - to reflect on yourself - you have to see it with your own eyes, listen to it with your own ears, and touch it with your own hands. (Not to mention, Chinese food also smells and tastes great!)
Since then, several successful previous tours have built our confidence in our ability to deliver unfiltered, on-the-ground realities of China to the global audience, and we are constantly amazed by the level of interest shown by past participants.
This is why, for Autumn 2026, we have decided to partner with several specialist partners and vertical experts to try something that has never been attempted before: a month-long menu of modularized, vertically intensive learning expeditions throughout October and November, spanning AI, robotics, energy, advanced manufacturing, premium consumption, and, of course, culture.
Our new architecture seamlessly integrates Weekday Industry Tracks with Weekend Immersion Tracks to decode the underlying logic of the Chinese economy:
Weekday Industry Tracks (Hard Logic): Four tightly sequenced thematic weeks targeting the frontiers of new quality productivity—covering Beijing (Robotics & AI), Foshan-Shenzhen (Smart Manufacturing), Shanghai-Suzhou-Hangzhou (Energy), and Shanghai (Premium Consumption).
Weekend Immersion Tracks (Soft Power Decoded): Exclusive, customized experiences in three unique cities from cultural, social, and economic perspectives: Datong (Shanxi), Yiwu (Zhejiang), Nanjing (Jiangsu), designed to provide critical context. From Datong’s energy transition and cultural renaissance to Yiwu’s global SME trade networks and private economic mechanisms, and onward to Nanjing’s ancient city walls, these journeys decode the social fabric and consumer psyche underpinning today’s China.
The Autumn 2026 Baiguan China Tour offers flexible, modular options. You are free to pick whichever items on the menu. The Baiguan team, alongside our partner institutions and featured experts, stewards each expedition from initial design and curation to on-the-ground execution, delivering continuous, end-to-end accompaniment.
Clearly, this is not just any tour. It is a marathon of tours. It is ambitious. But we invite you to help us fulfill this ambition.
Join us to validate assumptions on the ground, build your own informed conviction about where China is heading next, and judge for yourself which knowledge you would like to “distill” from China’s experience.
BAIGUAN CHINA TOUR MENU — AUTUMN 2026
Important note
To ensure the quality of our cohorts, all of our tours are application-only. You may fill in the Application Form to apply.
English service: All programming is designed for international professionals. The Baiguan team and most guest speakers are fully bilingual. We further deploy supplemental translation methods to bridge any linguistic gaps, ensuring seamless, English-native fluency at all times.
If you are unable to join us on this autumn series of tours, feel free to email Baiguan_ChinaTour@bigonelab.com with your interests. We also offer bespoke study tours and board retreat services tailored to your needs.
WHY BAIGUAN CHINA TOUR
Navigating China’s complex economic landscape requires more than just a standard itinerary. The Baiguan China Tour is designed to deliver three core pillars of value:
Deep-Diving Engagement, with Curation: We move beyond surface-level observations into the engine rooms of industry. Through structured dialogues with C-suite executives curated by Baiguan and our sector specialist partners, and through on-the-ground audits of companies, smart factories, AI labs, and supply chain hubs, we unpack the operational realities and technological breakthroughs that underpin China’s new economic trajectory.
Authentic Unfiltered Access: We strip away the corporate PR and political spin to reveal the ground truth. By leveraging our deep local networks, we provide unfiltered access to real decision-makers and unfiltered market dynamics, giving you a true reading of the business climate.
High-Quality Community: You won’t be touring with tourists. Our groups are intentionally kept small and selective, comprising global investors, entrepreneurs, multinational executives, and scions of business dynasties. This ensures a high-trust, peer-to-peer learning environment where insights are enriched by diverse perspectives, forging lasting connections with like-minded global leaders.
Some of the past participants of the Baiguan China Tour include:
Founder of one of Germany’s most successful technology companies
Head of corporate venture capital at a major US industrial company
Singapore-based Chief Investment Officer at a large family office
American investing family rooted in China and early backer of Alibaba and many other prominent Chinese new economy companies
Member of a prominent Latin American business family and entrepreneur
Former board director of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
Influential Thai family member with years of experience across VC, PE, and investment banking in Southeast Asia
Malaysian Founder of a highly successful Asia-based investment fund
Senior Engineer at a major US Mag7 company
Former APAC Payments Analytics Lead at a major global payment company
Singapore-based private Investor with years of experience and ongoing interest in China’s capital markets
Research Analyst at a top Europe-based hedge fund
Former Senior Researcher at one of the world’s largest high-frequency trading houses
Silicon Valley venture investor in the fintech field
Researcher at an Australia-based long-only investment fund
Disclaimer
Note: All itineraries are tentative and subject to adjustment. The finalized schedule will be issued one week prior to departure.
