China's Unique Heritage Expedition
November 6-22, 2008

This extraordinary journey will explore China's heritage from Beijing to the giant pandas, Xi'an to the feathered dinosaurs, China's dawn redwoods to the Yangtze River and Shanghai.

Our journey will include sites of keen interest to science, as well as culturally significant locations.

The itinerary includes:

• A special visit to the Museum of Paleontology and to field sites for an introduction to the spectacular fossils of feathered dinosaurs. This species, at transition from reptile to bird, was recently discovered in China and first described by researchers in 2003. This is an extraordinary find and of great significance to science.

• Xi'an, one of the most important ancient cities in the world since 3,000 BC. From 1,000 BC to 1000 AD Xi'an was the imperial capital of China for 11 dynasties. Xi'an is renowned for the extraordinary life-size 2,300 year-old terra cotta warriors which guarded the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, one of the world's greatest archaeological finds.

• The recently discovered site of Sanxingdui near Chengdu where hundreds of fascinating early bronze-age artifacts have been unearthed, and the Buddhist grottoes at Dazu, which are filled with ancient Buddhist carvings.

• Chengdu in Sichuan Province, where we may see giant pandas in natural enclosures at one of China's top breeding facilities.

• A wonderful backroads adventure into the Wuling Mountains to search for China's dawn redwoods. These ancient conifers were thought to only exist as fossils until their discovery in 1941. We'll see the tree which is the type specimen for the species and venture over the mountains into Shuishanba, the Dawn Redwood Valley.

• A relaxing 4-day and 3-night cruise on the Yangtze River through spectacular gorges in a classic Chinese landscape. Learn about the Three Gorges Dam, its significance, and impact.

• Shanghai and Beijing!

  We will learn about and visit sites of global importance and will confront fascinating questions about the heritage of China. We will meet local people, both in scheduled exchanges with scientists and local experts, and spontaneous meetings with villagers and merchants in cities and small towns.

Brochure (Requires an Adobe pdf reader to view)