LEGAL · LAST UPDATED 2026-09-12 · VERSION 2.3.0

Terms of Service

InChina Terms of Service

Last Updated: 2026-09-12 Version: 2.3.0

Welcome to InChina ("InChina", "we", "us", or "our"), an AI-powered travel-planning application designed for international travelers visiting China. These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the InChina mobile application and any related services (collectively, the "Service"). By creating an account, signing in, or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

1. About Us

The Service is operated by Guizhou Tipshark Technology Co., Ltd (Chinese: 贵州蒂普鲨克科技有限公司), a company registered in the People's Republic of China.

Unified Social Credit Code: 91520115MAEQUL875P
Registered Address: Guanshan Lake District, Guiyang, Guizhou, China
Contact Email: support@inchinatravel.com

2. Description of the Service

InChina is a multi-purpose AI-Agent application for international travelers coming to China. Through coordinated multi-agent technology, it compresses the experience of an unfamiliar country into a simple three-step flow: swipe cards → confirm itinerary → follow along. Core features include:

AI-generated travel itineraries
Curated travel cards (places, experiences) you can browse, save, and share as an image
Multi-day itinerary management and an in-trip companion (route, transit directions, and trip notes)
A map with route planning that can use your location
Translation of text, images (menus and signs), and speech, including real-time voice interpretation, using on-device or cloud processing depending on the option you choose
Hand-drawn route map exports, which cost credits (Section 6)
Shareable read-only links to an itinerary (Section 6C)
Requests for in-person guide and driver services delivered by licensed providers in China (Sections 7A and 7B)
A referral programme (Section 6B)
Personal account, security settings, and data export

We may update, add, or discontinue features at our sole discretion.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years old to create an account and use the Service.

We do not ask for your date of birth, so we cannot check your age when you register. If we learn that an account holder is under 16, we will close the account and redact the personal details held against it without undue delay. If you believe someone under 16 has registered, write to support@inchinatravel.com.

4. Accounts and Security

4.1 Registration

To use account-bound features (saving cards, generating itineraries, viewing your profile), you must create an account by providing a username, password, and a valid email address. You may also sign in with your Apple or Google account, in which case we receive the details described in Section 2.4 of the Privacy Policy. You may browse the Service anonymously without registering, but write operations require a logged-in account.

4.2 Credentials

You are responsible for keeping your password confidential.
You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account.
We use industry-standard password hashing (BCrypt, cost factor 12). We do not store plaintext passwords.
If you forget your password, you may reset it via the email-based recovery flow.

4.3 Session and Token Lifetime

Once you sign in, your session remains active under a sliding-window 90-day refresh policy: as long as you open the app at least once every 90 days, you will not be asked to sign in again. After 90 days of inactivity, you will be required to sign in again.

4.4 Multiple Devices

You may sign in on multiple devices. You can view all active sessions and remotely revoke any of them from your profile. Changing your password automatically revokes all other sessions.

4.5 Account Deletion

You may request deletion of your account at any time. The request is held for 30 days, during which you can cancel it. After 30 days we deactivate the account: any Apple or Google sign-in identities linked to it are deleted, every session is revoked, and the account is marked deleted and can no longer be signed into.

Once this happens the account is permanently disabled and can never be signed into again. What we keep afterwards is limited to business records — itineraries, saved cards, credit transactions, service enquiries, and messages — retained for the periods set out in Section 6 of the Privacy Policy, together with the internal row they attach to. That row no longer works as an account; it exists only so the business records stay coherent.

If you want the personal details on the account record removed as well, email support@inchinatravel.com from your registered address and ask us to redact them. We will clear your username, email address, nickname, avatar, and push token from that record.

You may export your account data at any time; Section 7 of the Privacy Policy explains what the export contains and how to ask for the rest.

