Language Immersion: Beijing

Lanugage Immersion: Beijing | Explorica Educational Travel
Did you know that Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world? As it continues to grow, get ahead of the curve with a language-focused tour of Beijing. Each day begins with a three hour language course, before heading out to take in the sights and practice what you learned each day in immersive activities designed to help you get comfortable with Mandarin.
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Day 1 Overnight Flight to China
Day 2 Ni hao Beijing
Details: Meet your tour director and check into hotel
Your 24-hour Tour Director will meet you at the airport and remain with your group until your final airport departure. You’ll also have a private coach and driver while touring .
Day 3 Beijing Landmarks
Local teahouse visit
Participate in a traditional tea ceremony
Details: Beijing guided sightseeing tour
Explore the landmark sights of ancient and modern China with a licensed local guide. Covering the area of 90 football fields, Tiananmen Square can hold over 300,000 people and has always been the site for public proclamations and demonstrations. It has been China’s historic heart of celebration and also turbulence for almost a century. The gate at the southern end of the square marks the old city walls, not removed until 1958. See the nerve center of modern China in the adjoining People's Hall, the legislative building, where each of the 32 reception rooms is lavishly decorated in the style of a different province or city. In the main hall, 500 light bulbs illuminate the enormous red star on the ceiling. Move into ancient China in the Forbidden City, the formidable 9,000-room palace complex -- protected by a 170ft.-wide moat -- that housed China's emperors from 1421 until 1923.
Details: Tiananmen Square visit
Explore Tiananmen Square, the world's largest public square and equivalent to the size of 90 American football fields. In the centre 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.
Details: Forbidden City visit
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 11½ft high wall covered in glazed tile dragons frolicking above a frothing sea, built to protect the Qianlong emperor from prying eyes and malevolent spirits.
Details: Temple of Heaven visit
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.
Day 4 Great Wall
Kung Fu show
Details: Great Wall of China visit
The Great Wall of China, one of the greatest wonders of the world, was listed as a World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. Just like a gigantic dragon, it winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus, stretching approximately 21,196 kilometers (13,170 miles) from east to west of China. With a history of about 2,700 years, some of the Great Wall sections are now in ruins or have disappeared. However, the Great Wall of China is still one of the most appealing attractions all around the world owing to its architectural grandeur and historical significance.
Details: Great Wall of China restoration volunteer activity
Students will be given an introduction to the restoration work that has been done on the Great Wall before bricks and tools are handed out so they can get to work themselves. Upon completion, certificates will be issued by the Great Wall Administration as a thank you for the support.
Day 5 Chinese Art
Enjoy a traditional Chinese lunch with Hutong families
Details: Conversational Mandarin language class
In this language class, students will study conversational terms for everyday use.
Details: 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.
Details: Traditional Chinese art classes
During this art class, students will participate in activities such as kite making, paper cutting, and face painting.
Details: Peking Opera performance
Tonight, enjoy the Peking Opera! Watch the actors apply the face paint you studied earlier.
Day 6 Chinese History & Heritage
Details: Conversational Mandarin language class
In this language class, students will study conversational terms for everyday use.
Details: Yonghe Lamasery visit
It is the largest Buddhist temple of the Yellow-sect in Beijing and has been completely preserved. Built in 1694 as the residence of Count Yin Zhen, the fourth son of the Emperor Kangxi, it was called "the Palace of Count Yong." After Yin Zhen became the Emperor, he continued to use it as an imperial palace for short stays away from the capital. In 1744, it was converted into a lamasery. Yonghegong is the most renowned Tibetan Buddhist temple in China outside Tibet and holds treasures of both the Han and Tibetan cultures.
Details: Temple of Confucius visit
It was first built in 1302 and served as an altar where intellectuals from the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties offered their respects to Confucius. Now it has become a museum exhibiting engraved stones, old Chinese doorbells and drums, bronze and jade utensils, paintings and calligraphic works, antique musical instruments and ancient Chinese currencies. Every September, a ritual celebrating Confucius’s birthday takes place here, in which a music and dance ceremony from the Qing dynasty is performed.
Details: Guozijian visit
Visit the imperial college from the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.
Day 7 Daily Life in Beijing
Pearl Market visit
Calligraphy Lesson
Details: 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.
Details: Conversational Mandarin language class
In this language class, students will study conversational terms for everyday use.
Day 8 Chinese Culinary Traditions
Details: Conversational Mandarin language class
In this language class, students will study conversational terms for everyday use.
Details: Visit a local food market
Interact with the locals at a traditional food market. Use this opportunity to purchase some items for an afternoon cooking class.
Details: Chinese cooking class and dinner
Continue your Mandarin lessons while learning to cook the local cuisine.
Day 9 Chinese Culture and Education
Details: Conversational Mandarin language class
In this language class, students will study conversational terms for everyday use.
Details: Local school visit
Build relationships with local students while attending classes. Leave with a new pen-pal!
Details: Play ping pong with local students
Learn to play China's most popular recreational sport. Students will have the opportunity to leave with a new pen-pal!
Day 10 Beijing--Shanghai
Travel to Shanghai via high speed train
Details: Acrobatic show
Forget Cirque de Soleil -- Shanghai's Acrobatic Troupe has been performing for more than 50 years, and their combination of superb acrobatics, juggling, magic, and more has made them the world's best acrobatic ensemble.
Day 11 Shanghai landmarks
Shanghai guided sightseeing tour
Yu Yuan GardenJade Buddha Temple visitsilk factory visitBundTian Zi Fang visit
Huangpu River cruise
Details: Shanghai guided sightseeing tour
Shanghai combines European elegance with Asian flair, transforming its colonial history with a unique modern outlook. See the highlights with a local licensed guide. Surrounded by a busy bazaar, the Yu Yuan Garden offers an amazingly peaceful escape into a sixteenth-century garden with fountains, bridges, and tile dragons undulating along the walls. More peace reigns at the temple of the Jade Buddha, where two exquisitely carved Buddha statues, each carved from a single piece of jade, keep watch over a community of monks.
Day 12 Flight home from Shanghai
Map of Lanugage Immersion: Beijing| Explorica Educational Travel
Tour Includes:
  • Round-trip airfare
  • 10 overnight stays in hotels with private bathroom
  • Internal flight
  • Breakfast daily
  • Lunch daily
  • Dinner daily
  • Full-time services of a professional tour director
  • Guided sightseeing tours and city walks as per itinerary
  • Visits to select attractions as per itinerary
  • Language classes (15 hours)
  • Tour Diary™
  • Local Guide and Local Bus Driver tips; see note regarding other important tips
  • Note: On arrival day only dinner is provided; on departure day, only breakfast is provided
  • Note: Tour cost does not include airline-imposed baggage fees, or fees for any required passport or visa. Optional excursions, optional pre-paid Tour Director and multi-day bus driver tipping, among other individual and group customizations will be listed as separate line items in the total trip cost, if included.
We are better able to assist you with a quote for your selected departure date and city over the phone. Please call 1.888.310.7120 to price this tour with your requested options.
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5243.00 total fee
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