Study Abroad China – 2016 | UTRGV School of Art Beijing | Hunan | Guangxi / May 16 – June 3, 2016E-mail: robert.gilbert@utrgv.edu / ping.xu@utrgv.edu

Beijing – The Capital City of China

BEIJINGBeijing 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 AIRPORTArrive 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 15/18 Yonghe Lama Temple

Lunch at Local Chinese Restaurant Free time at Nan Luo Gu Xiang Street

& Liuli Chang Art MarketDiner at Local Chinese

Restaurant

Day 25/19 Summer Palace Lunch at Local Chinese

RestaurantTian'anmen Sqaure

Forbidden City & Jingshan ParkPeking Duck diner at Local

Chinese Restaurant

Day 35/20

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 45/21

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

NAN LUO GU XIANGNan 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 1 : Yonghe Lama Temple & free time at Nan Luo Gu Xiang Street

SUMMER PALACEEmpress 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 Morning Tour : Summer Palace

YOUR TITLE HERETiananmen 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 : Tian'anmen Square & Forbidden City

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 2 Afternoon Tour : Jin Shan Park

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 Morning Hero Tour : Great Wall at Mutianyu Section, chair lift up & toboggan down

OLYMPIC PARKThe 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 Afternoon Tour : Bird's Nest & Water Cube - outside look

ACROBATIC SHOWChaoyang 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 3 Night : Acrobatic Show

TEMPLE OF HEAVENThe 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 : Temple of Heaven

Day 4 Morning Cultural Tour : Pan Jia Yuan Antique Market

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 Afternoon Tour : 798 Art District

Day 4 Night : Departure transfer to Beijing West Railway Station. Overnight train to Hengyang, Hunan

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 5 : Mount Heng (Hengshan) / Hunan Province

Shanggantang VillageShanggantang 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 6 : Yong Zhou, Shanggantang Village / Hunan Province

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 10 : Guilin / Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

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 11 & 12 : Li River National Park

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.

Day 13 : Yangshuo