Destinations: Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Hangzhou
This 16-day cross-city learning journey connects Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai and Hangzhou for international student groups. Starting in Beijing, students explore iconic imperial heritage, the Great Wall and TCM culture. They then travel by high-speed rail to Xi'an for sequential themed Mandarin classes, Terracotta Army archaeology, Qinling panda conservation study and folk immersion workshops. The tour continues east to Shanghai and Hangzhou to dive into AI, robotics and smart-city technology alongside classical garden and West Lake landscape studies. The whole itinerary uses inquiry tasks to contrast ancient civilisation and modern innovation across inland and coastal China.
Start: 16 July 2027
Cost: 23680RMB/person
Highlights
Accommodation
Transport
What is Included
What is Not Included
Note: Mandarin immersion lessons and on-campus dormitory are exclusive to packages that include Xi'an. Beijing-only and Shanghai-only itineraries do not contain campus language classes.
Day 1 | 14 July | Wed | Arrival in Beijing
Educational focus: Orientation, intercultural awareness, group agreement and safety protocols.
Students arrive at Beijing international airport and transfer by private coach to hotel. The lead educator delivers a detailed program briefing, introduces learning goals, journal expectations and group responsibilities. Students receive their study journal and prepare for the inquiry journey ahead. Welcome dinner supports casual cross-cultural conversation. Rest and time zone adjustment.
Accommodation: Beijing 4-star hotel
Day 2 | 15 July | Thu | Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Jingshan Park, Hutong Walking
Educational focus: Imperial architecture, spatial hierarchy, Ming-Qing governance, continuity and change in urban heritage.
Morning: Guided inquiry tour of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Students examine how architectural design communicated imperial power, ritual order and philosophical ideas. They analyse the central axis layout. Afternoon: Climb Jingshan Park for a panoramic view of the palace complex. Students then walk the quiet residential hutongs. This neighbourhood preserves the intimate, human-scale urban fabric that coexisted alongside imperial grandeur.
Accommodation: Beijing 4-star hotel
Day 3 | 16 July | Fri | Mutianyu Great Wall & Beijing Olympic Museum
Educational focus: Military engineering, border systems, heritage conservation, Olympic legacy, soft power and sustainable mega-event design.
Morning: Mutianyu Great Wall. Students hike sections of the wall while the educator explains its strategic engineering, signaling systems, labor organization and long-term conservation challenges. Afternoon: Beijing Olympic Museum, adjacent to the Bird's Nest. Learners investigate the dual-Olympic legacy of Beijing (2008 Summer and 2022 Winter Games). They analyze exhibits on athlete stories, venue reuse and sustainability design.
Accommodation: Beijing 4-star hotel
Day 4 | 17 July | Sat | Temple of Heaven & TCM Experience Centre
Educational focus: Ritual cosmology, ancient Chinese philosophy, holistic medical frameworks, herbal pharmacology.
Morning: Temple of Heaven, the imperial complex for agricultural and celestial worship. Students study circular and square geometry linked to ancient ideas of heaven and earth, and explore acoustic phenomena at the Echo Wall and Circular Mound Altar. Afternoon: Guided TCM workshop. Students are introduced to core holistic principles of traditional Chinese medicine. They examine raw medicinal herbs, learn identification skills, and assemble their own herbal sachet to take home.
Accommodation: Beijing 4-star hotel
Day 5 | 18 July | Sun | High-speed Train Beijing to Xi'an, Datang Everbright City
Educational focus: Modern high-speed rail engineering, regional cultural transition, Tang Dynasty urban culture.
Morning: Supervised high-speed rail transfer to Xi'an. Onboard learning: students complete a short comparative reflection contrasting northern imperial Beijing with ancient Chang'an. Afternoon: Check into the school dormitory, settle into boarding life. Evening: Guided walking exploration of Datang Everbright City, a recreation of Tang-era Chang'an inviting students to visualize the cosmopolitan Silk Road hub.
Accommodation: Xi'an campus student dormitory
Day 6 | 19 July | Mon | Themed Mandarin Class + Hand-Pulled Noodle Workshop
Educational focus: Applied food vocabulary, functional Mandarin conversation, folk foodways, artisan skill transmission.
09:00–15:00 Themed Mandarin lesson (self-introduction, greetings, food, ordering), content-aligned with the afternoon activity. Afternoon: noodle workshop led by a local noodle master. Students learn the science of gluten development, kneading, stretching and cooking Xian BiangBiang noodles, following instructions using the Mandarin phrases they have just learned. Learning task: prepare a short Mandarin sentence describing the noodle-making process.
Accommodation: Xi'an campus student dormitory
Day 7 | 20 July | Tue | Themed Mandarin Class + Hanfu Cultural & Etiquette Workshop
Educational focus: Vocabulary for colour, textiles, clothing and ritual; Tang-Dynasty material culture, symbolic design and social etiquette.
09:00–15:00 Themed Mandarin lesson (colours, patterns, garments, polite etiquette expressions). Afternoon: Hanfu immersive workshop. Students study silk weaving motifs, rank symbolism and Tang fashion history. They dress in authentic Tang-style Hanfu, learn traditional greeting rituals and pose for documentation. Discussion explores how clothing communicates identity, status and cultural memory.
