Study Abroad China – 2016 | UTRGV School of Art
Beijing | Hunan | Guangxi / May 16 – June 3, 2016
E-mail: robert.gilbert@utrgv.edu / ping.xu@utrgv.edu
Beijing – The Capital City of China
BEIJING
Beijing is a city of ancient wonders and modern marvels that instills
intrigue and amazement amongst an eagerly watching global audience.
Through its bold achievements of the 21st century, the capital city of the
most populous country and the fastest growing economy in the world
today. What makes Beijing simply unmatchable as a destination, are its
famous, but long inaccessible ancient wonders – the Great Wall of China
and the Forbidden City, and many more, which make for magical venues
that create the ultimate wow factor for events on a grand scale or even
for something more intimate.
Beijing is ultimately the city of today where everyone wants to meet and
the city of the past, that, like Marco Polo, everyone wants to explore.
Authentic cultural experiences and local activities at street level
complement Beijing’s grand icons, contributing to unique and varied
incentive and social activities that provide memorable experiences like
nowhere else on earth.
MEET & GREET AT THE AIRPORT
Arrive at Beijing Capital International Airport.
You will obtain a luggage cart and collect your luggage from the
carousel. After collecting your luggage, you will exit from the hall.
Upon exiting we will be picked up by a Beijing based international
travel agency with signage. We will be directed by the travel agency
staff to waiting deluxe air conditioned transportation.
An English-speaking guide will provide commentary en route,
including an overview of the visit and key points of interest.
Hotel: Beijing He Yi Hotel - 3.5*
Beijing Tiantan Heyi Hotel offers well-appointed guestrooms
and free WiFi in all areas. Free private parking is available on site. Qianmen
Street is 3.8 km away, while Tiananmen Square is 5 km from the hotel.
The rooms are air-conditioned and include a flat-screen TV. Each room includes
a private bathroom where you may find a walk-in shower. Laundry service is
available here. You may store your luggage at the reception. Guests in need
can avail of the business centre.
Date
Morning
Lunch
Afternoon
Diner
Day 1
5/18
Yonghe Lama Temple
Lunch at Local Chinese
Restaurant
Free time at Nan Luo Gu Xiang Street
& Liuli Chang Art Market
Diner at Local Chinese
Restaurant
Day 2
5/19
Summer Palace
Lunch at Local Chinese
Restaurant
Tian'anmen Sqaure
Forbidden City & Jingshan Park
Peking Duck diner at Local
Chinese Restaurant
Day 3
5/20
Great Wall at Mutianyu Section,
chair lift up & toboggan down
BBQ Trout lunch at Xiao
Long Pu Restaurant
Bird's Nest & Water Cube - outside look &
acrobatic show
Diner at Local Chinese
Restaurant
Day 4
5/21
Temple of Heaven &
Pan Jia Yuan Antique Market
Hot Pot lunch at Local
Restaurant
798 Art District,
Departure transfer to Beijing West Railway
Station
Overnight train to Hengyang
Diner on Train
Day 1 : Yonghe Lama Temple & free time at Nan Luo Gu Xiang Street
NAN LUO GU XIANG
Nan Luo Gu Xiang stretches from the Gulou East St. in the north and to the Di'anmen
East St. in the south with 786 meters long and 8 meters wide, it was built in 1267,
the same time when Yuan Da Du was constructed.
Nan Luo Gu Xiang was built under the architectural concept of "residential blocks" -with the lane serving as the axis dividing 8 parallel Hutongs on each side, thus
forming the outline of a fish skeleton, or a "Centipede ",therefore, the lane was also
called "Wugong (Centipede) Lane". Nan Luo Gu Xiang is the only remaining
traditional residential area in China that still fully preserves the chess-board style
layout of Hutongs typically found in the Yuan Dynasty, with its scale, quality and
historical value unmatched by any other lanes.
Nan Luo Gu Xiang was among the first 25 areas listed for historical preservation by
the Beijing Municipal Government in November 1990. Currently, within the Nan Luo
Gu Xiang area, one site has been listed for national level preservation, 11 sites for
municipal level preservation, and 10 sites for district level preservation. With its
impressive historical and cultural legacy, Nan Luo Gu Xiang has become a renowned
e area for tourism and cultural creativity in the ancient capital of Beijing.
