| This trip will take twice a year. One is a Chinese new year trip and he other
a small 10 group max, summer trip.
This rural trip will give you insight into following:
· dances and singing (traditional dances performed during this time
in rural communities)
· traditional clothing (during this time people are dressed up according
ritual)
· traditional New Years/summer food
· Rough landscapes (QinLing mountains, yellow river, Mu Us Desert, Gansu
plateau)
· Buddhism, Daoism (monasteries and rituals)
· Islam in China (small Muslim communities in Gansu province)
· Fireworks during the New Year trip (everywhere)
· ancient villages (Ping Yao, Ansai, Suide, JiaXian, YuLing, Hengshan,
Yanan, LingTai and Tianshui)
· History (places of significance see above)
· architecture (courtyards Liao, Ming, Qing styles)
· anthropology (rural Muslim, Han and Mongol societies in 2006)
· Long March (Yanan)
· Environment (changing situations in the Chinese cradle of civilization)
· General traditional culture (house decorations, ancestor worship, new
year special “Miao Hui” = traditional markets and handcrafts that
are ample along the road).
Please surf to our photo gallery:Chinafaces travel gallery
Provinces to be travelled: Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu (ShanBei=Northern
Mountains).
 Travel request
This trip will bring the highlights of travelling through the cradle of Chinese
civilization. Trying to understand the fine points of Chinese culture during
this time of year in all its assets. We are travelling on roads that are sometimes
not paved. Scenery in “ShanBei” is spectacular (Mountainous North
China). From the mountains around the ancient walled city of PingYao to The
heights of Wu Ling Shan and Min Shan in Gansu and Shaanxi, where altitudes reach
to around 4000 meters.
Then from the Mu Us desert (Chinese 3rd largest) we will touch the Great Wall
in Yulin. A thriving border town between Northern Shaanxi with Inner Mongolia.
From here we will occasionally pass the might of the Yellow river and observe
communities that have hardly changed their lifestyle over the last hundred years.
Some villages have been warm hosts of the Long March (see our Long
March hikes) and a fertile breeding ground for the Chinese CP.
During the summer trip we will experience agreeable temperatures of in between
20 and 30 degrees Celsius.
This is where small village communities are living with and from the land and
sustain well in their environment. They have done so for more than 4000 years.
We will come across several sub cultures of the “Hui Minorities”(Muslim)
that live scattered around in mostly mountainous areas and main stream Buddhist
and Taoist Chinese communities that still maintain their traditional Chinese
way of living up to this day.
Western influences are almost non-existent, except from some Roman churches
and Western products sold now at shops.
Food wise we are treated to some fine cuisine, like dishes made of wild rabbit,
hare, boar, deer, and pheasant. Vegetarians will have a wide choice of vegetable
or tofu dishes that are available all year around.
From an architectural point of view, Chinese villages with history, temples
and several ancient other building marvels will be paid a visit with experts
on site to go through the history and fine structural points.
During Chinese New Year celebrations, food is abundant at common people’s
homes. Further the colorful markets and traditionally decorated farm courtyards
where we will spend some nights on the heated Kang (traditional Chinese bed
that is heated by a stove) will give the visitor a warm feeling for the rural
side of the Middle Kingdom. |
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