Accommodation: Xi'an campus student dormitory
Day 8 | 21 July | Wed | Themed Mandarin Class + Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors
Educational focus: Historical vocabulary, numerals, archaeology, statecraft of the Qin Dynasty, funerary culture and heritage preservation.
09:00–14:00 Themed Mandarin lesson (numbers, terms for relics and materials). Afternoon: Guided visit to the Terracotta Army. Students explore Pit 1, Pit 2 and the Bronze Chariot exhibit. The guide leads inquiry into the unification of China under the Qin emperor, large-scale state labour, artistic standardization and modern archaeological excavation ethics. Guided discussion: What can funerary art tell us about a ruler's worldview?
Accommodation: Xi'an campus student dormitory
Day 9 | 22 July | Thu | Themed Mandarin Class + Panda Visiting
Educational focus: Nature vocabulary, animal names, environmental conservation, zoology, habitat restoration and biodiversity stewardship.
09:00–12:00 Themed Mandarin lesson (wildlife, forests, habitats, conservation actions). Afternoon: visit to Qinling Four Treasures Science Park. Students observe giant pandas (including the famous brown panda Qi Zai), golden snub-nosed monkeys, crested ibis and takin. A conservation educator delivers a presentation on captive breeding, habitat protection and threats facing endemic Qinling species.
Accommodation: Xi'an campus student dormitory
Day 10 | 23 July | Fri | Themed Mandarin Class + Forest of Stone Steles & Stone Rubbing Workshop
Educational focus: Chinese character history, calligraphy, epigraphy, museum literacy, traditional documentation technology.
09:00–11:00 Themed Mandarin lesson (origin and evolution of Chinese characters, museum vocabulary). Afternoon: Forest of Stone Steles Museum, one of the greatest collections of ancient stone calligraphy in China. Students trace stylistic shifts in Chinese script across dynasties. This is followed by a hands-on stone rubbing workshop. Students learn the traditional transfer technique and create their own rubbing artwork to keep.
Accommodation: Xi'an campus student dormitory
Day 11 | 24 July | Sat | Guanzhong Folk Immersion: Zhangjia Village & Yuanjia Village
Educational focus: Rural sociology, contemporary Chinese village transformation, folk craft economies, food heritage and community life.
Full‑day field study in the Guanzhong countryside. First, Zhangjia Village, where students experience traditional rural life. They will have the chance to visit cave dwellings, make local steamed buns and mould earth bricks used for construction. Next, Yuanjia Village, a living folk heritage site. Students tour active traditional workshops producing local seasonings and food, meet local artisans and sample regional snacks.
Accommodation: Xi'an campus student dormitory
Day 12 | 25 July | Sun | High-speed Train Xi'an to Shanghai, the Bund Walk
Educational focus: Urban transition, China's east-west development differences, global financial cityscapes.
Morning: Supervised high-speed rail journey to Shanghai. Students complete a comparative writing task contrasting inland historical Xi'an with coastal global Shanghai. Afternoon: Hotel check-in. Evening: Slow guided walk along the Pudong riverside.
Accommodation: Shanghai 4-star hotel
Day 13 | 26 July | Mon | Shanghai Tower / Oriental Pearl, Yu Garden & Acrobatics
Educational focus: Shanghai tower, skyscraper engineering, urban density, classical garden design, theatrical folk performance art.
Morning: Observation deck of Shanghai tower to have a bird's-eye perspective of Shanghai's layered urban fabric. Discussion covers civil engineering, sustainable high-rise design and rapid urbanization. Afternoon: Yu Garden and City God Temple. Students analyze classical Chinese garden principles: borrowed scenery, asymmetry, enclosure and tranquility. Evening: Professional Chinese acrobatics show.
Accommodation: Shanghai 4-star hotel
Day 14 | 27 July | Tue | Day Trip to Hangzhou: Hikvision Innovation Centre + West Lake
Educational focus: Computer vision, AI applications, smart city technology, water ecology, classical landscape aesthetics.
High-speed rail day trip to Hangzhou. Morning: Guided tour of the High tech company Hikvision. Students learn about artificial vision technology, environmental monitoring and ethical questions around surveillance and smart city infrastructure. Afternoon: Walking study along West Lake, Su Causeway and Bai Causeway. Students to know the lake's hydraulic management history, ecological balance and its place within Chinese landscape poetry. Evening: Return by high-speed train to Shanghai.
Accommodation: Shanghai 4-star hotel
Day 15 | 28 July | Wed | Zhangjiang AI Island SEEDCENTER + Huangpu River Night Cruise
Educational focus: Robotics, digital humans, medical AI, emerging technology ethics, riverfront urban renewal.
Morning: Zhangjiang AI Island SEEDCENTER. Students interact with live demonstrations of service robots, digital human interfaces, smart medical devices and urban AI management systems. The guided session encourages critical inquiry about benefits, risks and ethical boundaries of artificial intelligence. Evening: Huangpu River cruise. Students compare the colonial architecture of the Bund with the futuristic Pudong skyline.
Accommodation: Shanghai 4-star hotel
Day 16 | 29 July | Thu | Departure from Shanghai
Educational focus: Camp closing
Private transfer to Pudong Airport for the return international flight. No scheduled activities.
Accommodation: Departure
