PLANNING
Planning a treatment trip around one appointment
A treatment trip is mostly an ordinary trip with one fixed point in the middle. This page is the calendar around that point: how many days to block, what to book in what order, what to bring, and which hours to leave deliberately empty.
Three days is the common shape. Arrive and consult, treat and recover, then a review before you fly.
Book in this order. Consultation, entry route, dates, then flights. Buying flights first is the usual mistake.
Leave the last day open. Plans change at the review, and a fixed departure is what turns a change into a problem.
HOW LONG
How many days to block
Long enough that nothing is rushed, short enough that you are not sitting around a hotel waiting for an appointment.
| Day | What it holds | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Arrival day | Transfer from the airport or station to your hotel, settle in | Your transfer from Nanjing Lukou or Nanjing South is arranged. Keep the evening gentle — a long-haul arrival is not the best state for a first consultation. |
| Clinic day | Consultation, tests, treatment | The day is deliberately light. Nothing is done that leaves you needing a recovery room. |
| Departure day | In-person review, then the transfer back | You are seen before you fly, so anything early is noticed while you are still here. |
When it takes less
Some plans genuinely are a single appointment with a review the next morning. Your coordinator will say so when the plan is set, and there is no virtue in blocking days you do not need.
When it takes more
Programmes that run across sessions need more than one trip, and that is decided at the consultation rather than discovered on arrival. If a second session is likely, keep your departure flexible when you book.
Add a day for the city
If you are flying this far, the city is worth a day of its own — before the appointment rather than after it, so nothing clinical is fitted into a tired day. What to do with those days.
Add a day for jet lag
Arriving rested makes the first consultation more useful than arriving straight from a night flight. One buffer day is the cheapest insurance on this list.
ORDER OF OPERATIONS
What to book, in what order
The sequence matters more than the speed. Each step narrows the next one.
-
01
The free video consultation
Everything else depends on what the physician says here: whether the treatment suits you, how many sessions, and whether a trip is worth making at all. No deposit, no prepayment, nothing paid online.
-
02
Your entry route
Which route your passport uses, and what documents it needs. Settled before flights, because it can take weeks — visas and entry.
-
03
Dates around the physician's schedule
Your coordinator confirms which dates the physician has, rather than you guessing and rebooking. This is also the moment to ask about hotel areas.
-
04
Flights and hotel
Only now. And if plans change, telling us at least 72 hours before the appointment costs you nothing — that is the arrangement, not a favour.
-
05
The practical set-up
Payments, a data plan and transport apps working before you board. What to set up — done at home, where you can still fix it.
WHEN TO COME
Choosing the dates
Two things decide it: the weather you want to walk around in, and how busy the country is that week.
Seasons
Autumn is the comfortable peak, spring is mild and busy, summer is hot and humid, winter is cold, damp and quiet. The full version is on the Nanjing page.
Holiday weeks
China's national holidays move enormous numbers of people at once — trains sell out and cities fill. If you want a calm trip, check the holiday dates for your year before you book.
Flights in
Nanjing Lukou has direct flights from a number of Southeast Asian cities; the list is on Why China. If a direct route does not exist for your dates, Shanghai is about an hour and a quarter away by high-speed rail, and the transfer from either is arranged.
Where to stay
Central Xinjiekou for convenience and malls; near the Confucius Temple for atmosphere. Which one makes your clinic days easier is worth asking the coordinator once the appointment is set.
PACKING
What to bring
Nothing unusual. A short list of things that are annoying to need and have left at home.
- Passport, plus a photo of it. Hotels, trains and attraction bookings all want it. Keep a copy separate from the original.
- Working payments. A phone wallet set up and tested before you fly, an international card that your bank knows you are travelling with, and some cash.
- A universal adaptor. Mains power is 220V and socket shapes are not uniform.
- Your own medication, in its original packaging, with the prescription — and check before you fly that it is permitted to bring in.
- A note of what you have had done before. Product names, dates and anything you did not like about the result. It is the most useful ten minutes of a consultation.
- Hat, sunglasses and comfortable loose clothing. For the city, and for the days around the appointment — your written aftercare instructions decide what to avoid, so ask at the consultation rather than guessing from a page.
- Printed bookings. Hotel, onward travel and any museum or attraction reservation made against your passport.
WHAT TO LEAVE OPEN
The hours you should not fill
An over-planned trip is the one that goes wrong. These are the slots worth leaving empty on purpose.
The clinic day
Not the day for a museum across town or a dinner on the other side of the city. Consultation and treatment take the day they take, and squeezing it is how people end up rushed.
The morning after
Keep it quiet and near the hotel. What you may or may not do afterwards is written in your aftercare instructions — this page will not second-guess them.
The last day
You are reviewed in person before you leave, and the physician may say something that changes the plan. Book a departure that can absorb that, not one that leaves an hour after the review.
A slot for a second session
If the plan is likely to run across sessions, you will be told before you fly — not by email a month later. Leaving room for it is cheaper than rebooking a flight.
A slot for nothing
One afternoon with no plan at all, in a city you flew a long way to see. People who schedule every hour come home having seen less.
Your return paperwork
You leave with your clinical record, written aftercare instructions and the follow-up schedule — in one place, handed over at departure. Keep them accessible on the way home.
After you are home. Twelve months of scheduled online follow-up, with the first check-in at two weeks. You can write at any point in between. That schedule, and the eight steps it belongs to, is on your journey.
No deposit. No prepayment. You pay at the clinic.
You pay after your in-person consultation, before treatment begins. The price we quote online is the price you pay — in writing.
We do not share the medical details you enter here with advertising platforms.