Day 2 Morning Tour : Summer Palace
SUMMER PALACE
Empress Dowager Cixi began rebuilding in 1888 with funds for navy
development. The Summer Palace is huge, most of it being taken up
by Kunming Lake. You will enjoy a boat ride on the lake and walk
along the Long Corridor. This 728-metre long open-sided corridor has
273 sections. The beams of the corridor are painted with more than
14,000 painting. It likes a silk ribbon connecting the Longevity Hill
with the palace at the East Palace Gate.
The Summer Palace is one of the finest landmarks in Beijing. It has
long been a royal garden and was considerably enlarged and
embellished by Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century and was later
abandoned.
Day 2 Afternoon Tour : Tian'anmen Square & Forbidden City
YOUR TITLE HERE
Tiananmen Square
is the largest public square in the world. It has long been a gathering place for locals and visitors alike. On the north side
of the square is Tiananmen Gate (the Rostrum). It was from the balcony of the Rostrum on October 1, 1949 where Mao Zedong, chairman of the
Communist Party, proclaimed the founding of the People‘s Republic of China. Mao gazes south from a huge portrait on the south side of the gate onto
Tiananmen Square. Behind the Rostrum lies the Forbidden City, also known as the Imperial Palace.
The Forbidden City (Imperial Palace), directly behind the Rostrum, was home to 24 emperors beginning with its creation by Emperor Yongle in 1420 until
the last Qing emperor, Puyi, left in 1924. The entire complex consists of 8,706 rooms in which an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people lived including 3,000
eunuchs, as well as maids and concubines, all within 170 acres. Behind walls more than 30 feet high and within the 160-foot moat, complex rules and
rituals dictated life in the Imperial Palace. Strictly off-limits to Chinese ordinary people (hence the name) the gates today lead to a fascinating display of
Chinese history in what is probably the best-preserved site of classical Chinese architecture.
Day 2 Afternoon Tour : Jin Shan Park
JING SHAN PARK
Jingshan Park is situated just north of the Palace Museum. From the
Yuan Dynasty onwards, this area was a "forbidden garden". Opened to
the public in 1928, it formally became a park after 1949. The Hill was
built up from mud dredged from the surrounding lakes and moats at
the time of the construction of the Yuan capital Dadu. At that time it
was known as Green Hill. During the Ming Dynasty, it was enlarged to
its present size and, because coal was stored at the foot of the hill, it
became known as the Coal Hill. In the time of Qianlong (1736-1796), a
palace was built on the North Slope and a tile-glazed pavilion built on
its peak. Because the hillside was planted with numerous fruit trees,
the park was also known for a time as the Garden of a Hundred Fruits
(Baiguoyuan).
Day 3 Morning Hero Tour : Great Wall at Mutianyu Section,
chair lift up & toboggan down
GREAT WALL
MUTIANYU SECTION
Despite the hundreds of buses that visit
daily, the Great Wall is not as crowded
as the nearby Badaling or Juyongguan
sections of the Wall. Mutianyu’s 2.5
kilometer stretch of the Wall allows you
to walk for more than an hour as you
explore 22 watchtowers and the valley
on both sides of the Wall. In late
afternoon, or in poor weather, you
often might find yourself alone with
only the sound of the wind to keep you
company. Travel back in time and see
the Wall as it was when it was built
hundreds of years ago.
Day 3 Afternoon Tour : Bird's Nest & Water Cube - outside look
OLYMPIC PARK
The Beijing National Stadium, also known as the bird's nest will be the main track and field stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics and will be
host to the Opening and Closing ceremonies. The stadium is 330 meters long by 220 meters wide, and is 69.2 meters tall. The 250,000 square
meter (gross floor area) stadium is to be built with 36 km of unwrapped steel, with a combined weight of 45,000 tonnes. The stadium will cost
up to 3.5 billion yuan (422,873,850 USD/ 325,395,593 EUR). The ground was broken in December 2003, and construction started in March 2004,
but was halted by the high construction cost in August 2004.
The National Aquatics Center, also known as 'The Water Cube', is one of the most dramatic and exciting venues to host sporting events for the
Beijing Olympics in 2008. The structural design is based on the natural formation of soap bubbles which give a random, organic appearance. To
achieve this, research was undertaken by Weaire and Phelan (professors of physics) into how soap bubbles might be arranged into an infinite
array.
