Detailed Itinerary

Day 1 Departure USA
Departure on your connecting Trans-Pacific flights from the USA to Beijing.

Day 2 Arrival to Beijing 1
Arrive in Beijing. Upon arrival at Beijing’s International Airport, you will be met by our professional Chinese Tour Director and transferred to the Hotel. Time to refresh. Dinner. Park Plaza Hotel.

Day 3 Beijing 2
Full American Breakfast. Visit to the traditional Hutong area which has been the traditional way of living for centuries. A few Hutong areas survived and are now under protection. We will visit the kindergarten, the residential area and a home hosted Lunch is waiting. No visit to China is complete before one has stood on Tiananmen Square or walked the Forbidden City -- honors once reserved solely for the great Emperors. Walking in the footsteps of Royal Chinese history, enjoy viewing the living quarters, clock collection, jewelry and other fascinating museum treasures. Dinner in a local restaurant tonight. Park Plaza Hotel.

Day 4 Beijing 3
Full American Breakfast. Today's excursion will take us to the Great Wall of China, justly famed as a "Wonder of the World." At the most beautiful Badaling section, watch this area of the Wall winding up and down the mountainsides. Return to the hotel for time at leisure or to browse the lively shopping streets nearby. A Western style Dinner is served at the hotel tonight. Park Plaza Hotel.

Day 5 Beijing - Xi’an 1
Full American Breakfast, followed by a visit to the Temple of Heaven, known as the most perfectly harmonious building in China. Enjoy the activities in the surrounding park, people playing the Chinese game of "Mah jongg" or exercising the graceful movements of Tai Chi. Continue to the airport for the flight to Xi’an. Upon arrival in Xi'an airport, transfer to the Deluxe Sofitel hotel in the very heart of the city. Dinner at the hotel tonight. Sofitel Hotel.

Day 6 Xi’an 2
Full American Breakfast. Drive to the Terra Cotta Museum on the outskirts of Xi'an to witness the wonder of the thousands of Terra Cotta Warriors. Begin the visit by watching the Circle Vision Film for an understanding of the historic setting of this phenomenon. Later, enter the exhibition and come face-to-face with one of mankind's greatest and most painstaking creations - no two soldiers are alike. After lunch, return to the hotel in the afternoon. This evening is reserved for a fabulous experience: The Tang Dynasty Dinner Show. Sofitel Hotel.

Day 7 Xi’an - Lijiang 1 Lijiang Old Town
Full American Breakfast, morning city tour including the Muslim Quarter and the Great Mosque. Later, enjoy Muslim lunch in the heart of the city followed by a transfer to Xi’an Airport and the flight to picturesque Lijiang (via Kunming). With its spectacular backdrop of mountains, Lijiang has retained a historic townscape of high quality and authenticity. Its architecture is a unique blend of elements from several cultures that came together over the course of centuries. Today, it is one of the most original and scenic towns in all of China and is known to have more than eleven minority groups, the best-known being the Naxi, Dongba and Tibetan peoples. We will stay at Jiannanchun Hotel, at the very heart of the 800-year-old ancient town.

Day 8 Lijiang 2
Full American Breakfast. A full day to quietly enjoy Lijiang and the surroundings. In the morning, we will visit the Old Town and see the market with Naxi women and men in traditional dress. This famed 800 year-old Dayan town, designated by UNESCO as a "World Heritage" location, is wonderfully easy to explore and enjoy. After Lunch in a Naxi garden, pay a visit to the Yuhu village and the small museum for the American Scholar Joseph Rock who brought the fame of the isolated Naxi culture to the world. Continue to the Jade Peak Temple, with its 300 year old trees covering the grouds, before returning to the hotel. Enjoy a Western Dinner followed by a Xuanke Naxi Concert. Jiannanchun Hotel.

Day 9 Lijiang 3
Full American Breakfast. This morning visit the Black Dragon Pool Park, with its stunning vista of the Jade Dragon mountain in the background, and the Dongba Cultural Museum. Later, enjoy a spectacular cable car ride up the Yulong Snow Mountain (weather pending), whose peaks reach up to 18,000 feet. The visit offers fantastic vistas of the mountainous area. Return to Lijiang for a Western Dinner and a quiet evening. Yimou Zhang's Lijiang Impression is fit in this day at flexible hours. Jiannanchun Hotel.

Day 10 Yangshuo 1
Full American Breakfast. Time to say goodbye to the lands of Shangri-La as we transfer to Lijiang airport for the short flight to Kunming, City of Eternal Spring in Yunnan Province. A connecting flight will take us to Guilin, the most picturesque city in China. After a city tour, transfer to the charming little town of Yangshuo. Paradise Hotel.

