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Youth Ambassadors in China

 

The experience of a lifetime as a member of the CCE Youth Volunteer Team!

 

Restoring the Great Wall and Saving the Giant Panda!

 

The ancient Great Wall and the beloved giant panda are two of China's greatest cultural

treasures, and they need your help!  Join the Chinese Cultural Exchange Youth Ambassador Team for a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in Chinese culture and history, and provide crucial humanitarian work to save and protect these symbols of the ancient and modern Asian world.

 
itinerary
program cost
application package

visa to China

terms & conditions
 
 

Restoring the Great Wall

 

More than 2,000 years after it was built to keep out China's enemies, the Great Wall of China is facing its own enemy - tourists. Visitors write on and carve their names in the ancient stones, and spoil the view with litter.  This historic landmark is now one of the 100 most endangered sites in the world. As part of the Chinese Cultural Exchange Youth Ambassador Team, it will be your task to help the Great Wall reclaim its monumental beauty.  This conservation project will give you a unique, hands-on learning and humanitarian experience cleaning, repairing and restoring the Great Wall.  You'll learn about the history of the Great Wall and its importance to Chinese culture.  And there will be plenty of opportunities to hike the Great Wall and take some pictures!

Saving the Giant Panda

Ever dreamed of feeding a cuddly panda right out of your hand? Want to save this incredible species from extinction?  Then you're the kind of person we need on the CCE Youth Volunteer Team! As an officially uniformed apprentice keeper at the famous Befengxia Panda Research Base, you'll get up close and personal with giant pandas -- feeding them, photographing them, even playing with them in "panda kindergarten!" Bring your camera, because as a Chinese Cultural Exchange Youth Ambassador Team member, you'll have unrestricted access to all areas of this important research and conservation facility. Development has driven the panda from its natural home.  There are fewer than 1,600 pandas in the wild and just 300 in captivity. You'll join the world's largest giant panda eco-park as it raises and breeds pandas, cultivates bamboo, trains pandas to be released into the wild, runs a panda hospital, and offers grazing and mating grounds.
 

What's Included

  • Fully escorted by professional tour leader
  • Airport pick-up & transfer
  • All internal flights in economy class for group tours
  • Land transportation
  • English-speaking guides
  • Most meal provided per itinerary
  • 3 & 4 star hotels, double shared accommodation
  • In-country orientation
  • Gratuities to guides, driver, hotel personnel and airport taxes. 
  • Two bottles of water per day
  • Baggage handling for one piece of luggage per person
  • Support: local in-country team and 24‑hour emergency support

Notes: 

·         This program is recommended for students 15 years of age, and older. 

·         Activities include visits to many areas not open to tourists, and participation is by invitation only.

·         Size of group is limited.  Registration is on a first come, first serve basis. 

·         Price does not include international airfare, passport and visa fees, travel insurance.

 

Program Cost:

        $1995 per person

Program Dates:

     June 25 to July 6, 2010

Detailed Itinerary

 

Day 1                           US/Beijing

Meet Ming at the airport and we will leave the United States for Beijing.  Cross the international date line. In-flight meals will be provided.

 

Day 2                           Beijing

You will be met at Beijing International Airport by CCEs Beijing Volunteer Staff.  Transfer to your hotel. Welcome Peking duck dinner. (D)

 

Day 3                           Beijing

After breakfast, you’ll visit Tiananmen  Square, which at 98 acres, is the largest public square in the world and site of many history-making events. You’ll enjoy a walking tour of the impressive Forbidden City, the secluded and guarded home to the Emperors of China. This evening attend a Dai ethnic dinner party and enjoy the famous Kung Fu Show. (BLD)

 

Day 4                           Beijing

After breakfast, you’ll visit Beijing’s newest culture landmarks, the famous “Bird’s Nest” stadium and “Water Cube” arena where the 2008 Olympics took place.  Later, you’ll enjoy an educational walking tour of the Beijing old neighborhood. (BLD)

 

Day 5                           Beijing

The work begins today! After breakfast, we’ll travel about 70km northeast to Huairou County to start our preservation work on the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. This is one of the most picturesque segments of the Great Wall, so bring your camera and be prepared to do some hiking in addition to your clean-up work! In the evening you'll return to Beijing. (BLD)

 

Day 6                           Chengdu

In the morning you’ll fly to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, then travel about 150 km more to Bifeng Gorge. The steep road up the Sichuan mountains leads to the Bifengxia Panda Research Base at an elevation of 4,500 feet! (BLD)

 

