You are welcome to join the Group Leader for a tai ji session before breakfast. Walking up to 0.6 mile, or 1.5 miles total if choosing to walk back to the hotel from the Muslim section.
In the hotel dining, the breakfast buffet offers choices such as warm meats, eggs, cereals, fruit, and Chinese dishes such as rice porridge and cooked vegetables; beverages include juice, tea, coffee, water.
We will take a motorcoach to Xi'an International Studies University, one of China's key institutions of higher learning, and meet with a faculty expert who will teach us about Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism as a way of understanding Chinese character and customs. We’ll then visit the campus with students from the university's renowned English Department and hear about student life in China.
In the university dining room, we’ll have a family style meal with typical Chinese dishes including meats such as chicken or pork with vegetables as well as non-meat platters such as tomatoes, potatoes, bakchoi, mushrooms, served with rice.
With our Group Leader, we will board a motorcoach and ride from the university to Xian’s Hui Muslim section for a walk about. Among the highlights are its beautiful Great Mosque, one of China's best preserved. Xi'an was a hub of the Silk Road in ancient times. Merchants, traders, and students from Islamic lands were drawn there and settled down. Over generations, they became known as the Hui people, officially recognized as one of China’s ethnic minorities. There were thousands of mosques in China at one time, but most are now gone. You are welcome to stay on in the Hui Muslim area, explore on your own, and walk back to the hotel. The motorcoach will return to the hotel with those who would like to get back sooner.
This meal has been excluded from the program cost and is on your own to enjoy what you like. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions. You are welcome to stay in the Hui Muslim area and dine on local fare of your own choosing or return to your hotel with our coach where you can have dinner out at a restaurant nearby or at the hotel.
At leisure. Spend time with your fellow Road Scholars or just relax.