Highlights of the 2016 Trip

Beijing:

The Summer Palace is a beautiful set of buildings on the shores of a small lake. It has the longest covered walkway in the world, with hundreds of different paintings on the ceiling. You will see the Dowager Empress’s marble boat, and ride on a dragon boat.

The beautiful Temple of Heaven is the symbol of Beijing. You will see lots of traditional recreational activities in the park around it

The Great Wall: We will be going to a less crowded and less commercialized section of the Great Wall, at Mutianyu.

Tiananmen Square is the largest public space in the world.

The Forbidden City is massive and amazing, with a series of courtyards and palaces one after another.

We take a rickshaw ride through one of the surviving old neighborhoods, called hutongs.

Pingyao

Pingyao has a largely intact Ming and Qing Dynasty walled town that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is one of the best preserved old towns in China, and we get an opportunity to see the daily lives of ordinary Chinese people.

We walk along the city wall.

We visit many historic sites, including the first bank in China

In the evening, you can explore the ancient streets.

Nanjing:

We will be staying within walking distance of the restored Confucius Temple, and we can see the ancient examination rooms there.

We will walk down the incredible Ming Dynasty Imperial Way, with its huge pairs of stone animals and its court officials, to the Ming Tombs entrance.

We will explore the massive Zhonghua gate and walk on the remains of the city wall.

The sobering Nanjing Massacre Museum commemorates the massacre of 300,000 residents by the Japanese in 1937.

We will walk 360 steps up to Sun Yat Sen’s Mausoleum, but be rewarded with a magnificent view of Nanjing.

We will also visit a folk arts museum in an old mansion in Nanjing

Xian:

The most famous attraction in Xian is, of course, the amazing Terracotta Army.

We will also visit the lesser-known Hangyang Tomb, which has smaller terracotta figures.

Xian has the most ancient site on the trip, the Neolithic village of Banpo.

We will see the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, and the Great Mosque, with their lovely gardens and pavilions

The Museum of Steeles is also very interesting, showing inscriptions on stone tablets and other art.

The city wall of Xian is one of the best surviving walls in China- it is massive and we will walk along it.

This is one of the beautiful towers on the wall.

We will spend time exploring the lively Muslim Street market.

Luoyang:

For the first time, we will travel to the fourth ancient capital, Luoyang, where we will see the famous Buddhist stone carvings in the cliffs at the Longmen Grotto

We will visit the oldest temple in China, the White Horse Temple

We will have free time in the evening to wander round the historic Old Town

In Nanjing, Xian, Luoyang and Taiyuan, we will visit the provincial museums, with their superb collections of Chinese arts.