Moreover, the planned visit is subject to force majeure factors including geopolitical conditions and security considerations, and we cannot guarantee that all of them will take place as scheduled. Our team will work very hard to prepare back-up plans of equivalent value for planned visits, but there is no guarantee.
Weekday Industry Tracks
🤖 Robotics & AI Executive Tour | Oct 19-23 | Beijing
Curated by Baiguan and Caixin Data, this tour cuts through the noise to take you deep into the industrial value chain—from mass-production lines for core hardware and R&D hubs for foundational models to the frontlines of national standard-setting and advanced application testing. Rather than assessing technologies in isolation, we help you decode the underlying infrastructure and economic logic driving this transformation, equipping you with the hard-edged judgment needed to distinguish where capital is truly flowing from where the headlines merely suggest.
A key highlight of this tour that you won’t easily find anywhere else is that, leveraging Caixin’s deep network, tour participants can have closed-door meetings with C-level executives and founding team members of AI and robotics enterprises, including Moonshot (Kimi) and Zhipu AI (GLM). Beyond AI and robotics, participants can also enjoy a rare glimpse into China’s commercial space industry.
Official Partner
As China’s most influential and independent financial media outlet, Caixin is recognized as an unrivaled producer of investigative journalism and an indispensable source of information for business leaders, investors, and policymakers. Caixin has been ranked ninth worldwide in the newly released 2026 Global Digital Subscription Report, with 1.2 million paid subscribers, confirming its position as one of the largest subscription-based news organizations outside the U.S. and U.K.
Caixin Data leads Caixin’s data operations and AI technology development. As a registered financial information service provider in China, it supplies data to major global financial information platforms and provides proprietary financial, corporate, industry and macroeconomic datasets. Its products also include macroeconomic indices and AI-powered investment research. Caixin Data works with leading Chinese AI and technology companies, including Zhipu AI, Moonshot AI and Volcengine.
The Caixin Data Platform serves financial institutions, investors and AI applications through APIs, the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and agent-ready Skills, providing flexible access to data and analysis on China’s economy, industries and financial markets.
Core Highlights
Foundation Models & Cloud Infrastructure:
Moonshot AI (Kimi) & Zhipu AI (GLM): Closed-door strategy session with senior management of two of China’s most consequential foundation-model players.
Volcengine (ByteDance) & Tencent Cloud: Benchmark the tech stacks fueling China’s AI surge with divisional leaders from the country’s two most consequential cloud powers: Volcano Engine, the fast-rising inference-and-MaaS backbone behind Doubao and the default AI cloud for ByteDance’s private-market juggernaut, and Tencent Cloud, the top IaaS/PaaS incumbent.
Embodied Intelligence & Hardware Scale-Up:
Galbot: Debrief with the C-levels of the industry leader in wheeled dual-arm humanoids. Discuss their “Embodied Brain” roadmap and securing thousands of pre-orders from CATL, Bosch, and Toyota.
Linkerbot: Examine the “hands” of the robot revolution. Visit the startup claiming >80% market share in high-DOF dexterous hands and witness their mass production scaling from 10k units shipped in 2025 to 4k units in a single month (April 2026).
Noetix Robotics: Debrief with the founding team on corporate strategy and the bipedal–bionic dual-product matrix, followed by a deep dive into multi-base capacity expansion and scaled delivery.
Future Mobility & Space Commercialization:
Yizhuang L4 Autonomous Driving Demo Zone: Experience a live Robotaxi ride in China’s most advanced driverless zone. Participate in a closed-door discussion on the “Vehicle-Road-Cloud” integration architecture.
CAS Space & Galactic Energy: Site visits to China’s leading mixed-ownership commercial space firms. Review solid/ reusable rocket technologies and the suborbital space tourism commercialization prospects.
National Strategy & Industrial Ecosystem:
Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center: Understand national standardization efforts (led by Xiaomi, Jingcheng Machinery Electric, & UBTech) and the fast-track policy for foreign investment in embodied AI.
Yizhuang Robotics Park: Explore a ~250,000 sqm industrial hub. Unlock end-to-end foreign JV landing services, IP localization, tax incentives, and ecosystem synergy with 300+ firms.
⚙️ Advanced Manufacturing & Supply Chain Tour | Oct 26-30 | Foshan → Shenzhen
This journey reveals Chinese manufacturing not as a static cost center, but a dynamic engine of reinvention. From Foshan’s industrial titans to Shenzhen’s deep-tech disruptors, we trace how legacy giants and frontier startups share the same supply chain soil—driving the national “New Quality Productivity” agenda across smart home appliances, biotech, humanoid robots, and AI. This is not a site visit to assembly lines; it is an investigation into the strategy that allows China to scale from home appliances to humanoid robots with unmatched speed.
