Mrs Zhang loves to travel, but she looks down on the group tours that take busloads of the merely rich to clean out all the luxury goods on the Champs-de-Elyse.

"Though the common tourism trips can take you shopping in France, they can't provide you with decent places to drink, opportunities to chat in a chateau, and chances to learn about French dishes," she told the Metropolitan. She did not give her full name for fear of exposing her wealth and coming across badly.

Mrs Zhang prefers customized luxury tours, which have taken her from the center of the civilized world to its most untamed regions in unsurpassed style and comfort.

Well, almost unsurpassed. She confesses that the most she has spent on a customized luxury tour was 200,000 yuan ($32,560) for a bespoke trip to the South Pole. But earlier this year, the trend of Chinese luxury tours captured international attention when it was widely reported that a Chinese PhD student booked a $1.5 million tour of every UNESCO World Heritage Site in the world - or at least all of the 962 sites that are safe and practical to visit.

Zhang Bingjie, who works at VanGO, a company specializing in customized tours, says most customers don't simply want a luxury tour, but also demand specific services.

Most are interested in immigration, applying to schools for their children, and seeking investment opportunities abroad.

"For instance, for those interested in investment, we introduce them to investment opportunities overseas, and arrange meetings with the local businessmen," she said, noting that America is the top choice for making money.

The pricing is based on the customers' desires. "For instance, some want to take a private jet, while some customers only want a business class flight, so the prices are calculated differently," said Zhang Bingjie.

Zhang Yang, who represents Lavion, a Beijing travel company which focuses on luxury medical travel, told the Metropolitan that the luxury customer tour industry started developing here in 2009.

Her company offers specialized tours for people who want an expert physical examination, or treatments to delay the aging process.

"We have private assistants who accompany the customers 24 hours a day. The assistants must have at least three years' overseas experiences. The customers can also take a private doctor," she said.

Zhang Yang's company also provides other experts. Once it employed a local astronomer to accompany customers who wanted to see the northern lights in Norway.

For Mrs Zhang, to choose a luxury custom tour means that you can always live in the best hotels with the best scenery.

She once lived in a hotel inside the garden of the Palace of Versailles, with a view of the whole palace. She said booking the exclusive hotel would have been almost impossible without the help of the tour agency.

She also took a six-deck cruise ship equipped like a five-star hotel, with a swimming pool, library and sauna to Antarctica. She transferred to a small boat and went to the isolated islands.

"It's amazing that I got very close and touched animals like seals and sea birds in the South Pole. I saw more than 200,000 penguins on an island, where they were incubating their baby penguins,"she recalls.

She said the South Pole looks like a black and white ink painting, and the icebergs were exactly like those in movie Titanic.

Zhang Yang of Lavion sees a good future ahead; she said the customized luxury tour market in China is far from saturated.