5. Acceptable Use

You agree NOT to:

Use the Service in violation of any applicable law or these Terms;
Attempt to circumvent rate limits, usage limits, or security mechanisms;
Use automated tools, bots, or scripts to access the Service without our prior written permission;
Submit content that is unlawful, infringing, defamatory, obscene, or fraudulent;
Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service, or attempt to gain unauthorized access;
Use the Service to harass, threaten, or harm any person;
Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any part of the Service.

Enforcement Tiers

Violations will be addressed proportionately: Warning → Feature Restriction → Account Suspension or Termination, at our reasonable discretion based on severity and repetition.

6. AI-Generated Content and Credits

6.1 Credits

Access to AI generation is metered by in-app credits.

Generating an itinerary costs a flat 50 credits, whatever the length of the trip.
Exporting a hand-drawn route map costs 10 credits. Re-exporting a map we have already produced for that itinerary is free.
Translation and video analysis do not cost credits.
Credits are only consumed on successful generations. Failures and cancellations are not charged.

New accounts receive 50 credits when the app is first installed on a device, and 50 more when you verify your email address. There is no daily credit refill. During a published promotion we may grant additional credits on top of these amounts; the amount, the trigger and the dates are set out in that promotion's terms, which are shown in the app and on our website.

Credits you buy do not expire. Credits we grant do not expire either; if we ever introduce an expiry for granted credits, we will tell you before it takes effect. Credits have no cash value, cannot be exchanged for money, cannot be transferred between accounts, and cannot be used to pay for in-person services (Section 7A.6). We may change credit costs and grant amounts as we tune the Service.

6.2 Intellectual Property in Content

Your original content (e.g., trip preferences you submit): you retain all rights.
AI-generated content (itineraries produced by our models): you receive a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license to use the output for personal travel-planning purposes. We retain the right to use anonymized and aggregated generation data to improve our models and Service.
Service content (curated cards, descriptions, imagery we provide): owned by us or our licensors; you may view and use it within the Service but may not reproduce, redistribute, or commercially exploit it without permission.

6.3 Accuracy of AI Output

Itineraries, travel recommendations, business hours, transit details, translations, and similar information produced by the Service are generated by AI models and are provided for reference only. They may be inaccurate, outdated, or incomplete. You are solely responsible for verifying critical information (visas, transportation, accommodations, safety) through authoritative sources before acting on it.

Where an itinerary, a translation, or a route map is produced by an AI model, it is machine-generated content. Treat it as a draft written by a well-read stranger, not as advice from a professional.

6A. In-App Purchases

The app sells credit packs through Apple's In-App Purchase system. They appear on the Credits screen with their current prices.

Credit packs are consumable. Buying one adds credits to your balance immediately. We sometimes run promotions, such as extra credits on a first purchase; the bonus is shown before you confirm.

Payment. Apple takes the payment, applies local taxes, and issues the receipt. We never see your card or wallet details. Prices are set per storefront and may change.

Refunds. Refunds for in-app purchases are handled by Apple under the Apple Media Services Terms, not by us. When Apple tells us a purchase has been refunded, we remove what it granted: the credits are deducted from your balance, which can leave it at zero or block further generation.

Restoring purchases. Consumable credits are held against your account rather than your device, so they follow your account when you reinstall the app or sign in on another device.

Consumer rights. Nothing here removes any statutory right of withdrawal, cancellation, or refund you hold under the law of your place of residence.

6B. Referral Programme

You can invite other people to InChina with a personal invite code, shown on the Referral screen.

Your invite link and invite code identify your account to anyone you send them to.
Someone who signs up with your code receives credits when they register. You receive credits once their sign-up qualifies, which happens after an observation period rather than immediately.
Reaching a set number of qualified referrals earns a one-off credits bonus.
You earn a percentage of the credits bought by people you invited, up to a monthly ceiling.
The current amounts, the observation period, and the ceiling are shown on the Referral screen.