This tour is uniquely curated by Family Office Insight, the same partner in our very first, and highly successful Baiguan China Tour last year.
Official Partner
Founded in January 2021, Family Office Insight is a leading think tank and community serving China’s family office sector. Through high-quality research, original content, and closed-door exchanges, it has built in-depth connections with more than 400 Chinese family offices and ultra-high-net-worth individuals in China and abroad, offering services including research, study tours, and curated events.
In 2025, Family Office Insight launched the Insight Circle, a membership initiative designed to foster learning, collaboration, and long-term relationships among Chinese family offices and has served nearly 50 members, supporting Chinese family offices and ultra-high-net-worth individuals in making wiser long-term decisions and building enduring legacies.
Core Highlights
Foshan: The Legacy Giant’s Reinvention
Midea Group HQ (300.HK): Deep dive into one of China’s most globally successful appliance makers. Beyond the showroom, we dissect Midea’s transformation into an industrial AI and building-tech conglomerate—from robotic arms and HVAC intelligence to overseas M&A strategy—via a closed-door exchange with senior management.
Haitian Flavoring Factory (3288.HK): A rare look inside the world’s largest condiment plant. Observe how a century-old FMCG brand runs fully automated bottling, AGV logistics, and digital twin production—a masterclass in scaling traditional manufacturing.
HeYou International Hospital – Proton Center: Visit a privately funded, top-tier medical infrastructure project backed by Midea’s founder. Understand how Chinese industrial capital is flowing into high-end healthcare and what “manufacturing-grade precision” means in oncology.
Art & Taste Interlude: A Museum of Art (和美术馆) tour, and a Chateau Mihope wine tasting—designed to show how Guangdong’s industrial bourgeoisie blends craftsmanship, philanthropy, and lifestyle. A Shunde garden restaurant and a Michelin-advisory meal showcase local flavor meets curated Chinese aesthetics.
Shenzhen: Frontier Deep-Tech & Robotics
RoboSense (2498.HK): On-site at the LiDAR leader powering autonomous driving and robotics. We walk the production line to benchmark China’s sensor ecosystem on cost curves and automotive-grade reliability, decoding its competitive moat against global peers.
Huayan Robotics: Formerly Han’s Robot, spun out of Han’s Laser and now HKEX-listed (1021.HK), is a Foshan-based full-stack collaborative-robot maker spanning 3–35 kg cobots, humanoid joint modules, and core motion components for industrial, medical, and logistics automation.
Huawei HarmonyOS Intelligent Driving: Hands-on trial drive at a flagship experience store. Assess Huawei’s “non-car-maker” strategy—how it licenses autonomous driving stacks to automakers and reshapes the EV supply chain without building a single factory.
XtalPi (2228.HK): Tour the quantum-physics + AI drug-design company’s R&D and automated lab. Decode how “silicon-to-molecule” platforms compress R&D cycles from years to months.
Salus Bio: Visit a 2020 Shenzhen-born deep-tech pioneer developing fully domestic gene sequencers (Salus Pro / Saluseq Nimbo), sub-micron spatial-omics platforms, and gene chips. By breaking Illumina’s long-standing monopoly on upstream tools, it enables broad applications across clinical diagnostics, precision oncology, and agricultural genomics.
Yiyuan Longevity Tech: Experience hyperbaric oxygen capsule manufacturing—where wellness, aging, and industrial design converge in a Shenzhen-style garage factory.
Shenzhen Ecosystem Immersion
Huaqiangbei: A guided “component safari” through the world’s densest electronics bazaar. See how prototype-to-mass-production happens in 72 hours, and why this matters for hardware startups globally.
Huaqiangbei
♻️ China’s Next Energy & Industrial Cycle: Power, AI & How China Builds | Nov 2-6 | Shanghai → Suzhou → Hangzhou
China has already reshaped the global economics of solar, batteries and electric vehicles. In 2025 alone, it added roughly 430 GW of wind and solar, taking total installed capacity to around 1.84 TW. But the more interesting question is no longer how China scaled the last energy cycle, but what comes next, how China builds the next energy system, and what durable industry moats and investment opportunities could emerge?
Over five days across Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou, we will go inside the frontier of China’s energy by meeting senior executives and C-level founders, seeing operating assets and technologies firsthand, and speaking directly with the investors and institutions deciding what gets built, funded and scaled next.
Taken together, the program will move across:
an established renewable-energy champion defending and extending its moat
frontier nuclear fusion technology
EV infrastructure becoming part of the power system
state capital allocating into new industries
a local government ecosystem that has repeatedly scaled companies
hidden thermal-management and critical AI infrastructure layers
AI-driven electricity demand
and the next generation of frontier startups.
