Day 1 :
Embark on your Mandarin Language Immersion Tour
- Departure from home:
Relax and enjoy your scheduled flight from North America.
Day 2 :
Arrive in Beijing, China
- Upon arrival:
Your 24-hour Tour Director will meet you at the airport and remain with your group throughout your Mandarin language immersion tour in China.
- Beijing overview:
Founded in the 13th century, and home to Ming and Qing dynasty emperors, the capital city of Beijing is one of China's true ancient citadels. After a period of isolation, the modern city is
undergoing significant reform and change, embodying all the fascinating contradictions of modern China. Old Beijing continues to survive in its temples, palaces, and alleyways, often set among sprawling avenues, towering skyscrapers, and shopping malls. Your base for the next seven nights will be in the Beijing area. While here, breakfast will be included at the hotel.
- Orientation session:
You’ll have an orientation meeting to learn relevant health and safety information as well as tools to use when familiarizing yourself with the host country and the program ahead.
- Welcome reception:
Participate in a festive welcome reception with your program leaders.
- Group dinner:
Tonight, your group will enjoy dinner in a local restaurant.
- Daily Reflection and Group Discussion:
"We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience." - John Dewey
On every evening of the program, we’ll set time aside to update your Reflection Journal and share thoughts and impressions that have come up during the day.
Day 3 :
School Exchange and Cooking Class
- Local school visit:
Spend the morning at a local school in Beijing. On the first day, you’ll tour the school's campus in small groups led by local students, then engage in direct cultural exchange through
class lessons, games, activities, and roundtable discussions. While at your host school, you’ll enjoy lunch.*During summer months, the school exchange will be substituted with language classes.
- Authentic Chinese cuisine:
Learn about traditional Chinese cuisine through an interactive cooking class.
- Dinner in a local restaurant:
Tonight, you’ll enjoy a group dinner together.
Day 4 :
School Exchange and Forbidden City
- Local school visit:
Spend the morning at a local school in Beijing. Engage in direct cultural exchange through language lessons, games, and activities.
- Tiananmen Square:
Explore Tiananmen Square, one of the world's largest public squares, equivalent in size to 90 American football fields. In the center of the square stands the Monument to the People's
Heroes (Renmin Yingxiong Jinian Bei), a 38m granite obelisk erected in 1958 and engraved with scenes from famous popular Chinese uprisings.
- Forbidden City:
Discover the Forbidden City, a massive complex of red-walled buildings and pavilions topped by a sea of glazed vermilion tile. Visit the Inner Court, where only the emperor, his family, his
concubines, and the palace eunuchs were allowed; the Hall of Mental Cultivation, where emperors lived after Yongzheng moved out of the Qianqing Gong; and the Nine Dragon Screen, an 11½-foot-high wall covered in glazed tile dragons frolicking above a frothing sea, built to protect the Qianlong emperor from prying eyes and malevolent spirits.
- Dinner in a local restaurant:
Tonight, you’ll enjoy a group dinner.
Day 5 :
School Exchange and Ancient Temples
- Local school visit:
Spend the morning at a local school in Beijing. Engage in direct cultural exchange through language lessons, games, and activities.
- Lama Temple:
Discover the Lama Temple, which is now a typical Tibetan monastery. Having been closed for many years during the Cultural Revolution, it was refurbished and re-opened in 1980—it is now a working monastery with Mongolian Monks. Lama Temple features five large halls and five courtyards with beautifully decorative archways, upturned eaves, and carved details. It houses a treasury of Buddhist art, including sculptured images of gods, demons, and Buddhas, as well as Tibetan-style murals.
- Confucius:
Visit the Confucius Temple, the second-largest temple dedicated to Confucius (the other is in his hometown). The temple features a record of the graduates’ names who completed the Imperial Examination and includes numerous dedications to Confucius and his teachings.
- Dinner in a local restaurant:
Tonight, you’ll enjoy dinner as a group.
Day 6 :
School Exchange and Hutong Tour
- Local school visit:
Spend the morning at a local school in Beijing. Engage in direct cultural exchange through language lessons, games, and activities.
