May 9 - 23, 2015: Special China tour

The tour will be in English under the guidance of Chinese writers Yang Lian and Yo Yo

Yellow Mountain - traditionel source of inspiration for landscape painters Bild: archive

Peking – Yangzhou – Yellow Mountains – Hongcun – Shanghai

Experience China from a very special perspective. The writers Yang Lian and Yo Yo will introduce you to the China they know, arranging meetings with poets and writers of their acquaintance, exposing you to Chinese cultural history and its influence on day-to-day life in today’s China. It will be a unique look behind the scenes of a country where artistic freedom and opportunities for individual creativity are far from a given, yet which draws on an infinite wealth of cultural traditions.

PROGRAM

PRICES AND SERVICES INCLUDED

LITERATURE

 

PRICE: 3.480 € (double room/half-board/flights)

BOOKING: Ventus Reisen, Berlin

Tel. 0049-30-39 74 92 94, office@ventus.com

Yang Lian and Yo Yo will accompany you on a journey in four stages – Yangzhou, a trading city rich in tradition that has been the home of beautiful art for centuries, the metropolises of Beijing and Shanghai, centers of the modern art scene, and a diversionary trip across country to the strange chalk formations of the Yellow Mountains and traditional villages such as Hong Cun.

Yang Lian, poet, essayist and curator; more HERE and on his website in English

Yo Yo (Liu Youhong), writer, artist and Chinese teacher, more HERE and on her Website in English

The tour program in Beijing, Yangzhou and Shanghai will include some of the masterpieces of Chinese culture (palaces, gardens, temples and pagodas, burial sites, and the Great Wall). These are the visible expression of cultural traditions, and Yang Lian and Yo Yo will explore with you the historical role they played, as well as how they figure into current perspectives in China.

In addition to art and culture, the tour also has a culinary component. We are planning evening meals in superlative restaurants, sometimes joined by artists, to give you a sense of the vast variety of aromas, spices, and dishes that are part of China’s heritage. For several of these meals, we will be joined by artist friends of the tour guides for discussions, making the meal the high point of the day not only culinarily, but also culturally.

Yangzhou: Slender West Lake Bild: Archiv

Yang Lian and Yo Yo are undertaking the leadership of this tour to introduce participants to deeper aspects of Chinese culture. That is also a thematic thread in the poetry and, above all, essays written by Yang Lian, who has lived in exile since 1989. For many years now, he has returned to China regularly and is also active in cultural projects. In April, 2014, he will curate the Yangzhou literature festival for the second time.