Official Partner
2060 Advisory is a leading China-based climate and industrial investment advisory firm connecting global capital with Chinese technologies, companies and market opportunities. It works across climate technology, energy transition, AI infrastructure, advanced industry and cross-border capital, advising investors, corporates, public-sector platforms and growth companies.
This tour will be led by its founder, Yijing Wang, who also writes at 2060 Newsletter with Yijing.
Core Highlights
Half a Day Inside One of China’s Leading Renewable-Energy Groups: GCL Group + GCL Energy Technology(002015.SZ) + GCL Perovskite
One of the most distinctive parts of the program: approximately four hours across three businesses inside the GCL ecosystem. Instead of looking at one technology in isolation, we will use GCL as a deep case study in how a Chinese renewable-energy champion evolves through multiple industry cycles. How do you build and defend a moat in an industry where technologies, margins and competitive positions change so quickly? How do you keep finding the next growth curve? How do you turn China scale into global advantage?
We move from group strategy and senior-management dialogue → energy services, storage and emerging energy networks → next-generation perovskite solar technology. In one half day, participants see how an established energy company defends the present while building the next.
Lotus (Nasdaq: LOT): Luxury EV, Chinese Industrial Power—and Yes, You Get to Drive It
Lotus, part of the Geely ecosystem (0175.HK), is one of the most enjoyable ways to understand Chinese industrial globalization: a legendary global performance brand, Chinese ownership and capital, one of the world’s deepest EV technology and supply-chain ecosystems, and the challenge of building a differentiated global luxury electric-performance brand.
We will meet senior management to discuss how Lotus is positioning itself inside China’s fiercely competitive EV market and internationally. Then we leave the meeting room to get behind the wheel and experience the product yourself.
Dongsheng Fusion: C-Level Access to China’s Fusion Race
Nuclear fusion is rapidly becoming one of the most closely watched frontier-energy investment themes in China, attracting leading technology investors and significant new capital.
We will meet C-level leadership at Dongsheng Fusion to understand what is actually happening behind the headlines: Why now? What technical milestones matter? Where are the real bottlenecks? And how could China’s manufacturing capabilities accelerate the path from frontier science to an entirely new energy industry? A rare look at one of the highest-upside, highest-uncertainty bets in the future of energy.
NIO Power: When EV Infrastructure Becomes a Power Asset
We start at a NIO delivery center and experience one of China’s most distinctive EV innovations firsthand: battery swapping. Then the story gets more interesting. We will meet the General Manager responsible for NIO Power’s electricity business to understand how battery-swap infrastructure can increasingly participate in virtual power plants, electricity trading and grid services as China’s power market evolves. The question shifts from:“Is battery swapping a good EV experience?” to “What happens when a mobility network also becomes a distributed energy asset?”
SIIC Capital / SIIC Venture Capital: How Chinese State Capital Actually Invests
China’s state capital is enormously consequential, and often poorly understood from outside the country.
Participants will have a General Manager-level dialogue with the investment side of SIIC Group to ask how a major Shanghai state-owned investment platform actually thinks about technology, commercial returns, strategic priorities, emerging industries and global expansion: What gets funded? What does not? And how does state capital see the next generation of energy and industrial technology?
Suzhou Industrial Park: How China Builds an Industrial Ecosystem
If GCL shows how a company builds a moat, Suzhou Industrial Park shows how an entire ecosystem builds one.
Through senior-level dialogue and an on-the-ground visit, we will examine how government, infrastructure, capital, industrial platforms, multinational companies and start-ups combine to create one of China’s most internationally oriented innovation and manufacturing clusters. This is the machinery behind “how China builds.”
Sanhua Intelligent Controls(002050.SZ)(02050.HK): The Hidden Infrastructure Behind Electrification and AI
Some of the strongest industrial moats sit inside components most consumers never see.
Sanhua provides a window into the thermal-management layer behind EVs, HVAC, energy systems and increasingly AI infrastructure—an increasingly strategic bottleneck as electrification and compute density rise.
A chance to understand how Chinese industrial companies build global leadership in the less-visible but mission-critical layers of the technology stack.
Alibaba Cloud: When AI Becomes a Megawatt Problem
AI is normally discussed through models, chips and applications. But at scale, AI becomes physical: data centers, cooling, electricity, grid capacity and infrastructure CAPEX.
Alibaba Cloud gives us a way to follow the AI boom all the way down to the energy system and asks: What does AI look like when translated into megawatts?
Meet the Startups: 2060 Advisory × I4C × Climate KIC
A curated session bringing together 5–7 selected frontier startups, program participants, investors and local ecosystem guests.
No generic demo day. The discussion will focus on the questions that actually matter for investment: What has been validated? Who is paying? What needs to happen before scale? Where are the real bottlenecks? Who finances the next stage? Can the company build a durable moat—and can it travel beyond China?
