China

The format follows the European clinic rather than the Asian retreat. You arrive, you are assessed, and the days are built around consultations, diagnostics and treatments rather than around yoga at dawn. Programmes run in fixed lengths, typically three, five or seven days, and the shorter ones are real: a three day stay here is a diagnostic sprint, not a taster.

The medical claim is the point. Expect blood panels, body composition, functional assessment and a written report at the end, delivered by physicians rather than practitioners. At the properties operating under a European licence the protocols and the training come from the parent clinic, which is what makes the claim credible this early in the country’s wellness history.

Where China genuinely adds something is at the edges of that protocol. Traditional Chinese medicine, constitutional diagnosis, tea culture and the surrounding landscape are woven in rather than bolted on, and the food follows the same logic. A well designed stay here feels less like a European cure translated into Mandarin and more like two traditions arguing productively.

The cluster that matters sits inland from the Shanghai corridor, in the bamboo and tea country of Zhejiang and Jiangsu. Anji is roughly 180 kilometres west of Shanghai and about three hours by road, through hills that grow the white tea the county is known for. Nanjing is a little further north. Both are reached through Shanghai rather than flown to directly.

Shanghai Pudong is the arrival point for almost every international guest, and the transfer is a long one, which shapes the trip: nobody should be planning a two night stay here. Seven nights is the length at which the flight, the transfer and the programme all justify each other.

Timing matters more than in Europe. The Yangtze delta summer is hot and very humid from June to August, and the winter is damp and cold. Spring and autumn are the seasons to book, and they are also when the landscape that the properties are selling actually looks the way it does in the photographs.

Visas are the first thing to resolve. China has expanded visa free transit and visa free entry for a growing list of nationalities, but the rules change frequently and the terms differ by passport and by port of entry. Check the current position for your nationality before booking anything non refundable, and do not rely on what was true last year.

Practicalities are genuinely different from Europe. Mobile payment is close to universal and cash is awkward, so set up an international card inside a Chinese payment app before arrival. Expect to need a virtual private network for the services you use daily. English is spoken well at the international properties and hardly at all between them, so let the property arrange the transfer rather than improvising.

This is not a cheap destination. The internationally branded resorts are priced at European clinic levels, and the programme is charged per person on top of the room in most cases. What you are buying at this stage is novelty and a very high staff to guest ratio, not a saving.