Educational Tours in China - Cultural Immersion Programs

WildChina - Educational Vacations & Tours:
WildChina is a premium, sustainable travel company based in Beijing offering Interaction, Immersion & Discovery programs in China. Started in 2000 by Mei Zhang, a native of Yunnan Province and a Harvard MBA, WildChina offers distinctive, ecologically sensitive journeys to all corners of China. WildChina Events delivers corporate event management, touring, and team-building in Beijing, Shanghai, Lhasa, Chengdu and Lijiang. WildChina Discovery features excursions with families and schools, highlighting interactive workshops - calligraphy, kite and lantern making, local school visits & homestays, service learning, hikes, and lessons in Chinese culture.

Sample Programs & Tours include
- BEIJING: A grand tour of the imperial capital and China’s
sociopolitical center since the 13th century.

- SHANGHAI/JIANGSU: A journey to China’s central plains, the birthplace of
Chinese culture and society.

- GUANGXI: An voyage into the sights and scenery of Southwest
China immortalized in classical landscape paintings.

- YUNNAN: A study in contrasts between China’s past, present, and
future.

- XINJIANG: A taste of one of China’s most beloved provinces and colorful local minority communities.

Unearthing China’s Prehistoric Past
Trip Focus:
- Paleontology

Since the first fossil was scientifically described more than two hundred years ago, dinosaurs have captured the imagination of people around the world. While many people have seen dinosaur fossils in museums, few have had the chance to hunt for fossils in the field. On this trip, students will have the opportunity to see a world not normally open to the general public. Your students will learn to search for and excavate dinosaurs under the leadership of a world-renowned paleontologist and learn how scientists study dinosaurs – from the initial discovery of fossils in the field to mounting skeletons in museums. Not only will students gain an understanding of how our knowledge of the Earth’s history is being pieced together, but also will have the chance to discover a dinosaur on their own.

On this program, will visit institutions related to fossil research and sites where numerous fossil discoveries have been made. These include: the Fossil Research and Development Center of the Gansu Bureau of Geo-exploration, the Zhongpu Dinosaur Quarries, and Liujiaxia Dinosaur National Geopark.

Throughout the trip, we will be guided by Professor You Hailu, Ph.D,, a University of Pennsylvania graduate with over fifteen years of field and laboratory work on vertebrate fossils. Since 2003, Professor You has named nine new dinosaur genera, placing him among the most prolific dinosaur paleontologists working today.

Highlights:
• Step-by-step training and instruction in fossil digging from expert paleontologists
• Viewing of fossils and dinosaur footprints in the Liujiaxia Dinosaur National Geopark
• Hands-on experience digging for dinosaur fossils in a real dig site
• Lectures on dinosaurs and dinosaur fieldwork by Professor You Hailou, Ph.D.

Volunteering in Ethnic Minority Communities
Trip Focus:
Community service and cultural interaction; Miao ethnic minority art and culture.

Volunteering in Ethnic Minority Communities 5 – 7 day program; recommended seasons: spring and fall Guizhou, a province of vibrant minority cultures, lush terraced rice fields, and rich forests, is one of China’s hidden treasures. Cut off for centuries by rugged mountains and political isolation, Guizhou has maintained an abundance of charm and character. Guizhou has long been considered a remote backwater of China's southwest, largely
untouched by the development seen in surrounding provinces such as Guangxi, Sichuan and Yunnan. Its relative isolation has made the region very poor and one of the least understood parts of China.

Amongst terraced hills and bamboo forests of Guizhou’s countryside, we will visit a local Miao village. Due to their geographic isolation and limited access to roads, the local villages have preserved much of their traditional architecture and cultural traditions. Unfortunately, lack of exposure to the outside world has also meant that this region has not experienced the same level of economic development as other parts of China.

As a part of our journey, students will have the opportunity to give something back to the local communities we visit. We work closely with villages and communities to find projects that make a real difference in the lives of local people. Projects may include helping villagers repair roads, building a community library, and constructing a basketball court for the local school.