It gives participants a compressed view of the companies that could become the next generation behind the industrial leaders visited throughout the week.
Program institutions, speakers, test-drive arrangements and sequencing remain subject to final scheduling. Where necessary, equivalent-caliber institutions or experiences may be substituted.
🛍️ Inside China’s Luxury and Premium Consumption | Nov 9-12 | Shanghai
Investors typically see China’s luxury market through the filter of quarterly reports, which largely frame it as a slowdown. The reality on the ground is more nuanced: the market has fractured into clear winners and a struggling aspirational tier, divided by price, channel, and cultural relevance rather than category.
Led by Max Peiro—founder and CEO of Re-Hub, a 20-year Shanghai-based industry veteran, and advisor to global luxury giants—this tour grants unparalleled access to the industry’s frontline. Moving beyond passive observations, this four-day immersion navigates the market as a local would, decoding demand shifts in a bifurcated landscape. You will differentiate organic growth from discount-inflated sales, map the path from social feeds to pre-owned counters, and identify globally viable “New Chinese Styles” and emerging Chinese luxury brands. (You may read Max’s Substack Front Row Shanghai)
Official Partner
Re-Hub (a DLG company) is a Shanghai-based intelligence firm serving top-tier luxury brands and investors, leveraging a data-driven lens to track 150+ luxury and premium brands across marketing, e-commerce, and secondary markets (including grey and pre-owned channels) to decode industry trends and benchmark performance.
DLG serves as the strategic growth engine for the world’s most prestigious Maisons, translating two decades of luxury expertise into clarity and decisive action. At its core, the proprietary LuxuryIQ™ engine captures over 1.4 billion consumer signals across 185+ brands and 64 markets—including critical Chinese platforms often invisible to Western intelligence—to uncover hidden blind spots in brand health, secondary markets, and consumer demand. Moving beyond mere analysis, DLG architects and executes end-to-end solutions across strategy, media, and technology, fusing deep industry fluency with proven AI agents to empower global luxury leaders with the clarity required to navigate complexity and drive strategic decisions worldwide.
Core Highlights
The Guochao (National Trend) Phenomenon:
Labelhood: Exclusive dialogue with co-founder Tasha Liu on the maturation of China’s independent designer ecosystem. As a premier multi-brand retailer and incubator—staging flagship runway shows for Shanghai Fashion Week—Labelhood offers the clearest lens into how local brands are transitioning from niche ateliers to mainstream commercial viability.
Cultural Immersion Walk: A self-guided “Digital Safari” through TX Huaihai and the West Fumin Road corridor. Experience firsthand how emerging Chinese luxury and lifestyle brands like Songmont (leather goods), To Summer (fragrance), Harmay (beauty), and DOE (lifestyle) blend physical retail with cultural identity to capture Gen-Z mindshare.
Inside the E-commerce and Livestream Operations:
BuyQuickly: Step onto the livestreaming floor of this premier omni-channel operator. Witness the operational engine behind Gucci, Balenciaga, and Cartier, analyzing how digital storefronts and KOL-driven content are reshaping discovery and conversion.
Pre-Owned and Cross-Border Operation:
Authentication & Resale Dynamics: Go behind the scenes at a leading secondary market platform. Examine the “Authenticity Tech” infrastructure and fulfillment networks that dictate pricing stability and brand equity in the circular economy.
Strategic Framing with Industry Leadership:
Mapping the Digital Landscape: A strategic deep dive with Pablo Mauron, DLG China Managing Partner, and the agency team into the algorithms and platforms shaping Chinese consumer behavior in China’s rapidly evolving luxury market.
Premium Retail Immersion: Tour premier properties from Swire and Hang Lung to analyze China’s evolving retail landscape. Focus areas include the tenant mix (global luxury vs. local labels) and the shift toward experiential retail, assessing impacts on mall architecture and shopper engagement.
Western Adaptation & High-End Experiences:
Western Luxury, Local Lens: Trace how global Maisons are recalibrating for Chinese consumers across Jingan District, from the cultural showcase of Louis Vuitton’s “The Louis” to the retail realities of Zhangyuan, Sephora, and Zara.
Premium Cultural Touchpoints: Showcase high-end cultural experiences unique to China to understand how global luxury must integrate into local heritage to stay relevant.
Private Dinner: Join a private dinner at Le Bec (Bund City Hall) where French culinary art meets Shanghai heritage. Dinner will feature a secret guest speaker sharing hard-won insights into running a business in China.
A note on the digital safari
Throughout the week, participants are set up in advance with the apps a local consumer relies on, including Alipay, WeChat, and RED, and use them live during the visits. Shopping and moving through the market the way Chinese consumers do is part of the method, not a sidebar.
