Associate Professor Shuishan Yu reported out from the third week of the China Dialogue. Students have been on the road this week, covering a lot of ground and visiting Buddhist and Islamic sites.

On Wednesday (7/19), the students went to the Great Wall and the Ming Imperial Tombs.

The next day we explored the Temple of Heaven .

This concluded the students’ study of imperial architecture and urban landscape in Beijing. On Friday (7/21), they had the opportunity to visit private architectural firms in Beijing, which included a group of Chinese architects, as well as a Belgian architect.

On Saturday (7/22), the group took an overnight sleeper train to Gansu province in Northwest China. On Sun. (7/23), they visited an ancient Buddhist grotto site – Binglingsi in Yongjing, an Islamic site – Dagongbei in Linxia, and stayed in the Tibetan city of Xiahe for the night.

On Mon. (7/24), they visited the Tibetan Buddhist temple of Lapulengsi. They then returned to Lanzhou in the afternoon to visit White Pagoda Temple hill. They tool in the panoramic view of the Yellow River and the city. They then boarded another sleeper train in the night for Sichuan – the homeland of giant pandas!