Itinerary
Day 1, Tuesday Location: San Francisco
After meeting and greeting your flight leader and the other students joining Trekking and Climbing in the Southern Clouds, we’re off to Hong Kong! This is an easy, non-stop ride across the Pacific – and most students find that after dinner and a movie or so, they’re able to manage dozing off to sleep for a while. So sit back, have a chat with your new friends, and enjoy the flight!
Day 2, Wednesday
This day is ‘lost’ as you cross the International Date Line. But worry not – you’ll get it back when returning home!
Day 3, Thursday Location: Dali, Yunnan Province (Southwest China)
Arrive at Hong Kong International Airport, where you’ll meet your program leaders and have time for a long awaited stretch. We’ll sit down for a relaxed chat and a refreshing drink while giving you our detailed plans for the rest of the day. Next, we’ll grab our bags (preferably small and manageable!) and check-in for our connecting flight to Kunming. The flight takes about 2 hours. Upon arrival, we’ll be picked up by a private bus for Dali. Take in the sights on this 4.5 hour trip, get the feel for blue skies and the mountainous Yunnan province because this is going to be your home for the next 2 weeks! When we finally arrive at your hotel, separate from the rest of the language students since you are the most advanced and Senior, grab a quick shower, drop your bags off, and then we’ll get together again, have a chat and hit the streets of Old Town for a short walk through this amazing city at night, giving you a taste of what’s in store on our adventure – Rustic Pathways welcomes you to Dali!
Day 4-8, Friday-Tuesday**Location: Dali
After a good night’s rest, we’ll grab some breakfast at the hotel and head over for morning classes at Dali University. In your group classes, students will work on the more technical parts of learning Chinese, like paying attention to your tones and grammar. We take a meat and bones approach to learning Chinese during these two weeks and this part, the bones, is essential for getting your point across in a concise and functional manner. The meat comes in the afternoon as we help to add street-ready language to your vocabulary and start to see how the language differs based on each person we meet. The artist from Beijing who moved here two years ago uses the same grammar as the farmer from the South; however, their accent is noticeable thicker, while the Southerner blends in local slang to their conversations.
These afternoon sessions are either centered around community service, side trips, combined with dining with the local movers and shakers of the community and all have some degree of experiential learning incorporated into them. Since we already know you are a “China-hand” we are going to go without the traditional calligraphy, gong fu and tai ji and move right into the heavy stuff. As follows, here are the following themed activities planned for these days and our most likely activity*:
Day 4:An Introduction to City Life in China
Students will be see the many sides of a Chinese city, teeming with shoppers in the morning but the most noticeable brand name stores are empty, Why? ... and then see how what happens when the night takes over and meet up with some local students to frequent the most popular place in any Chinese city, the Karaoke Bar.
Day 5: Using Art and Music to connect Cultures (CS Element)
Students will first listen to a local artist (Dali is known as a place for creative thought and freedom of expression) about his ambition for public art -- then take some time to create their own version, execute it and head out to a busy street to perform it.
Day 6: Using Sports to Connect Cultures (CS Element)
Students will invite local primary and middle school students for an afternoon of mentoring and games. Westerners will first introduce the Western sports (i.e. baseball, football) and then it will be the Chinese students turn (rope games and ping pong.)
Day 7: Seeking out the Counter Culture in Dali
Dali is known as the Counter Culture of China, here people come to get away from the big cities and big bureaucracy. Students will invite several different leaders to dinner to figure out more about their life choices and where they think Dali is headed. In addition to this, the students will divide into groups and help out the local business owners for the afternoon as they serve coffee and chat with anyone that stops in.
*We reserve the right to change activities based on weather conditions or availability.
On the afternoon of the 8th we will pack up our bags and head to Shuanglang, a 1,000 year old fishing village. This is a private 1.5 hour van ride away and we will drop off our bags at the Sea and Sky Lodge, a great abode nestled lakeside.
Day 9-11, Wednesday - Friday
Location: Shuanglang
Across the lake from charming, well-known Dali lies the captivating but not as famous Shuanglang. The local Bai community here is starkly different from the East Coast cities where the Han people live. Hans are famous because they are the largest single ethnic group in China and make up what we commonly know as China, with over 95% of China’s population being Han, they helped build up Beijing, Shanghai and invented, paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder. Yet, this program is not about the Han ethnic group because we know you already know so much about them. Instead the Definitive Dali Experience wants to deepen your understanding of China and what better place than Yunnan Province, home to 25 different ethnic groups. So while you are here in Shuanglang, it’s time to learn from and with the Bai ethnic group. They are a very proud group of people who have retained their culture and language over the past 50 years of China’s rapid transformation and unification.
All meals will be taken at the Sea and Sky Lodge; however, each day morning and afternoon activties vary as follows*:
Day 9:
Morning – Animal Service (CS Element):
You will wake in the morning to help local families milk the cows and then continue on to help feed the local pigs and take control of a donkey as you guide it through the small alleyways of Shuanglang. Then for the seaworthy, it’s off in a boat with the local fisherman to find your lunch for the day or for the landlubbers, you can try your work at catching small shrimp with a net.