When rewards are withheld or taken back. You cannot refer yourself. An account can be bound to one referrer only, once. There is a daily limit on how many referrals can qualify, and referrals cannot be applied retroactively beyond a fixed window. If a purchase that earned you a rebate is refunded, we take the rebate back. Where we find behaviour designed to manufacture referrals, such as duplicate or automated sign-ups, coordinated abuse, or accounts created to farm rewards, we may withhold rewards, reverse rewards already granted, and remove you from the programme.

Referral rewards are credits. They are not money, have no cash value, and are subject to Section 6.1 and Section 6A.

We may change or end the referral programme at any time. Rewards already earned and not obtained by abuse will be honoured.

6C. Sharing an Itinerary

You can create a share link for an itinerary.

A share link is public. Anyone who has the link can open the itinerary in a browser without signing in, and can pass the link on. If the link is posted somewhere public, a search engine may index the page. Treat it as publishing, not as sending.

The shared page is a reduced view. It shows the days, places, and route. It leaves out the preferences you entered, your budget, your travel dates, your private notes, and the cost breakdown.

You can revoke a share link at any time from the itinerary. Revoking stops the page from loading, though anything already copied or cached elsewhere is beyond our reach.

6D. Planner Consultation ("Ask a Planner")

Some itineraries offer a paid consultation with a human travel planner (a "planner seat"). When the feature is not available in your region or at the current time, no entry point is shown in the app.

What it is. A planner seat is a digital information service: you can ask questions about one specific itinerary and a human planner replies inside the app. It is not a booking, concierge, or travel-agency service. Planners answer in English only.
Price and limits. Opening a seat costs credits; the exact price is shown on the purchase screen before you confirm. A seat is tied to a single itinerary. You can ask as many questions as you need while the seat is open, subject to fair use. An account can hold a limited number of open seats at a time; the limit is shown when you reach it.
Response time. We aim to send the first reply within 24 hours on working days (Monday–Saturday, Asia/Shanghai time). If a question has gone unanswered for 48 working hours, the seat closes automatically and the credits are refunded in full.
Validity. A seat stays open for at least 30 days and at most 90 days from purchase; where the trip dates allow, it covers your trip plus 7 days after the trip ends. The exact expiry date is shown in the seat view.
Refunds. Credits are returned in full, to the balance they were taken from, when (a) the seat closes without a planner ever having replied to a question you asked, or (b) we close the seat because your questions fall outside what a planner can answer. Credits are not refunded once a planner has replied and the seat later closes normally, and they are not refunded where a seat is closed for abuse. Each seat is refunded at most once.
Out-of-scope topics — for example visa, immigration, medical, or legal advice — are not answered. Questions we cannot answer do not use up your seat: see refund case (b) above.
No bookings or payments. Planners do not book, reserve, or pay for anything on your behalf, and will never ask for card or payment details. If you want in-person services such as a guide or a driver, that is handled separately through the service enquiry flow described in Section 7A — never through a planner seat.

7. Travel-Related Disclaimers

The Service provides travel-planning assistance, not professional travel-agent services. We do not:

Book or ticket flights, trains, hotels or other third-party travel services on your behalf (in-person guide and driver bookings are covered by Section 7A);
Issue visas or insurance;
Guarantee the availability, quality, price, or safety of any third-party venue, experience, or service mentioned in the Service.

Travel risks are borne entirely by you. This includes but is not limited to: physical safety at any location, weather conditions, political events, transit disruptions, and health considerations. Always consult official government travel advisories and local authorities.

7A. In-Person Guide & Driver Services

InChina lets you request in-person services for days on your itinerary, such as a local guide or a car with driver. These services are delivered by licensed travel agencies and guides in China, not by InChina. This section explains how that works and what you are agreeing to when you send a request.