Day 3 Night : Acrobatic Show
ACROBATIC SHOW
Chaoyang Theatre works mainly on the performance of
acrobatic show. Established in 1984, the theatre covers an area
of 3,000 sq. m, including a hall and three movie halls. In 1986 it
was assigned by Beijing Municipality as the fixed place for
tourism performance and was designated as the National
Cultural Advanced Unit by Ministry of Culture of People’s
Republic of China. In order to meet the need of tourism market,
the theatre put forward a notion of “Acrobatics World” to
enrich the contents. In the past 20 years or so, it has received
more than three million foreign audiences and has been in
charge of tens of safeguards of important people who visited
there, such as the president of Czech and the officers from the
International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Day 4 Morning Cultural Tour : Temple of Heaven
TEMPLE OF HEAVEN
The Temple of Heaven is a sequence of temples and altars set in a park.
Chinese philosophers considered heaven the source of harmony and
spiritual authority. The architecture reflects that sense of order; the
northern wall of the complex is curved in a half circle to symbolize heaven,
and the southern wall of the complex is built as a square to symbolize earth.
Whereas most imperial buildings have yellow roof tiles, the blue tiles here
echo the colour of the sky. The main buildings and altars are also built in
tiers of three to create nine dimensions of surface. Nine is the mystical
number in Chinese tradition and it also symbolizes heaven. The dominant
feature of the whole complex is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.
Amazingly, the wooden pillars ingeniously support the ceiling without nails
or cement.
Day 4 Morning Cultural Tour : Pan Jia Yuan Antique Market
Day 4 Afternoon Tour : 798 Art District
798 ART DISTRICT
"798" is located in the Dashanzi area, to the northeast of central Beijing. It is the
site of state-owned factories including Factory 798, which originally produced
electronics. It became a "Soho-esque" area of international character, replete
with "loft living," attracting attention from all around.
Bringing together contemporary art, architecture, and culture with a historically
interesting location and an urban lifestyle, "798" has evolved into a cultural
concept, of interest to experts and normal folk alike, influential on our concepts
of both urban culture and living space.
Day 4 Night : Departure transfer to Beijing West Railway
Station. Overnight train to Hengyang, Hunan
Day 5 : Mount Heng (Hengshan) / Hunan Province
Mount Heng (Hengshan) is located in Hunan and is one
of the Five Great Mountains in China. At the foot of the mountain stands
the largest temple in southern China, the Grand Temple of Mount Heng
(Nanyue Damiao), which is the largest group of ancient buildings in
Hunan Province.
Day 6 : Yong Zhou, Shanggantang Village / Hunan Province
Shanggantang Village
Shanggantang Village near Xiemu River in Jiangyong County, central
China's Hunan Province. Shanggantang Village, with a history of more
than 1,000 years, locates at 25 kilometers southwest of Jiangyong and has
more than 400 families. Most of the villagers are surnamed Zhou. Until
now, there still remains more than 200 resident houses and a number of
other historical relics built in the Ming [1368-1644] and Qing [1644-1911]
dynasties.
Day 10 : Guilin / Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
Guilin is a city in the northeast of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous
Region, China, situated on the west bank of the Li River, and bordering
Hunan to the north. Its name means, "Forest of Sweet Osmanthus",
owing to the large number of fragrant Sweet Osmanthus trees located
in the city. The city has long been renowned for its scenery of karst
topography and is one of China's most popular tourist destinations. The
most famous attractions of Guilin city are 3 hills and 2 caves such as
Elephant Trunk Hill and Qixing Park.
Day 11 & 12 : Li River National Park
Guilin is a scenic town and one of the best-known tourist
destinations in China. Guilin Li River National Park in
Guangxi is the first batch National Park of China.
Li River, between Guilin and Yangshuo is one of the most
beautiful sceneries of China.
Day 13 : Yangshuo
Yangshuo is a county under the jurisdiction of Guilin City, in the northeast of Guangxi,
China. Its seat is located in Yangshuo Town. Surrounded by karst peaks and bordered on one
side by the Li River it is easily accessible by bus or by boat from nearby Guilin.
Today, the town has become a resort destination for both domestic and foreign travelers.
There is a lot to explore in Yangshuo. The West Street of Yangshuo has become a must-visit
place. The history of West Street dates back to over 1400 years ago. At that time, there were
only a few grocery stores in the street. Now, it has become a popular street that you can find
many foreigners walking around the street and even become the boss of a bar or restaurant.