Weekend Immersion Tracks
🚄 A Weekend in Datong: Where China Became China | Oct. 24-25 | Datong, Shanxi
Datong isn’t on most itineraries. That’s the point. In the 5th century, Datong was the capital of the Northern Wei — a dynasty founded by the Xianbei, a non-Han nomadic group from China’s northern frontier, who chose to assimilate into Chinese civilization rather than rule over it as outsiders. That choice, and the century of upheaval and reinvention it triggered, is carved directly into the cliffs at Yungang Grottoes.
But history is never just history here; it is an economic lifeline. Beneath the ancient cliffs runs a second, more urgent story: Datong itself. Once a coal powerhouse that hit an economic wall, the city gambled its survival on a controversial bet—tearing down the new to rebuild the old. Today, that gamble is being stress-tested by a surge in domestic “heritage tourism,” accelerated by a surprise catalyst: a hit video game, Black Myth: Wukong. We won’t just admire the temples; we will sit with the tension between preservation and progress, examining how a controversial mayor’s vision is playing out on the ground.
Datong is a miniature of the Chinese model: resilient, contradictory, and constantly rewriting its future by reclaiming its past. It is a perspective no boardroom or briefing deck can replicate.
This tour is led by Steven Xiao, who would be no stranger to the participants of our second tour. Steven was born and raised in Beijing, and somewhere along the way to a decade-plus career in finance across New York and Shanghai, picked up a second, far more consuming interest: the Buddhist art carved into cliffsides and caves centuries before anyone thought to build a spreadsheet. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Columbia University, which he has never once used to explain any of this. History and Buddhist art are his real vocation, pursued not from an armchair but from the caves themselves, tracing early Buddhist civilization across the furthest reaches of the Silk Road. This October, he trades the boardroom for a cliffside in Datong, leading the tour’s extension there.
Core Highlights
Yungang Grottoes — The Evolution of Identity:
Spend a full day at this UNESCO site to witness 60,000 Buddhist statues. We decode the visible stylistic shift—from Central Asian and Gandharan forms to distinctly Chinese aesthetics—which serves as the clearest physical record of how Chinese identity was built through absorption, not purity.
History Becomes Tactile
Studio Simulation: Within a working studio, observe masters tending fragile heritage. Guided by their hands, we attempt careful brushwork on replica surfaces, feeling our pulse sync to the quiet rhythm of history.
Architectural Continuity — Liao-Jin Dynasty Temples:
Walk through history at Shanhua Si and Huayan Si, two of China’s best-preserved wooden structures from the Liao and Jin dynasties. These sites anchor Datong’s status as a millennium-long nexus of religious and architectural innovation.
The Economic Pivot — Coal to Culture:
Investigate Datong’s fraught transition from a declining coal hub to a heritage tourism hotspot. We analyze the legacy of controversial urban reconstruction and the “video game dividend”—the surge in domestic tourism driven by pop culture—to understand the risks and rewards of betting a city’s future on its past.
Unscripted Local Life & Gastronomy:
Eat as Datong eats. Start with hand-pulled Shanxi noodles and mutton shaomai at a bustling morning wet market, then wander the old city’s night market. With ample unstructured time, engage directly with residents to grasp the human dimension of this industrial and cultural metamorphosis.
🎁 The Hidden Engine of Global Consumption-How Small Commodities Move the World | Oct. 31-Nov 1 | Yiwu, Zhejiang
Yiwu is the pulse point of global micro-multinationals. Often overlooked by traditional investors, this city in Zhejiang province supplies over 80% of the world’s Christmas decorations, 70% of Christmas trees, and a dominant majority of the small commodities found in dollar stores from Ohio to Oslo. It is the physical manifestation of China’s supply chain dominance—where a $0.10 hairclip can move across continents with algorithmic precision. Yet, beneath the surface of “low-end” goods, Yiwu is undergoing a radical transformation into a high-efficiency, digital-first logistics and new-energy export hub.
This tour is led by David Fishman, a Principal at The Lantau Group (TLG), a leading Asia-focused energy consultancy based in Shanghai. Having lived and worked in China for 15 years, David specializes in China’s energy sector, industrial development, trade, and political economy. His work has included advising multinational corporations, financial institutions, and industrial clients on topics ranging from power markets and manufacturing competitiveness to supply chains and regional development.
Beyond his professional work, David has traveled extensively throughout China and has a longstanding interest in economic geography, local development, and social ethnography. His research and writing explore how Chinese communities, businesses, and institutions interact with broader trends in globalization, industrialization, and international trade. Combining policy expertise with extensive firsthand experience, he offers a grounded perspective on how China’s economy functions beyond the major coastal cities and financial centers.