Day 11 Yangshuo 2
Full American Breakfast. Begin a full day in an unique environment of natural beauty, with hundreds of hills, and colorful water filled rice fields, blended with a quaint villages and friendly people. Many travelers tend to describe Yangshuo as “what I expected China to look like.” During the day we will travel to picturesque villages, visit some of the minority (tribal) groups of China and cruise the Li River to the traditional market in Fuli. Lunch will be served during the tour. In the afternoon, time to rest or to browse the lively streets next to the hotel. Western Dinner. Enjoy the most beautiful water show: Impression Sanjie Liu. Paradise Hotel.

Day 12 Hangzhou 1
Full American Breakfast. Talk and Demo of Chinese Painting will be given by a professor in the local university. Lunch at special "tea restaurant". Transfer to Guilin airport for the afternoon flight to Hangzhou, the paradise on earth. Evening visit to Hefang ancient street and Huqingyu Pharmacy, the museum of Chinese Herbal Medicine. Sunny Hotel.

Day 13 Hangzhou 2
Breakfast. This morning visit the West Lake, undoubtedly the most renowned site of Hangzhou. The Lake's scenic beauty blends in perfect harmony with historical and cultural sites usch as Solitary Hill, the Mausoleum of General Yue Fei and the Six Harmonies Pagoda. After Lunch, visit the Longjing village where the famed Longjing green tea is produced and the Ling Yin Temple which is considered to be one of the most important Buddhist temples in China. In the evening, see Yimou Zhang's Impression West Lake in the natural setting of the West Lake. Sunny Hotel.

Day 14 Shanghai 1
Full American Breakfast. Enjoy a peaceful morning of your own. Since our hotel is very close to the West Lake, you can take your time and enjoy a few hours of exploring or laziness. After lunch, we will take a 2-hour train to China’s great commercial window to the world: Shanghai. The city is truly impressive, with its unique blend of traditional architecture and the super-modern constructions in the Pudong District. Check in at the Deluxe Euatorial Hotel located in the heart of Shanghai, in the old French concession.

Day 15 Shanghai 2
Full American Breakfast. For centuries, Shanghai has been China's dynamic economic center for trade, influenced by colonial powers. We begin our tour with a visit to the splendid Yu Gardens and the colorful markets in the Old Quarter. Continue to Longhua Buddhist Temple for an introduction to Buddhism, and Lunch. On return, we visit one of the Children's Palaces to learn about how China develops its extraordinary talents from an early age. Dinner on your own, followed by a truly spectacular Acrobatic Show. Equatorial Hotel.

Day 16 Shanghai 3
Full American Breakfast. Today's program has been exclusively reserved for a Jewish-themed Tour of Shanghai. We begin at the Monument of the Stateless Refugees, followed by a visit to the former Moshel Synagogue and the Documentation Center of the Jewish Refugees - a fascinating, positive Chinese chapter in World Word II's Jewish history. Continue for a walk in the remains of the former Jewish Quarters, and enjoy the hospitality of a private home visit. This area will soon be demolished to make room for new apartment buildings, so this will be one of the last chances to experience this important Jewish historic site. Lunch during the Tour. In the evening, enjoy a special Farewell evening tour of Shanghai. First, a transfer to the Old Quarter at twilight for traditional tea at the famous Huxinting Mid-Lake Pavilion Teahouse. Continuing via illuminated landmarks such as the Shanghai Museum, Opera, Technion and the famous Nanjing Road, to our Western style restaurant near the hotel. At the famous Bund, be thrilled by the skyline of the Pudong area across the river, as we approach our local Western-style restaurant for our Farewell Dinner. Equatorial Hotel.

Day 17 Home flights to USA
Full American Breakfast. Later, transfer to Shanghai International Airport for the home flights to the USA.

Inclusive Features

All Inclusive Features:
* Round-trip transpacific air transportation
* All intra-China air/land transportation
* Fully Escorted from entry city in China by our professional tour director and local guides
* Accommodation in Gold deluxe hotels
* Western breakfasts, Chinese and western lunches and dinners
* Round-trip transfers between airport and hotel, baggage handling, hotel taxes and service charges
* Sightseeing tours, lectures, cultural entertainment and other performances as specified

Costs NOT included:
1. Visa to China
2. All airport taxes
3. Gratuities
4. All expenses of personal nature

Jewish History in China

Much of the history in China is identified by the dynasties in power during that period of time. During the North Song Dynasty (960-1126 A.D.) the silk trade continuously flourished along the legendary over-land Silk Route. Caravans from the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean began their journeys on the Silk Road at the city, now known as Baghdad in Iraq, and terminated in China at the then capital of China, Kaifeng. With over one million residents at that time, Kaifeng was considered among the world's largest commercial metropolis. A similar classification was presented by Baghdad. The Silk Road was the conduit for connecting these two hubs of commerce.