Afternoon – An Introduction to Bai Ethnic Life
After you bring your catch from the morning, some students will help to collect the local produce for the afternoon meal while other students help to prepare the food. What better way to learn about Bai Ethnic Life then through their most important part of their culture, food. Due to your hard work, the local officials and elders will stop by to see the fruits and tastes of your labor – another great opportunity for conversation and experiential learning.
Day 10:
Morning – Senior Citizen Service (CS Element):
In the morning you will get up and help some of the wiser people in the village with their daily chores as it has become harder with their age. It is not uncommon to see local 80-year olds walking around the village with a heap of stalks tied to their forehead and strapped behind their back. Then you will head back to the Sea and Sky Lodge and help assemble brand new workout equipment for the local community center. Upon arrival you will take part in a special donation ceremony and relax with the local people over a game of majiang.
Afternoon – Seeking Out Religion in China
Day 10 is jammed packed as you will then visit a local temple which has served the Bai people for hundreds of years. The Bai people are primarily Buddhist but there are also traces of polytheism and animism. Then you will move onto where Buddhism was first believed to origin in the area, Chicken Foot Mountain. After you summit to this Temple and look across the Valley, you might also begin to find your inner balance.
Day 11:
Rock Climbing:
Under the supervision of a professionally certified climb instructor in America, you will learn the basics of rock climbing and then invite him to lunch to understand what it is like to open your own business and raise a family in China.
*We reserve the right to change activities based on weather conditions or availability.
Afternoon: Travel Back to Dali Old Town
After some rewarding service work and gaining perspective about the diversity of Inner China, it’s time to head back to Old Town, Dali. Once again, your drive back will be an 1.5 hour private car ride back. You will head back to the same hotel you had arrived in at the beginning of the week and rest up.
Day 12-16, Saturday-Wednesday:
Location: Dali
Like during the first few days in Dali, you will wake up for the morning nd head to classes at the University and continue on with themed, afternoon activities that aim to take your advanced Chinese to the next level of proficiency. This time your themed activities are planned to play out as follows:
Day 12: An Introduction to Poverty in China (Has CS Element)
We will pay a visit to a hillside family that has been living on very basic means and listen to their daily life and what they could use to make their lives a little more convenient or enjoyable. We will then head on out and go purchase that equipment and present it to them upon our return later that night.
Day 13: Pollution or Social Progression in China (Has CS Element)
We will head to a lakeside village and learn more about Lake Erhai, which is still clean enough to swim in but many scientists are saying that that is in peril. We will then make our own garbage and recycling cans and place them lakeside so local people are encouraged to use them instead of letting trash float into the lake.
Day 14: An Introduction to Politics in China
What most deem the most sensitive aspect in China is not off bounds in the Definitive Dali Experience. We will first go to a brand new establishment funded by the local government for preventing AIDS and then go survey the local town for reaction and casual conversation about what it’s like for minorities in China and the average feeling about not being able to not vote for the people that run the city, province and country.
Then on the afternoon of Day 15, you will head on out for an overnight home stay with a Chinese student that mirrors you in age and interest. At this point, your Chinese should really have kicked into gear and you can impress your host family with all that you learnt.
Day 16: In the morning you will participate in a specific activity that you and your host family choose but then in the afternoon you will get back to your last themed activity, ‘The Importance of Food in Chinese Culture,’ which will have us rent out several tables and invite all the people that we have met along the way for a final dinner and recap.
Day 17: Thursday
Location: Dali-Next Destination
After a final breakfast, we’ll take a private bus back to Kunming where it’s time for an emotional goodbye with your friends (can you believe it’s only been 17 days?) who you’ll feel like you’ve known for life. From here, you’ll either fly home or continue on to your next adventure with Rustic Pathways!
**Special Note: Throughout the entire week, students will also be using a wide range of multimedia tools to improve their Chinese, such as video recording their conversations but also daily logging onto Chinese sites for news and social media sites.
An Important Note about Schedule Changes :
Rustic Pathways reserves the right to change, alter, or amend the daily itinerary for this trip at any time. Changes can be made for various reasons including changes in flight or program schedules, changes in the schedules of various external tours incorporated in our trips, the addition of new activities into a trip, or the substitution of an old activity for a new activity. The itinerary shown here provides a good outline of the anticipated daily schedule for this program. As with any travel program, some changes may occur
There are only a few select places in China where you are the big fish in a small pond. A nation with well over 1.3 billion people, more than 4,000 years of history and an incredible ability to tailor the land for human benefit has helped cities like Beijing and Shanghai grow to host over 10 million people each. While these cities capture the headlines and are the face of China in the 21st Century, it is easy to become a small fish in a big ocean.
Big Fish, Small Pond Education