Core Highlights
The Commodity Matrix: Yiwu International Trade City
The World’s Largest SME Showroom: Navigate the sprawling 5.5 million sqm marketplace, and experience the immense scale of the world’s top wholesale market in person.
New Energy Products Hall: Conduct impromptu interviews with exporters shipping solar panels, lithium batteries, and EV components to emerging markets, gauging real-time export sentiment and margin structures.
Mock Sourcing: A mock sourcing exercise across the vast halls of the Yiwu International Trade City. You’ll walk the floor, pick products, ask questions about pricing and lead times, and experience the thrill—and the pressure—of making sourcing decisions on the spot.
Next-Gen Commerce: Yiwu Global Digital Trade Center (GDEC)
The Physical-Digital Nexus: Exclusive access to Yiwu’s flagship “city of the future,” launched last year. We tour the integrated complex where physical showrooms meet the Digital Trade Hub. Understand how the integration of physical showrooms, the Digital Trade Hub, and AI-powered matchmaking compresses transaction cycles for millions of SMEs.
Logistics Under the Lens: The Bonded Zone & China-Europe Railway
Bonded Zone Deep Dive: Enter the world’s busiest cross-border e-commerce trade zone. Analyze Customs Innovation—specifically the “bonded display and trade” model—and dissect the cold-chain and high-value logistics chains that fuel Yiwu’s import-export flywheel.
Continental Railhead: Stand atop the China-Europe Railway Terminal to witness the “iron camel caravans.” Observe container sorting at scale and decode the multimodal (rail-sea-air) transport strategies.
Production Reality Check
The Factory Floor: Step inside a Yiwu factory floor to trace the product journey from raw materials to finished goods, gaining firsthand insight into China’s export engine.
🍷Curious China: A People-First Weekend in China’s Southern Capital | Nov. 7-8 & Nov 13-14 | Nanjing, Jiangsu
Nanjing served as the capital of six dynasties, the Republic of China, and remains a regional center today. Its city walls, lakes, Republican-era neighborhoods and everyday street life reveal how different layers of Chinese history continue to shape contemporary life.
Rather than moving through a checklist of landmarks, this weekend is designed around people, conversation and a slower rhythm. Shared meals, local encounters and thoughtfully paced walks create space to understand the city through those who live there.
The experience is led by Michelle Wei, a Nanjing native who spent 17 years living and working across the United States, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Germany. Cornell-trained in hospitality, with a professional background spanning private equity, real estate investment and cross-border capital raising, Michelle brings both local roots and an international perspective. She will introduce participants to a curated circle of local thinkers, practitioners and friends, turning the city itself into a setting for exchange.
Core Highlights
Welcome Dinner
The weekend begins with an intimate dinner bringing together participants and selected local guests. Over a warm, unhurried meal, conversations introduce Nanjing through personal stories, lived experience and different perspectives on the city.
A Layered Immersion in Nanjing
Walk along the City Wall and Xuanwu Lake, where monumental history meets the routines of contemporary urban life.
Explore the Qinhuai River and its surrounding neighborhoods in the evening, encountering the waterways, architecture, food and social traditions that have shaped the city for centuries.
Stroll the sycamore-shaded boulevards of Yihe Road, where Republican-era villas whisper the quiet elegance of old Nanjing.
Discover Nanjing’s gold-leaf tradition through a hands-on cultural session. Participants will learn how this highly refined craft has been preserved and adapted, and create a personal keepsake connected to the city’s living heritage.
Reflection and Connection
Unstructured time, shared meals and moments of reflection are deliberately built into the itinerary. These pauses allow conversations to develop naturally—about history, identity, cultural difference and the changing rhythms of life in China.
This is not simply a weekend of sightseeing. It is an invitation to experience Nanjing as a living city, through the relationships, memories and everyday practices that give it meaning.
Note: The Nanjing weekend tour will run across two independent sessions:
Session 1: Nov 7–8
Session 2: Nov 13–14
Each session operates as a standalone immersion with independent registration. Participants may select either date; programming remains identical across both sessions.
Pricing and Important Details
To maintain the quality of dialogue and ensure meaningful interactions among investors and industry leaders, participation is by application only (you may fill in the application form here), with each tour limited to 20 seats.
Pricing & Discounts
Each tour offers three pricing tiers:
Standard Rate
Early Bird Discount: 10% off-Valid through 11:59 PM Beijing Time on September 13, 2026
Returnee Discount: 20% off-Available for previous Baiguan tour participants
Discount Policies:
Early Bird and Returnee discounts are non-combinable. Both are calculated on the Standard Rate; in cases of dual eligibility, the lower of the two rates applies automatically.
