The China Trip Planner is a free tool on galuzina.com, built for entrepreneurs, procurement managers, and anyone organizing business trips to China. It lets you assemble a day-by-day itinerary in minutes, calculate intercity travel, get transport and leisure tips, print a ready plan with names in three languages, and share it. It also works great for those traveling to China for tourism. This article is a step-by-step guide covering all features of the planner.
1. What Is the Trip Planner and Who It's For
The Trip Planner is an interactive calendar-builder that helps you:
- Combine supplier meetings, industry trade shows, and leisure activities in a single trip;
- Visualize trip logistics on a map so you can plan the route yourself;
- Auto-calculate distances between cities and suggest transport (taxi, train, or flight);
- Add exhibitions and suppliers to your itinerary from the suggested list;
- Optimize the route based on distances between stops and your plans;
- Get recommendations on hotels, leisure, and important dates;
- Print your itinerary with names in English, Russian, and Chinese — especially helpful for communicating with taxi drivers and navigating on the ground;
- Share your trip plan — send a link via email or copy it. Colleagues can view the itinerary in read-only mode, no account needed.
The tool is completely free. Available in Russian, English, and Chinese (language switcher in the top-right corner of the site).
2. How to Access the Trip Planner
On the 'Trip Planner' page, click 'Start Planning' — you'll enter the trip editor interface.
3. Registration: Why and How
You can create trip plans without registration. But to save trips and sync them across devices, you need an account.
- Click 'Login' in the site navigation.
- Select 'Register', enter your email, password, and (optionally) name.
- After registration, you'll receive an email with a confirmation link — click it.
- Done: now all your trips, favorite exhibitions, and suppliers are saved in your account.
If you're not registered, a banner prompting you to create an account will appear when you try to save a trip.
4. Preparation: Saving Suppliers and Exhibitions to Favorites
Before creating a trip, it's useful to build a 'portfolio' of points of interest. The site has two main sections for this:
4.1. China Manufacturing Map ('[Suppliers](/suppliers)' section)
This section gathers manufacturing clusters by city and industry. You can:
- Search by product or industry (e.g., 'electronics', 'furniture', 'machinery');
- Filter by region and city;
- Click on a city to see details: industries, key products, manufacturer offices, nearby exhibitions.
Add any supplier to favorites — just click the heart ❤️ on the card.
4.2. China Exhibitions Calendar ('[Exhibitions](/exhibitions)' section)
A full calendar of trade shows: Canton Fair, Automechanika Shanghai, SNEC, and dozens more. Filters available:
- By importance: must-visit, important, regional;
- By industry and city;
- Upcoming only.
Same here — click the heart ❤️ to save an exhibition to favorites.
5. Creating a New Trip
- Go to the 'Trip Planner' section (galuzina.com/en/trips).
- Click 'New Trip'.
- A three-step planning wizard opens:
Step 1 — Trip Name and Dates
Enter the trip name (top left) and select the start and end dates in the calendar.
Step 2 — Arrival and Departure
Specify your arrival city and departure city. This is important for calculating the overall route.
Step 3 — Trip Plan
The main editor screen where you build your schedule (see section 6).
You can go back and change parameters at any stage. On the Planner's main page, there's a 'Page Guide' at the top right that briefly shows all Planner features.
6. Working with the Calendar: Drag & Drop, Slots, Settings
After creating a trip, you enter the calendar editor. This is the central element of the planner.
6.1. Calendar Structure
Each day of the trip is divided into three time slots:
- Morning
- Afternoon
- Evening
This level of detail helps distribute meetings realistically — you won't schedule three supplier visits in one morning.
6.2. Actions with Calendar Items
Each card on the calendar can be:
- Dragged to another day or slot;
- Extended to the next slot (arrow button);
- Removed from a slot and deleted (X button);
- Dragged to the trash (bottom of the page);
- Annotated — add a note, meeting time, address;
- Locked (🔒) — a locked item won't be moved during route optimization.
IMPORTANT: exhibitions are automatically locked — their dates are fixed and don't change during optimization. Suppliers are unlocked by default, and the optimizer can rearrange them.