7A.1 What InChina does, and what it does not do

The app prices the service, takes your booking, and collects 30% of the price online when you confirm. That 30% is made up of a platform service fee (shown in the app as the booking fee) and a service prepayment. InChina holds the service prepayment until the service has been delivered and then passes it to the Provider.
The service itself is delivered by a travel agency or a guide licensed in the People's Republic of China (the "Provider"). The Provider's legal name and licence number are stated on the booking confirmation for your trip. Your contract for the in-person service is with the Provider, not with InChina. InChina is not the seller of the in-person service and is not a party to that contract.
The remaining 70%, the balance, is paid to the Provider on the service day, through the Provider's business payment channel. Nobody should ever ask you to transfer money to a personal bank account or scan a personal payment code. If anyone does, refuse and email support@inchinatravel.com.

7A.2 Prices are fixed

The price shown in the app is calculated from our published rate tables for the days, the service level and the vehicle you chose. It is the price you pay: we do not mark it up after you send a request, and confirming does not put it back up for negotiation.

What we still have to check is availability. Sending a request is free and commits you to nothing, and nothing is charged while we check. If a request cannot be priced from the rate tables, for example a large group or an unusual route, we price it by hand and tell you the price before you confirm anything.

7A.3 How a request becomes a booking

You submit a request in the app. This is free and does not commit you to anything.
Our team checks availability with the Provider and replies through the app's message center, and by email to your account address (or to the email you gave in the request).
Once a Provider has held a guide for your dates, we send you a booking confirmation offer: the price, how it splits between the 30% paid online and the balance paid on the day, the Provider and guide we have arranged, and a deadline. There is a deadline because the slot cannot be held open indefinitely.
You confirm in the app and pay the 30% online before that deadline. Your dates are held once we have received the payment, not when you press confirm. If the deadline passes first, we release the hold, nothing is charged, and your request stays open. Tell us and we will check the dates again.
Once the payment has reached us, the app shows your booking confirmation: the Provider's legal name and licence number, the guide's name and licence number, what is included, what you have paid and what is still due on the day, the cancellation policy, and a six-character pairing code. You can open it without a network connection.
If the Provider has to send a different guide, we update the confirmation and let you know. Your pairing code stays the same.
On the day, ask the guide to read out the pairing code before you show your passport, sign anything or pay the balance. Every other detail on the confirmation is printed for anyone to read, so the code is what tells you the person in front of you is the right one.

If you change the number of travellers on the confirmation page, we have to price the service again, so we send the request back to our team rather than confirm it.

7A.4 Payment

Online, to InChina: 30% of the price, made up of the booking fee and the service prepayment. Today that payment is made by scanning our business payment code with Alipay or WeChat. Those apps may add their own fee when you pay with an international card; the app tells you before you pay.
On the day, to the Provider: the balance, through the Provider's business payment channel. Never to a personal account or a personal payment code.
We hold the service prepayment until the service has been delivered, and pass it to the Provider afterwards. We do not hold the balance at any point.
Amounts above card or wallet limits are handled by the Provider through a payment link; the Provider will not split a payment into smaller ones to get around limits.
Refunds, where due, are always returned through the channel you paid with, to the same account. Neither InChina nor the Provider will redirect a refund to a different person or account.

7A.5 Cancellation and refunds

You can close a request in the app, free of charge, at any time before you pay. That includes after a quote or a booking confirmation offer has been sent. Nothing has been paid at that point, so there is nothing to refund.

Once you have paid, the table below applies, counted against the local start time of the first booked service day. The booking fee is returned in full in every row: it is what you paid us for arranging the booking, and we do not keep it when the booking does not happen.

When you cancel	Booking fee	Service prepayment
7 or more days before	Refunded in full	Refunded in full
3 to 7 days before	Refunded in full	Refunded less 1/3
24 hours to 3 days before	Refunded in full	Refunded less 2/3
Within 24 hours, or no-show	Refunded in full	Not refunded
The Provider cancels, at any time	Refunded in full	Refunded in full, plus compensation

Public holiday dates (Labour Day, National Day, Spring Festival) use the stricter row: 3 to 7 days before becomes "less 2/3", and anything closer than that is not refunded.