Multi-Tour Savings: Register for two or more tours to save even more. This deduction applies to your post-Early Bird or post-Returnee total:
Total < $10,000 USD → Deduct $500 USD
Total $10,000–$20,000 USD → Deduct $1,000 USD
Total $20,000–$30,000 USD → Deduct $2,000 USD
Total $30,000–$40,000 USD → Deduct $3,000 USD
Total >$40,000 USD → Deduct $4,000 USD
Illustrative Example:
Scenario: You are a Returnee registering for two tours during the Early Bird window.
Base Discount: Two tours at standard rate ($2,500 + $ 15000 = $17,500). We apply your 20% Returnee discount: $17,500* ( 1 - 20% ) = $14,000
Multi-Tour Credit: Your adjusted total qualifies for a $1,000 deduction.
Final Fee: $14,000 - $1000 = $13,000
What’s Included:
Five-star Hotels (eg., Sheraton, Westin, InterContinental) or character-filled equivalent stays on weekend immersion to enhance the local experience
Travel insurance
All scheduled company visits and seminars
All breakfast, lunch and some dinners
All ground transportation during the tour
What’s Not Included:
International/domestic flights to/from the destination city
Chinese visa application fees
Personal expenses
Certain dinners are not included in the standard program and will be clearly marked in the final detailed itinerary.
Applications, Refunds & Cancellations
Cancel ≥30 days prior to the tour start date: Full Refund
Cancel between 15~30 days (inclusive of Day 15) before the tour start date: 50% Refund
Cancel <15 days before the start date (any reason, including visa issues): No Refund
All time references shall be based on China Standard Time (Beijing Time, GMT+8)
Requests must be sent in writing to Baiguan_ChinaTour@bigonelab.com
Refunds will be processed minus a non-refundable administrative/service fee, the exact amount of which is subject to the applicable payment platform’s charges.
To apply, please click or scan to fill out this form: Baiguan China Tour Application Form - Autumn 2026
What to expect next:
Upon reviewing your application, we will notify you of the outcome within 3 business days. If accepted, we will contact you to arrange payment and discuss next steps.
We understand that emails can sometimes end up in your spam folder. If you don’t hear from us within 3 business days, please check your spam folder.
Once your payment is processed, your seat will be officially secured. We will follow up with an email to gather additional details to enhance your experience, such as arrival information, dietary restrictions, or any special accommodation needs.
About one week before the program begins, we will reach out with the exact daily schedules, meeting spots, and an introductory brochure about the companies we will be visiting. We will also create a designated WeChat group for participants and invite you to join.
Testimonials from Previous Tours
“About halfway through the tour, we went out to dinner, and it was a notable turning point where everyone loosened up. One great aspect of this tour is that the interest and domain is specific enough to draw out a diverse set of backgrounds, all of whom you’re interested in getting to know, and beyond getting the opportunity to pick everyone’s brains, you can become friends as well.” — Tech industry expert
“Came with intention to learn more about China, ended up with not only succeeding the original intention but also meeting new friends with diverse backgrounds.” — Family office 2nd generation leader
“Robert and Amber were awesome hosts. The trip is extremely insightful regardless if it’s your first time in China, a China-curious repeat visitor or even an an investor living in Shanghai.”— Investor, VC
I just want to thank Robert, Amber and both the Baiguan + FO Insights team for organizing this China Tour. It has been such a wonderful experience for me. One memorable experience was visiting Yowant’s X27 mall. Just mind-blown by the sheer scale of livestreaming in China. This is unlike any other “investor trip” and I really got to meet many interesting companies, analysts and other financial experts on the ground. Thank you so much! :)— Investor & entrepreneur
Deep Robotics demonstration of their robots, visitng Alibaba cloud center and Xi hu university
It was an incredible opportunity to gain first hand exposure to the Chinese consumer market and witness how homegrown tech companies are playing a crucial role in AI/robotics space. The Baiguan and FOI team deep connections and expertise in the market definitely helped contextualized some of the market nuances. — Fintech Senior management, personal investor
Baiguan’s tour has provided independent, objective and insightful perspectives for global investors. — CIO private wealth
The Baiguan China Discovery Tour provided a unique opportunity to meet with a number of businesses from different industries. The presentations and discussions gave a good idea about the business models and how they deal with the current situation in the Chinese market. It was an action packed program that gave us many new insights.
But the best was how the group spirit evolved, fueled by the hosts’ organizing skills and hospitality. We came as individual professionals interested in getting to know China on the ground. We left as a group of friends sharing an exceptional experience. — Founder, AI-based cloud solution
Amber and Robert were incredible hosts and curated a great tour of uniquely chosen companies and a gathering of diverse attendees with whom there was truly great chemistry. I would love to do this conference again next year. — Managing Partner, PE
For more details about our previous programs and field trip notes, visit here