Beijing

From Peking Man to Peking Duck, from emperors to entrepreneurs, from jade jewelry to green technology, few cities are evolving as rapidly and dramatically as Beijing. Having sat out the Industrial Revolution, the world’s largest capital city is making up for lost time, accomplishing in 15 years what it took the West one hundred and fifty. Now home to more iPhone application developers than anywhere else, Beijing is a metamorphic metropolis that will introduce our students to the rising stars of innovation. The city will challenge them to keep up with the pace, while they learn the Mandarin language.

In the world’s oldest living civilization, our students will be immersed like tea leaves in a pot of Oolong. Leading the country in a cultural and social renaissance, Beijing is our springboard for Chinese travel. It is a city where yesterday and tomorrow compete on a daily basis. The fragrance of sandalwood from the Temple of Heaven mixes with the aroma of more than 20,000 privately owned restaurants. An urban boom has high rises replacing hutongs (ancient winding alleyways), avant-garde artists communities have taken over old factory buildings in the 798 Art Zone, yet genteel teahouses have made a comeback, tai chi is still practiced daily in Jingshan Park, and the imperial palace of the Forbidden City is just as imposing as it was during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

While maintaining a delicate balance between communism and capitalism, Beijing transforms in the blink of an eye, and our students will be there to witness, analyze, and share the academic acrobatics of it all as it happens. For a student of the world, the opportunities are endless, or at the very least run the length of the Great Wall.