AiCenter Summer Immersion Trip to China is a unique program combining travel with an immersion study regime in Chinese language and an in-depth exposition of Chinese music, painting, calligraphy, culinary and martial arts. This year, the program will take students to China's north central plains based in the capital city Beijing and the Hebei municpality of Shi Jia Zhuang. Designed as a mixed field-study group for adults and youth (12 years and up), this program will be hosted by the Chaoyang Foriegn Language School (in Beijing) and the Shi Jia Zhuang top boarding School Number 43 along with a sojourn in the rural countryside organized by the Baoding Big Black Bear Acrobatic School.
Participants will be housed in homestay arrangements with their teachers and local families in Beijing and dorm with Chinese students in Shi Jia Zhuang. At their urban bases, students will follow a schedule of lessons in Chinese language and cultural arts and language partnering activities in a school setting. In addition, daily life activities with host families and local students will provide a full immersion in the everyday life of Chinese citizens.
STUDY PROGRAM
Students will attend daily lessons in Mandarin Chinese and one or two elective art/music subjects (e.g. Chinese brush painting, a musical instrument, or Taichi). In addition, planned activities with local Chinese (e.g. cooking, shopping, visiting with elders, trip to the post office, etc.) will immerse students in the rhythm of life and culture in China. Twice weekly demo-workshops or visit to factories and worksites will expose students to a diversity of industries in China such as performance arts, advertising, farming, handicraft and manufacturing.
TOURS & SIGHTSEEING
Hovering around the northernYellow River, Shi Jia Zhuang city proper offers such highlights as the 2nd century B.C. Han tombs at the Hebei Provincial Museum and the Tang Dynasty Pilu Monastery with magnicent architectural preserves. To the south is the Zhaozhou Bridge, reputedly the oldest stone single arch construction in the world (erected in the 6th century) and to the west is the scenic Cangyan Mountains where sits the famed pavilion over a gorge in the film Crouching tiger Hidden Dragon . Heading north into the prefecture division of Baoding, participants will explore the northern farmlands (with its leading renewable wind energy plants) as well as some of the oldest relics in north China, most notably the Zhili mansion, the Ancient Lotus Pool (established in 1227) and the western Qing tombs. Finally, in the capital city of Beijing language exchange partnering with local Chinese will be incorporated in must-see visits to the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, as well as picnic and biking around the Summer Palace, the gloriousOlympics Village and local mingling and walkabout in the Lao (old) Beijingdistrict.
PROGRAM CULMINATION
Working with Chinese teachers & langugage partners, students will produce speeches in Chinese and their own performance/exhibition program of their work-study as a culmination to the fieldtrip. Participants will put together a scrap book/folder with memorabilia and contact information from the trip. For those who feel ready for the challenge, a language proficiency test may be administered as a course-end requirement modeled after the HSK exam.
COST & EXPENSES
Fee: $3080.00 (includes tuition, full room and board (3 meals a day), all domestic road travel and travel insurance and paperwork processing.
Participants should anticipate their own additional expense for a round-trip airfare (NYC-Beijing) at US$1000-1200, $120 visa application if needed and $150-300 spending money for the trip.
REQUIREMENTS
Application (with Waiver & Consent) required. Parental Affidavit of Consent for minors (18 years and below); doctor's certified good health within last 6 months; valid passport/visa to travel.
Application Deadline: Jun 1st 2010.