7. Sidebar: Drag Sources
7.1. Favorites Tab
All suppliers and exhibitions you've previously saved. Drag any card into the desired day and slot.
7.2. Search Tab
- Enter a company/exhibition name.
- Drag the displayed companies and exhibitions into your trip plan for the desired day and slot.
IMPORTANT: dragging an exhibition is only possible if its dates match your trip dates.
7.3. Adding a Custom Stop
If you need to add a point not in your favorites (e.g., flight from Beijing, transfer, lunch with a partner):
- In 'Add a stop' on the left, enter a name (e.g., 'Flight from Shanghai').
- Select a city from the dropdown.
- A card will appear automatically.
- Drag it to the desired day and slot.
7.4. Suppliers by Category
- Specify which product/equipment categories you're looking for — the planner will suggest relevant suppliers in route cities as cards.
- You can set a tentative date and time right on the card.
- Click 'Add' and it will be added to the calendar.
The suggestion search radius defines how far from your route points to search for suppliers and attractions.
7.5. Leisure
When you have free time, you can choose what to do:
- 🛍 Shopping
- 🎢 Theme Parks
- ⚽ Sports
- 🏃 Running (jogging routes)
- 🎭 Culture (museums, theaters, historical sites)
- 🌿 Nature (parks, mountains, lakes)
- 🌃 Nightlife
- 🍜 Food (restaurants, street food)
- 👨👩👧👦 Family
- 💆 Wellness & Spa
- Pick your interest categories.
- Set a Budget for free-time ideas (optional) — so recommendations match your financial expectations.
- Set the Trip Pace (optional) — relaxed or packed (max meetings).
- Set 'Already Seen — don't suggest again' — a list of places you've already visited to exclude from recommendations.
7.6. Import Meetings as a List
If you already have a ready list of meetings in a spreadsheet or document, you don't need to drag them one by one — use the import:
- In the left sidebar, go to the 'Import' tab.
- Click the '📋 Import meetings' button.
- Paste your meeting list in the format:
`supplier|Company Name|Comment|YYYY-MM-DD|city`
`event|Exhibition Name|Booth H12|YYYY-MM-DD|city`
- Type — supplier or event (optional).
- Name — company or event name.
- Comment — any note.
- Date — YYYY-MM-DD format (optional).
- City — city name (e.g., Shanghai).
- Click 'Parse'. The system will create a card with your pre-set date, or prompt you to pick a date. Click 'Add'. The card is automatically added to the specified date and slot.
Maximum 20 lines at a time.
8. Trip Overview
Once you've built your itinerary, the Planner analyzes it and generates a Trip Overview.
8.1. Route Statistics
The summary at the top shows:
- Number of suppliers (🏭), exhibitions (🎪), leisure activities (🌿), imported meetings (📋);
- Number of days, cities, free days;
- Total trip distance (km) and estimated travel cost.
8.2. Trip Overview Shows
- Each day's activities;
- Intercity travel legs, preferred transport mode, distance, and travel time.
8.3. Trip Distance
Shows distances between route cities, preferred transport mode, and estimated cost.
For each intercity leg, the planner suggests:
- Car / Taxi — for short distances (e.g., Guangzhou — Shenzhen);
- High-speed rail — optimal for medium distances;
- Train or flight — when distance allows both;
- Flight recommended — for long-haul trips (e.g., Beijing — Guangzhou).
9. Trip Map
Below the Trip Overview, an Interactive Trip Map is available.
The map shows:
- All route cities;
- Travel lines between them;
- Transport mode labels for each segment — 🚗 Car / Taxi (short hop), 🚄 High-speed rail, 🚄/✈ Train or flight, ✈ Flight recommended;
- Preferred transport, distance, and travel time.
The map can be expanded to fullscreen, zoomed in/out, and panned. This helps visually assess the trip geography and route logic.
10. Route Optimization
Below the map is the 'Optimize trip' button. This is one of the most powerful planner features — automatic route optimization. When you've added meetings but city order is illogical (e.g., southern Guangzhou first, then northern Beijing, then southern Shenzhen again), click 'Optimize trip'.