From the early years of the silk trade, the Israelite traders provided a very important medium between China and the Roman Orient. This is evidenced as an historical fact by the immigration and settling of the Jewish community in Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Sometime between 960-1126 A.D., a group of Israelite merchants, numbering about 2000 in seventy or more clans, traveled a long way from their homes in Persia, followed the overland Silk Route and finally arrive in Kaifeng. When they were ushered into the palace of the Song Emperor, they proudly presented their tribute of cotton cloth to the Emperor. The cloths were woven in five brilliant colors and the Emperor was immensely attracted at his first glimpse of such beautiful material. After examining the "Western Cloth", the Emperor was so delighted and asked if they could stay and produce such cloth for his people. The visitors explained that they could no stay because they are members of an ancient people who observed customs very different from Chinese people.

The Emperor responded, "You have come to our China, you can reverence and preserve the customs of your ancestors and hand them down in Bian Liang (Kaifeng).

The history of the Kaifeng Jewish community was written by the Jews themselves and preserved on three inscribed monuments that were erected in the courtyard of the ancient synagogue respectively in 1489,1663 and 1679.

After settling in Kaifeng, seventy families founded and formed the core of the first congregation. They built their first synagogue in 1163. The synagogue followed the traditional structure of Chinese Temples that included a courtyard, memorial arches, pavilions, great halls and side buildings. However, it differed from the usual Chinese Temple which normally faces south, in that the synagogue faced east with the main gateway and entrance on the east side. The most sacred part of the synagogue was on the extreme west so that worshippers in performing their religious observances would face west toward Jerusalem.

On the south side of the central courtyard of the synagogue was an Ancestral Hall similar to that used by Chinese. For some generations the descendants of these Jews had followed the customs of maintaining their ancestral tablets exactly as the Chinese do.

At the peak times in the history of the congregation, the Kaifeng Jews kept thirteen Torahs in the ark, each enclosed in a gold lacquered case covered with silk. Twelve scrolls represented the twelve tribes of Israel and one was dedicated to Moses.

From the early settlement through the thorough assimilation by the late Qing Dynasty the community had tried to preserve its Jewish identity. Yet they had been inevitably influenced by the hospitable Confucian culture in which they had lived for centuries. In the inscriptions on the three Jewish stone monuments were recorded many members whose achievements added to the glory on the community such as imperial degree holders, high civil officials, military officers, scholars and official physicians, traders and shopkeepers.

In various historical Chinese accounts several Jews were singled out for special mention. In 1421 for instance, a Kaifeng Jew named An Cheng, an official physician who exposed a plot of treason against the Emperor. A Cheng was rewarded after Emperor Yongle by promoted to Assistant Commissioner of Zhejing Province. He was bestowed Chinese surname "Zhao" and honor was also paid to his family and his synagogue.

Li Yao, a company commander died in action putting down a rebellion in 1643, Ai Ying was special physician to the resident prince in 1644 and owned a big pharmacy near the synagogue. In 1652, Zhao Shi-fang was honored for being the leader of a group who helped repair a Confucian shrine just next to the synagogue. The best known of all Chinese Jews was Zhao Ying-Cheng whose name was Moacsben Abram. His biographies were written in Henan and Fujian Provinces. He is remembered for capturing and killing the bandit that had killed and looted in Fujian area.

For almost seven centuries, the Jews of Kaifeng had coexisted in peace with the local Chinese. They dressed like the Chinese, spoke the local dialect and engaged in the same occupation as other Chinese. There had never been examples of anti-semitism in China. On the contrary records even show that the ruler of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) were particularly well disposed to the Jewish minority.

The history of the survival of the Kaifeng Jews is closely tied to the periodical floods of the Yellow River. Kaifeng had been considered as the oriental Jerusalem for its ancient synagogue. After the frequent floods since Ming Dynasty the synagogue had been repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. Finally it fell into ruin. With the death of Kaifeng's last Rabbi about 1800, the Jewish community gradually disintegrated. They had no grammar books to study Hebrew and scriptures. They began to intermarry with the local Chinese. As the religion declined assimilation increased. By the middle of 19th century poverty in the community was so severe that the surviving Kaifeng Jews had to assimilate into Chinese culture.

