Country Info

China is a wonderfully diverse country, full of history, amazing sights, wonderful food and warm, welcoming people. Not surprisingly, however, it is different from the United States in every conceivable way (including having opposite days and nights). Time for families to adjust to the time change and initial culture shock is specifically built into the two-week trip.

China has one of the world's oldest people and continuous civilizations, consisting of states and cultures dating back more than six millennia. It has the world's longest continuously used written language system, and is the source of many major inventions, such as what the British scholar and biochemist Joseph Needham called the "four great inventions of Ancient China": paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing.

China is home to 1.29 billion people - over 20% of the world's population. The capital of China is Beijing and the official language is Mandarin, with dialects spoken in different areas.

China offers a rich and varied history and culture and historic sightseeing opportunities, such as the Great Wall.