How optimization works:
- The planner analyzes all route points and rearranges unlocked items to minimize total distance and make logistics more convenient.
- Locked items (with 🔒) and exhibitions (auto-locked) stay in place.
- Leisure activities that would require extra long-haul flights are removed (the system warns you).
After optimization, you'll see the result: 'Moved N items — saved ~X km of travel.'
IMPORTANT: if all items are locked or no meetings have a city set — there's nothing to optimize. The system will say: 'Nothing to optimize — lock/unlock items or add stops with a city set.'
11. Same-Day Travel Control
Below the map is the 'Max same-day travel to a meeting' parameter. It sets the maximum distance you're willing to cover between two meetings within a single day. If two meetings are in different cities and the distance exceeds this limit, the system shows a warning: 'Long transfer within this day: leg (~X hours) — consider moving a meeting to another day.'
12. Printing the Itinerary and Sharing
12.1. Printing
- Click '🖨 Print itinerary' at the very top.
- A preview window opens with the day-by-day plan.
- Company and exhibition names are duplicated in English and Chinese — specifically so you can show the printout to a taxi driver, hotel front desk, or factory reception.
- 'Download PDF' button — saves the plan as a file.
- 'Close' button — returns to editing.
12.2. Sharing
Click 'Share' → Copy link / Send via email / Scan QR code — the recipient can view the trip plan in read-only mode.
13. Additional Features
13.1. Language Switching
The site and planner are available in three languages: Russian, English, Chinese. The switcher is in the right part of the navigation bar. The interface is fully translated, including all tooltips and element names.
13.2. Responsiveness
The planner is fully adapted for mobile devices — you can edit your itinerary from your phone right during the trip.
13.3. Cross-Device Sync
All trips and favorites are stored in the cloud and sync across devices after logging in. Start planning on your computer — continue on your phone at the airport.
14. Typical Scenario: From Idea to Ready Itinerary in 10 Minutes
Here's what the full planner usage cycle looks like in practice:
- Register on galuzina.com (email + password).
- Optional: open 'Exhibitions', find ones of interest — save to favorites ❤️.
- Optional: open 'Suppliers Map', search for suppliers in your industry — save to favorites ❤️.
- Go to 'Trip Planner' → 'New Trip'.
- Choose dates, arrival city, and departure city.
- Drag suppliers and exhibitions from the 'Favorites' tab into the desired days and slots on the calendar.
- Use Search to find suppliers and exhibitions happening during your trip dates and drag them into slots.
- Add your own Stops (transfers, flights, meetings).
- Choose Suppliers by Category, pick meeting dates. Click 'Add' — the card is automatically added to the appropriate slot.
- If needed, click 'Optimize trip' — the system rearranges the route for minimal distance.
- Enable Leisure (if you have free days) — choose interest categories, budget, and pace, get ideas, and add cards to slots.
- Import meetings if you have a ready list in a spreadsheet or document.
- Click '🖨 Print itinerary' → 'Download PDF' — your itinerary is ready, you're good to go.
- Click 'Share' → Copy link / Send via email — the recipient can view the trip plan in read-only mode.
15. Frequently Asked Questions
Is the planner really free?
Yes, completely. No paid tiers, no limits on trips or meetings.
Which Chinese cities are available in the planner?
All major business and manufacturing hubs: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Yiwu, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan, Xi'an, and dozens more.
Do I need to install an app?
No, the planner works in a browser on any device — computer, tablet, phone.
Is my data saved?
Yes, all trips and favorites are stored in your account and sync across devices.
Can I plan a trip around a specific exhibition?
Yes. Add the exhibition to favorites, then drag it onto the calendar — the planner will arrange supplier visits around that exhibition's dates and city. Exhibitions are automatically locked and won't shift during optimization.
Conclusion
The Trip Planner on galuzina.com is a thoughtfully designed tool that solves several pain points of a business traveler in China at once: from a chaotic list of meetings in a notepad to non-obvious intercity connections and the lack of a printed route in Chinese. Try planning your next trip — it takes just a few minutes, and you'll appreciate the saved hours and stress on your very first business trip.