China. Few countries evoke the same curiosity and intense fascination.
With 5,000 years of history and an expansive tapestry of cultures, China offers Dragons semester students insight into China’s diversity and opportunities to form deep relationships with people and strong connections to place. We go beyond the contemporary image of China, represented by booming cities and rapid economic change, traveling also to remote wilderness areas and living with rural host families in the mountains of the southwest. By exploring little-seen sides of this vast country, we challenge many of the preconceived notions we have about China and about our home communities. Inventive travel experiences are balanced with a strong language curriculum and a comprehensive, inter-disciplinary exploration of Modern Chinese history and economic development, society, and cultural tradition.
Kunming – southeast of the Tibetan Plateau, within a day’s travel of Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam – is our home for six weeks of the program. This “City of Eternal Spring” is the capital…
With 5,000 years of history and an expansive tapestry of cultures, China offers Dragons semester students insight into China’s diversity and opportunities to form deep relationships with people and strong connections to place. We go beyond the contemporary image of China, represented by booming cities and rapid economic change, traveling also to remote wilderness areas and living with rural host families in the mountains of the southwest. By exploring little-seen sides of this vast country, we challenge many of the preconceived notions we have about China and about our home communities. Inventive travel experiences are balanced with a strong language curriculum and a comprehensive, inter-disciplinary exploration of Modern Chinese history and economic development, society, and cultural tradition.
Kunming – southeast of the Tibetan Plateau, within a day’s travel of Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam – is our home for six weeks of the program. This “City of Eternal Spring” is the capital of Yunnan Province, and it is an ideal base from which to explore Han Chinese/minority relations, economic reforms and development, environmental concerns, and China’s rich history. Through guest lectures, discussions and mentored community engagement, we explore traditional Chinese approaches to healing, cooking, fitness, martial arts, dance, and music. In Kunming, students live independently with Chinese host families, many of whom represent the “new middle class” within contemporary urban society. At the Dragons Program House, we gather for Chinese language study, work on Independent Study Projects, hear from visiting scholars, and cook traditional meals with fresh foods purchased at the local market.
Building on all we’ve learned and experienced in Kunming, we begin our travel phase, focusing on China’s western corridor and exploring Guizhou, Sichuan, Qinghai, Ningxia and Gansu Provinces. Each semester’s travel itinerary is different, guided by the contacts and regional knowledge of the instructor team as well as group decisions and interests. Past groups have traversed the dramatic valleys of the Hengduan Mountains in Northwestern Yunnan, through deep river valleys between snow-capped peaks, along mountain roads that connect remote Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, through ethnically Tibetan, Pumi, Lisu, Yi and Naxi areas. Others have hiked through dense bamboo forests to visit isolated mountain homes in northeastern Guizhou, where family elders look after young children whose parents have left to work as laborers in the cities. We visit Qinghai Province, historically part of the Tibetan kingdom of Amdo, living there with families who still rely on their yak herds, and learning at the feet of master tangka painters. During our travels, the student group takes on greater leadership, culminating in a week-long student planned and led “Expedition Phase.” With a broad curriculum and an itinerary designed to explore all of the variety this country has to offer, our semester program offers an unparalleled comprehensive overview of China today.