What is deducted from the service prepayment goes to the Provider, which has already held the dates and turned other work away. The app shows you which row you fall into, and what comes back to you, before you confirm the cancellation.

We start the refund within 5 business days of your cancellation, back to the account you paid from. How long it then takes to reach your card depends on your payment provider and your issuing bank, and is outside our control.

The balance is never part of this: you have not paid it yet, and if the service does not happen you do not pay it.

7A.6 Credits

App credits cannot be used to pay for, or offset the cost of, in-person services, in whole or in part. They are a separate digital product governed by Section 6.1 and Section 6A of these Terms.

7A.7 Liability

The Provider is responsible for the delivery, safety and quality of in-person services, as required by Chinese travel regulations. InChina's role is limited to pricing the service, arranging the booking, collecting the online payment and holding the service prepayment until the service has been delivered, and our liability is limited accordingly (see Section 10). This does not limit any rights you hold against the Provider under applicable law, or any liability that cannot be excluded by law.

7B. In-Person Services: Safety and Disputes

You can use the app to ask about a local guide or a car with driver for days on your itinerary. Read this section before you send a request.

7B.1 Who provides the service

The guide and the vehicle come from a licensed local travel agency, or from a licensed guide working independently. Your booking confirmation says which of the two you have. InChina is not the provider. We price the service, arrange the booking, and collect the 30% you pay online. The provider arranges the day, delivers it, and takes the balance from you in China. Your contract for the service itself is with the provider.

We do not employ, train, or background-check guides, and we do not verify individual guide credentials. The provider is licensed under Chinese travel regulations and is responsible for the day it delivers. Where that provider is an agency, it is also responsible for the people it sends.

A guide working independently is not covered by an agency's liability insurance. Read 7B.4 before you accept a quote from one.

7B.2 The balance is paid outside the app

You pay 30% online to InChina when you confirm (Section 7A.4). The balance is paid to the provider on the service day, and it must go through a business payment channel. If anyone asks you to transfer money to a personal account or to scan a personal payment code, refuse, and email support@inchinatravel.com with the details. That applies to us too: InChina's own payment code is a business account, and we will never ask you to pay a member of staff personally.

7B.3 If something goes wrong

Raise it with the guide or the provider first. On the day, they are the only people who can change anything.

If that does not settle it, write to us. Reply in the enquiry thread in the app or email support@inchinatravel.com, and include the enquiry number.

We will put your account of it to the provider, ask for their side, and tell you what they say. We may stop working with a provider because of what we learn.

We are not an arbitrator, and we do not promise a response time or a particular outcome. The part we can act on is the money we hold: the booking fee and the service prepayment, which we refund under Section 7A.5. The balance you pay the provider on the day is between you and the provider, and ultimately a matter for Chinese law.

You can also complain about a licensed agency or guide to the Chinese authorities on 12301, the national tourism service hotline.

7B.4 Insurance

InChina does not provide insurance of any kind for in-person services, and we do not verify what cover the provider carries. Buy your own travel insurance before you travel and check that it covers what you have planned to do. If cover matters to you, ask the provider what it holds before you accept a quote. A guide working independently is not covered by an agency's liability insurance.

7B.5 Emergencies

We do not run an emergency line, and nobody is watching the app overnight.

In China the emergency numbers are 110 for police, 119 for fire, and 120 for an ambulance. Use those first. Contact your embassy or consulate if you need consular help.

7B.6 Conduct

Treat the guide as you would a colleague. Do not ask them to break the law, to drive beyond legal hours, or to take you into areas closed to foreign visitors. They can refuse.

The same applies the other way. If a guide behaves in a way that leaves you unsafe or uncomfortable, you can end the day and leave. Tell us afterwards.

7B.7 How this sits with the rest of these Terms

Section 7 (Travel-Related Disclaimers) and Section 10 (Limitation of Liability) apply here in full. Nothing in this section limits rights you have against the provider under applicable law, or any liability that cannot be excluded by law.