Tracking Wild Panda Footprints
Trip Focus: Conservation

Even a 3-year-old child can point to this picture and say, "Pandas!" -but few people understand their behavior in the wild. WildChina is launching a series of exclusive journeys exploring the core conservation areas in western China where the bulk of the world’s remaining 1,600 wild pandas live. These trips will build off of WildChina’s unique partnership with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Sichuan province, through which we have trained local staff on how to develop sustainable eco-tourism programs.

This journey will be centered around Sichuan’s Wanglang Nature Reserve. Travelers will hike through bamboo and rhododendron forests, accompanied by Reserve staff, to track panda routes and help monitor infrared cameras that record evidence of their presence and behavior. We’ll learn about other rare wildlife, too, like golden monkeys, red pandas, takins and birds, and get up close to pandas by visiting a base that protects, breeds and studies them in an enclosed environment.

Our trip also allows explorations of Sichuan’s amazing natural scenery, including the colorful foliage and ponds at the popular Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve, and its local Tibetan traditions.

Central China Community Service
Trip Focus:
Community service and cultural interaction

South of the Yangtze River in Anhui Province lies a region once famed for its artistic achievement, scholarship, and prosperity. This region, ttraditionally known as Huizhou, still possesses much of its distinctive Ming and Qing dynasty architecture scattered throughout villages.

However, today Anhui is one of China’s poorest provinces, slipping steadily towards the bottom of the UN’s ‘Human Development Index’ China league table. Huangcun is a small, agricultural village of approximately 400 people in the Huizhou region. Villagers here still plow their rice paddies with water buffaloes, and pick and sort their tea by hand. Students will meet some of these villagers, and spend a night in a rebuild antique courtyard home. They will learn Huangcun’s traditional basket weaving and furniture making from local masters, and play games with the village’s children. They will also engage in a service project, such as building greenhouse tents for Huangcun farmers to grow organic produce and helping farmers with digging, planting, tilling, and other farm work.

We will also conduct service projects at Shimenxiang Elementary School, which serves nearly 300 elementary and middle school students from the surrounding villages. Many of Shimenxiang’s students live far from school, and must stay in dorms during the week. The school’s most pressing needs are for books – there currently is no library, materials for basic upkeep (such as paint), and sports equipment.

Highlights:
• Farming projects and service work with local Huangcun villagers
• Dumpling making challenge and cooking lesson in local village homes
• Traditional basket weaving and furniture making workshops with master village artisans
• Sports games and service work with students at Shimenxiang Elementary School
• Collaborative painting activity in the beautiful Chengkan Village

The Southern Silk Road: Tea & Horse Caravan Trail
Trip Focus:
Cultural interaction; history

For centuries, Yunnan has served as the crossroads for trade routes linking China to Southeast Asia, Tibet, and the Indian subcontinent.

The most important of these trade routes, known as the chamadao or “tea and horse trail,” brought famed Tibetan warhorses and other colorful mountain goods to the Chinese empire in exchange for tea, sugar and salt from Sichuan and Yunnan. Today, many of ancient towns and villages that sprung up to facilitate this trade still retain their old world charm. Over the course of this journey, we will travel along a portion of this ancient trade route and learn about the history and culture of the people that still inhabit the region.

On this program, we follow in the footsteps of ancient traders to the old town of Dali – former capital of the mighty Nanzhao Kingdom – and the trading outpost of Shaxi, considered a model of preservation and sustainable development. We visit the maze-like cobblestone streets of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Lijiang Old Town, and explore the dramatic twists of the plunging Tiger Leaping Gorge. We also journey to Zhongdian, on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, and spend time in the tiny Tibetan village of Hongpo, where we meet and share stories with a local Tibetan family.

Highlights:
• Meetings with local people from Bai, Naxi, and Tibetan ethnic minorities - visiting a Bai
shrine, learning to paint Naxi pictographs, and sharing a meal with a Tibetan family
• Bike ride around the scenic Er Lake to a nearby village and local Bai minority shrine
• Inner kora (pilgrimage walk), followed by a prayer flag printing workshop at the Tibetan
Buddhist Ringha Temple
• Talk on the Tea and Horse Caravan Trail with expert Yang Huiming
• Fast-paced scavenger hunt in Lijiang Old Town
• Games and English activities with the children of Tendol-Gyalzur Orphanage