Day 7                           Bifengxia

Today’s the day you become a “real” panda  keeper! You’ll enjoy a delicious breakfast, Then go right in to a lecture by a director of the research facility. You’ll be fitted with an official uniform and treated just like one of the staff. That means you’ll have access to restricted areas and, best of all, hands-on contact with the pandas! You’ll be like an apprentice, and  your master will be one of the keepers who will show you how these beautiful, endangered animals are cared for. You’ll gather bamboo (the main diet of the panda), clean up after the pandas and you will even get to feed them by hand. Take your camera! Your unrestricted access to the facility will allow you to take some great photos after your work is done! (BLD)

 

Day 8                           Bifengxia

Be ready to work all day today! After breakfast, you’ll start work right away at 8 a.m. caring for the pandas. At 11a.m., you’ll break for lunch and have a chance to walk around the center and photograph the pandas. It’s back to work from 2:30p.m. until 4p.m. Later, the Bifengxia Panda Research Base will hold a special dinner thanking you for your volunteer work at the center and will present you with a certificate of appreciation.  (BLD)

 

Day 9                           Chengdu

Today, you’ll say goodbye to the pandas. After some free time in the morning to take some last-minute photos of “your” pandas, you’ll return to Chengdu and tour one of that city’s most interesting and ancient thoroughfares –Jinli Old Street. Everyone who works in this shopping and dining district dresses in old-style, traditional clothing. You’ll enjoy charming Sichuan customs, taste some of its famous spicy food, and shop for the handicrafts and folk art for which this region is known: paper cutting, clay figurines, and Shu embroidery. Later, you’ll attend a performance of the Sichuan Opera, famous for its actors who magically change faces and spit fire. (BLD)

 

Day 10                        Shanghai

Today you’ll fly to Shanghai in the morning. With a population of more than 20 million, it’s China's largest city, well known for its mixture of ancient landmarks and ultramodern skyscrapers. Our CCE guide will meet you and escort you to the railroad station, where you’ll enjoy a ride on the Maglev, the fastest train in the world with speeds that top 430km per hour! After lunch you’ll check in to your hotel and rest a bit before your dinner of traditional Shanghai cooking. (BD)

 

Day 11                         Shanghai

Today you will visit the famous Nanjing Road, the world's longest shopping district and a center of commerce in Shanghai for more than a century. You will be delighted by its shops, restaurants and cafes, and amazed by places such as the century-old Central Market, an outdoor marketplace which today specializes in electronic components and digital media. Nanjing Road is also the site of Shanghai's oldest and largest department stores and most prestigious historic hotels. After you explore Old Shanghai, you'll enjoy an acrobatic show in the evening. (BLD)

 

Day 12                         US

This morning you will be transferred to Shanghai International Airport in time for your international flight home. Arrive home the same day. (B)

 

                 
     

Optional Add-on Program  Qingdao

         
     

Day 12                         Qingdao

Fly to Qingdao in the morning.  Qingdao, also well-known to the West by its old spelling - Tsingtao, is a beautiful coastal city, the Home of Tsingtao beer and host city of 2008 Olympic Sailing Games.  Upon arrival at Qingdao Airport, transfer to your hotel.  Afternoon city sightseeing to Zhanqiao Pier, Badaguan.  Evening visit to a local family and make dumplings with them. (BLD)

 

Day 13                         Service with Local Youth

Qingdao has a several public beaches and No. 1 is the biggest and one of the largest public beaches in China.  Due to its popularity, there is also an ongoing need to clean and steward the area.  We will spend the day working with local youth volunteers to clean up the beach, and help to preserve and protect this treasured destination. (BLD)

 

Day 14                         Laoshan

Full day trip to Laoshan and Taiqing Palace. Different from many famous mountains in China, Laoshan Mountain rises from the sea level, and has a coast line of 87 kilometers, structuring a wonder on the sea. In the afternoon you will arrive at Taiqing Palace: As the birth place of Laozi, it has more than 140 rooms including Three Gods' Hall, Three Purities' Hall and Three Emperors' Hall. Dinner will be a northern style cuisine. (BLD)


 Day 15                         Return Home

Morning flight to Beijing and transfer for your flight home. (B)

 

Cost:     $695 including

              flight/train from Shanghai to Qingdao and Qingdao to Beijing

 

Travel itinerary subject to change.

 
 

Application Guidelines

The program is designed for serious students with excellent academic records and demonstrated interest in China. To apply for the program, students should download the application package, complete the application form and submit the requested supplemental materials (passport size photo, recommendation letter) by the required deadline March 15, 2010. We will make final decisions on student applications. To be accepted into the program, students must:

  • Students should be 15 years of age, and older when traveling
  • Be in good health
  • Have an excellent academic record
  • Demonstrate interest in learning Chinese culture

There will be a mandatory pre-departure orientation in early June.

Download the application package

 For more information, contact:

Chinese Cultural Exchange & Homeland Tours
22E Andover Drive
West Hartford, CT 06110
Toll-free: 1-866-666-6520
(860) 953-3322
E-mail: info@MingsChina.com

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