Every journey we run is capped at eight people. This is not a marketing line; it is a hard constraint of sustainable travel.
Above eight, the impact on a destination is non-linear: restaurants have to stock twice the ingredients, local accommodation is pushed up in price, and heritage sites are overloaded. Below eight, everyone fits in one van, one farmhouse table can be laid, and a tea master is willing to take you into his workshop.
We have run the numbers: within five kilometres of the Tongmu Pass reserve, comfortable accommodation capacity is about eighty people a night; beyond a hundred and fifty a night, local prices rise by more than twenty per cent within a year. That is why we hold the ceiling firmly at eight.
The cost is lower margins and fewer departures. But it is the only way for you to see what we want you to see: a place that has not yet been deformed by visitors.
The eight-person cap has a side effect: fewer departures and a higher unit price. We accept that, because cheap usually means the cost of some part of the chain has been pushed onto the destination.