Time to travel while you are here

1. The question that comes first

You have flown a long way. If you are well and have days free between appointments, wanting to see something is entirely reasonable, and we are not going to be precious about it.

But the order matters. Before you plan a single day of it, put the question to the physician treating you: what activity is sensible, how far can you travel from the institution, what should you avoid, and is there a point in the schedule where you should stay close by. That conversation costs nothing and it is the only one qualified to answer.

We will not answer it. Not because we are being cautious for its own sake, but because we have not examined you and have no standing to have a view. Anyone who tells you a trip is fine without having read your case is guessing with your recovery.

2. How we arrange it

We plan the days around your medical schedule, book the car, the driver and the rooms, and put an interpreter with you if you want one.

Two things stay true however we arrange it. Your treatment schedule comes first, and nothing is quoted to you as one bundled figure covering both treatment and travel, because that makes the medical part of your bill impossible to question or walk away from. You always see what the institution charges, separately.

3. Practical things worth knowing

• Your entry permission has a purpose and a length. Adding travel days to a medical trip is normally fine, but the permitted length of stay is what it is. Check it before you plan around it, see the S2 visa guide.
• Appointments move. Treatment schedules shift by days rather than hours, and a non-refundable booking made around a provisional appointment is money at risk. Book travel that can be changed.
• Insurance rarely follows you. A policy arranged for planned treatment often says nothing useful about an unrelated injury on a mountain three provinces away. Read the geographic and activity clauses, see the insurance guide.
• Distances are large. China is not a country you cross casually between two Tuesday appointments. High-speed rail is excellent and still takes the hours it takes.
• Medicines travel with rules. If you are carrying prescribed medicine, carry the prescription and the documentation with it. We do not handle, collect, carry or forward medicines in any circumstance.

4. What we do, and what we will not do