2007 Buddhism Study Delegation To China

The Buddha was born in Nepal about 566 BC. When he was 29 years old, he left the comforts of his home to seek the meaning of the suffering he saw around him. After six years of arduous yogic training, he abandoned the way of self-mortification and instead sat in mindful meditation beneath a bodhi tree. After he became the Buddha, he wandered the plains of northeastern India for 45 years teaching the path or Dharma he had realized in that moment. He died at the age of 80 in 486 BC.

Special features of the Buddhism journey：
Get familiar to the major ancient cities in China, Experience how Buddhism exists in China, visit as many Buddhist temples as possible and talk to Monks.

Itinerary

7/12/07
Depart from San Francisco to Beijing, China, a city which will host the 2008 Olympic Games.

7/13/07
Arrive in Beijing and warmly welcomed by CCE 's Welcome Team. Arrive at the Beijing Radio & Television University (BRTU) Campus dorm to check in. Welcome dinner at local restaurant.

7/14/07
China Int’l Buddhism Association officials will address a welcome speech and hold a seminar on the three major parts in Buddhism: Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, and Tibetan Buddhism. After the seminar, we will visit old Beijing’s symbol---Hutong. Along with the rapid development, many Hutongs which represented the ancient view of Beijing were replaced by skyscrapers. Luckily, there are still a few Hutongs existing right now.

7/15/07
We will visit Lama Temple this morning. After the death of Emperor Yongzheng in 1735, his coffin was placed in this temple, so it got upgraded to an imperial palace, and in 1744 it was converted into a lamasery and became a residence for large numbers of monks from Mongolia and Tibet. Our next stop is Tiananmen Square, the largest square on earth, which covers 123 acres. To the north of the Square, Tiananmen Gate guards the entrance to the Forbidden City, where we will visit later today.

7/16/07
Visit Temple of Heaven, a sacred place built in 1420, used to pray to the heaven for good harvests. Believe it or not, the huge Hall of Prayer for good harvest was built over 600 years ago, without a single nail. Afternoon visit is world’s largest imperial garden---Summer Palace.

7/17/07
An exciting excursion is arranged today after breakfast to one of the seven wonders in the world, the Great Wall. The 3,750-mile-long Great Wall, stretching from east to west in North China, is the only man made structure visible by naked eyes from the moon. After lunch, we will continue our visit to the Ming Tombs, where 13 Emperors and their Empresses of the Ming Dynasty were buried between 1368 and 1644.

7/18/07
We visit Temple of the Sleeping Buddha and Temple of Azure Clouds. The Hall of the Sleeping Buddha housed a copper statue of Sakyamuni in nirvana in recumbent position with left arm straightened and the right turned to support the head. Surrounding the Sleeping Buddha in a semicircle are clay-sculptured statues of his twelve disciples with deeply grieved expressions. The group of the statues represents a vivid scene in which Sakyamuni was articulating his wills to his disciples under the bodhi tree.
Temple of Azure Clouds was built during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). The Five Hundred Arhats stand in the hall in various positions and expressions.
Tonight we will board a sleeper train to Da Tong.

7/19/07
We arrive in Datong in the morning. Datong is an important industrial and railway center in a region of great coal deposits. We can see a 600-year-old Nine-Dragon Screen made of glazed tiles, the Huayan Monastery with the largest wooden shrine hall in China, and the Shanhua Monastery, intact since 713.

7/20/07
Today, 1,500-year-old Buddhist grottoes—Yun Gang Grottoes are in front of us. The grottoes were mainly constructed in the period between 460AD to 525 AD during the Northern Wei dynasty. They are an outstanding example of the Chinese stone carvings from the 5th and 6th centuries. All together the site is composed of 252 grottoes and 51,000 Buddha statues & statuettes.

7/21/07
We go to Mt. Wu-Tai Shan, which has served as a Buddhist pilgrimage site for almost 2000 years. The center of the complex, the town of Taihuai, is located at an altitude of about 9000 feet; it is surrounded by five peaks up to 11,000 feet high. There are dozens of Buddhist temples in the town. We stay here overnight.

7/22/07
108 stone steps will lead up to the Pusa Ding Temple., where Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty once visited together with Zanabazar, the first Bogd Gegen of Mongolia. We will return to Da Tong tonight.

7/23/07
We will board a sleeper train to Luoyang via Beijing. We have dinner near the Beijing Railroad Station before boarding another sleeper train to Luoyang.

7/24/07
We arrive in Luoyang in the early morning. We will visit the Longmen Grottoes which were started around the year 493 when Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) moved the capital to Luoyang and were continuously built during the 400 years until the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). We will visit the White Horse Temple in the afternoon.

7/25/07
Excursion to the world-class attraction Shaolin Temple. Shaolin Temple is one of the most famous temple in China because of its long history and its role in Chinese Buddhism.The Shaolin Temple has many legends and mysteries surround it. The origin of martial arts, the origin of Kung Fu surround the vague mysteries of the Shaolin Temple and its monks. We will stay in a hotel near the temple tonight.

7/26/07
Shaolin Temple was established in 495 during the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534). We will spend most of the day here until we must return to Luoyang in the afternoon.

7/27/07
Train to Xian. Xian is one of the birthplaces of the ancient civilization in the Yellow River Basin. During Xian's 3,100 year development, 13 dynasties placed their capitals here. Xian enjoys equal fame with Athens, Cairo, and Rome as one of the four major ancient civilization capitals.

7/28/07
We are going to visit: the Museum of Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses, which is praised as 'the 8th wonder of the world'; the City Wall of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), which is the largest and most intact Ming Dynasty castle in the world.

7/29/07
We will visit: Big Wild Goose Pagoda which is Originally built in 652 during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) We will also visit the 3,000 year old Banpo Village Remains from the Neolithic Age (approximately from 8000 BC to 5000 BC), and the Forest of Stone Steles that holds 3,000 stone steles from 2000 years ago. After dinner, we board a sleeper train to Beijing.

7/30/07
This morning we arrive in Beijing, and then fly to San Francisco. Our home bound flight will arrive in SFO in the morning the same date.