In 1605 the discovery of the Kaifeng community by the western world agreed when a Jesuit missionary Mattio Ricci was visited in Beijing by a native of Kaifeng named Ai Tian. Through the interesting interview Ricci realized to his surprise that his visitor was a Chinese Jew. Ai Tian didn't know the designation "Jew", but called himself an Israelite. He never heard of Jesus. Ricci reported the event to Rome. The news thus began to spread in Europe and brought about an electrifying response. When Marco Polo traveled in China, he also reported the Jews lived in China in or about 1286.

Today in Kaifeng the original site of the synagogue is still marked as "the Lane of the teaching scriptures". Nothing of the synagogue remains except for the three synagogue monuments which are now housed in Kaifeng today which depicts their ancestry and knowledge about the land from which their ancestors came. They also feel proud that Kaifeng had been the ancient capital of China, and that their ancestors made their contribution to the glory of Kaifeng.

The Pien-Liang (Kiafang) Jewish Community

The merchant economy of ancient China brought Jewish traders to the region as early as the eighth century. Jewish merchants travelling the Silk Route settled in the far western region of the country in the city of Pien-Liang (today's Kiafang), capital of the Honan province, where they built the community's first synagogue in 1163. The community thrived through eight centuries, until the mid-nineteenth century, when the Pien-Liang Jewish community significantly declined. No Jews remained capable of reading Hebrew or maintaining the synagogue, which was then demolished around 1860.

The Harbin Jewish Community

In the late nineteenth century, communities of Russian Jews settled in Harbin and Tientsin, especially at the urging of the Russian government, which aimed to construct a railway to eastern Asia and needed population centers there. The Russian government, eager to populate the cities, encouraged minorities such as Jews and Karaites to move to these cities. As the religious freedoms in Eastern Europe became more limited and as pogroms in the Pale of Settlement increased, many Jews joined these Southeast Asian communities, raising the Jewish population of Harbin to 8,000 by 1908.

The Shanghai Jewish Community

Shanghai, a port city in the Kiangsu province in Eastern China, opened to foreign trade in 1842. Subsequently, the city of Shanghai absorbed many of the Ashkenazi émigrés fleeing repression in Eastern Europe. Russian Jews fleeing persecution and massacres under the Tsar also emigrated and built the Ohel Moishe Synagogue in Shanghai in 1907. But the majority of the Shanghai Jewish population was Sephardim from Baghdad, Bombay, and Cairo, including the wealthy families Sassoon, Kadoorie, Hardoon, Ezra, Shamoon, and Baroukh. These families raised the Jewish population of Shanghai to approximately 700, including 400 Sephardim, 250 Europeans, and 50 Americans. Most of them were merchants, although some were in medicine, teaching, and diplomatic service. Click to learn about Jewish History in Shanghai.

Jews fleeing the Russian Revolution of 1917 further increased the Jewish population and raised awareness for the Zionist movement. Then in the 1930s and 40s, Jewish refugees from Germany and German-occupied areas fleeing the Nazi regime increased the Shanghai population to approximately 25,000. Lubavitch Hasidim, as well as remnants of the Mir and Slobodka Lithuanian yeshivot (Jewish religious schools), found refuge in Shanghai, which became a frequent destination because the free port did not require visas.

Between 1904 and 1939, three synagogues were built in Shanghai, and 12 Jewish magazines in English, German, and Russian were established and published there. A Hebrew newspaper was also published as early as 1904. The leading magazine, Israel's Messenger, was a Zionist monthly founded in 1904 by N. E. B. Ezra and published until his death in 1936.

The Japanese captured Shanghai in 1937 and closed it to further immigration in December 1941. They deported most of their Jews to the miserable Hongkew district of Shanghai and kept them in unsanitary semi-internment camps under Japanese occupation forces. The Shanghai Jews, including the transferred Japanese Jews, suffered great economic and property loss during the war, after which, most left to the United States, Britain, Israel, Australia, and other communities. Since 1948, 1,070 Jews from China have immigrated to Israel, with 504 leaving between 1948 and 1951.

The Chinese Jewish Community Today

During the past decade, Jewish and Chinese students have met on academic exchange programs to Israel and elsewhere. A small Jewish Museum exists in Kaifang, though most remnants of the Jewish community lie in Shanghai. Israel and China established formal relations in 1992.

Today, China's Jewish community numbers around 200, nearly all in Shanghai. But led by Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Shalom Greenberg, efforts are underway to revive the small Jewish community.