- Hutong tour:
Take a group Beijing Hutong Tour; a hutong is a unique form of traditional Beijing living quarters with a small street or a lane between two courtyards. There are thousands of hutongs in Beijing, most of which were built in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties.
- Dinner in a local restaurant:
Tonight, your group will enjoy dinner together.
Day 7 :
Excursion to Great Wall and Conservation Project
- The Great Wall of China:
A private coach and driver will accompany your group today on a trip outside the city. Visit the Great Wall of China, one of the world’s most awesome and impressive sights. The
series of stone and earthen fortifications snakes its way east to west for nearly 4,000 miles and was built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century AD to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire.
- Volunteer opportunity:
Participate in an environmental conservation project.
- Dinner in a local restaurant:
Enjoy dinner as a group.
Day 8 :
Art in the City
- Tai Chi lesson:
Discover the history of the Chinese martial art, Tai Chi. Learn the moves from an experienced instructor, then practice what you've been taught.
- Temple of Heaven:
Visit the Temple of Heaven, an enormous park and altar directly to the south of the Forbidden City. Each winter solstice, the Ming and Qing emperors would lead a procession here to perform rites and make sacrifices designed to promote the next year’s crops and curry favor with Heaven for the general health of the empire.
- Hongqiao Pearl Market:
You’ll have some free time for shopping at the Hongqiao Pearl Market.
- 798 Art District:
Explore the incredible 798 Art District, or Dashanzi Art District, which is a complex of 50-year-old decommissioned military factory buildings boasting a unique architectural style.
- Karaoke:
Enjoy KTV karaoke night with local friends and your groupmates!
- Dinner in a local restaurant:
Tonight, you’ll enjoy a group dinner together.
Day 9 :
Travel to Chengdu
- Journey to Chengdu:
Take an internal flight from Beijing to Chengdu. Your group will have a private coach and driver while touring for the next two days. For the next two evenings, you’ll stay in a centrally located Chengdu hotel, where daily breakfast will be included.
- Chengdu overview:
The mountain resort of Chengde was founded by the Kangxi emperor in 1703 as a place where the Manchu nobility could escape the Forbidden City and enjoy hunting and martial
sports. The fantastic summer palace and eight temples are set in a river valley surrounded by mountains, ensuring a strategically secure and relaxing destination. Stroll through teahouses, parks, and ancient districts while uncovering the vibrant history and culture of Sichuan's capital city.
- Kuanhzhai Xiangzi:
Explore the incredible maze of Chengdu Kuanzhai Xiangzi alleys. Literally translated into "broad and narrow alleys," Kuaizhai Alleyways is a lively, historical section of Chengdu lined with stalls selling knickknacks and hole-in-the-wall restaurants.
- Traditional Hotpot dinner:
Enjoy a special Hotpot Dinner, where you can hear stories about Chengdu’s history and customs.
Day 10 :
Panda Conservation
- Wolong Nature Preserve:
Travel to the Wolong Nature Preserve to visit the Dàxióngmao Sìyang Chang (Giant Panda Breeding Station), where pandas are housed either in enclosures or in semi-natural habitats. View panda bears and the smaller red pandas. You can even get a bird’s-eye view of the pandas in open-air pens from the elevated trail that runs along an adjacent cliff above the enclosures.
- Dinner in a local restaurant:
Tonight, you’ll enjoy dinner with your group.
Day 11 :
Return to Beijing
- Travel back to Beijing:
Take an internal flight from Chengdu to Beijing.
- Traditional Peking Duck dinner:
This evening, you’ll enjoy a traditional Peking Duck dinner. Peking Duck is a dish from Beijing that has been prepared since the imperial era—the cooked Peking Duck is traditionally carved in front of the diners and served in three stages. You’re sure to enjoy this genuine Chinese dining experience!
- Final Reflection and Discussion Session:
This evening, you’ll make the final entries in your Reflection Journal and share some of the most
significant observations and perspectives that have taken shape during your Mandarin language tour in China. We’ll also discuss how these experiences may be most relevant for us all as we return home.
Day 12 :
Depart for Home
- Farewell:
Your rewarding and enjoyable Chinese Language and Culture in Beijing and Chengdu trip comes to an end as your Tour Director accompanies your group to the airport on your final day.
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