8. Third-Party Services

Running the Service depends on third parties. Hosting, storage, and content delivery; the AI models that generate itineraries and translations; maps, points of interest, and routing; weather; rail and flight timetables; email delivery; push notifications; crash reporting; and payment processing are all supplied by outside providers, some of them in mainland China and some outside it.

Section 4 of the Privacy Policy lists each provider, what it is used for, what data reaches it, and where it sits. Their use is governed by their own terms.

Where the app hands you off to another app or website, such as a ride-hailing app, Apple Maps, or a booking site, you leave InChina at that point and the other party's terms and privacy policy apply.

9. Service Availability

The Service is provided "as-is" and "as-available" without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, or uninterrupted operation. We do not guarantee that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of harmful components.

10. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall InChina, its operating company, affiliates, directors, employees, or licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages (including lost profits, lost data, business interruption, or travel-related losses), arising out of or relating to your use of the Service, whether based in contract, tort, or any other legal theory, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

In jurisdictions that do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, our liability shall be limited to the greatest extent permitted by law.

11. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, with or without notice, if you violate these Terms or if continued provision would, in our reasonable judgment, expose us or other users to legal, security, or reputational risk.

Upon termination:

You may continue to export your data for 30 days from the date of the termination notice;
The account is then deactivated on the same basis as Section 4.5, and the records described there are retained for the periods in Section 6 of the Privacy Policy.

Unused credits are forfeited if we terminate your account for a breach of these Terms. If we terminate for any other reason, write to support@inchinatravel.com and we will deal with what is left on the account.

You may terminate your account at any time as described in Section 4.5.

12. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the People's Republic of China, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles.

Protection of Mandatory Local Rights for Users Outside Mainland China

Nothing in these Terms shall be interpreted to reduce or eliminate the mandatory rights of users that arise under the laws of their place of residence, including but not limited to: rights of EU/EEA and UK residents under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and UK Data Protection Act; rights of California residents under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA); and equivalent consumer-protection rights in other jurisdictions. To the extent any provision of these Terms conflicts with such mandatory law, that mandatory law prevails for the affected user.

13. Dispute Resolution

13.1 Good-Faith Negotiation First

Before initiating any formal proceedings, the parties shall attempt in good faith to resolve any dispute through written negotiation, starting with a written notice describing the dispute sent to support@inchinatravel.com. The parties shall engage in negotiation for at least thirty (30) days from the date of such notice.

13.2 If Negotiation Fails

If the dispute cannot be resolved through negotiation within thirty (30) days, either party may, at its option, elect ONE of the following:

(a) Arbitration. Submit the dispute to the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) Shanghai Sub-Commission for arbitration in accordance with CIETAC's arbitration rules then in effect. The arbitration shall be conducted in English (with Chinese translation available upon request), the seat of arbitration shall be Shanghai, and the arbitral award shall be final and binding on both parties. The award shall be enforceable in any jurisdiction that is a party to the New York Convention.

(b) Litigation. File a lawsuit in the People's Court of Guanshan Lake District, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China.

The electing party shall notify the other party in writing of its choice.

14. Changes to These Terms

We may revise these Terms from time to time. When we do, we publish the revised text in the app under Profile → Legal and on inchinatravel.com, and we change the version number and the date at the top of this document.

For a material change, meaning one that alters what you are agreeing to, such as new categories of data, a new paid product, or a change to your rights, we will also post a notice in the app's message centre.

There is no click-through re-acceptance step. Continuing to use the Service on or after the effective date means you accept the revised Terms. If you do not accept them, stop using the Service; you can delete your account under Section 4.5.

The version number above is incremented for material changes.

15. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect, and the invalid provision shall be reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable while preserving its original intent.

16. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service, and supersede all prior agreements, communications, and understandings.

17. Contact

For questions about these Terms, please contact:

Guizhou Tipshark Technology Co., Ltd Email: support@inchinatravel.com Address: Guanshan Lake District, Guiyang, Guizhou, China