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For the past decade, the Chinese contemporary art market has been white hot and many pieces that were available at a relatively low price a decade or so ago have now sold at auction for over $1M.
The emotional landscape of Chinese contemporary art ranges from biting critiques of authority to lyrical reflections on the positive aspects of its communal past, from the reflections of more mature artists on consumerism to the more forward-thinking consciousness of younger artists. Constantly evolving, the art scene’s earlier heavyweights such as Ai Weiwei, Zhang Xiaogang, and Yue Minjun pioneer(ed) a necessary conversation about the nation’s collective consciousness while younger artists debut their perspectives on more ethereal issues and self identity.
Your tour begins in Beijing, where the architecture, court life, and symbolism of the Ming and Qing dynasties have laid the aesthetic foundations for today's artists. Equally pivotal in the development of China’s contemporary art scene has been the Communist Party's residence in Beijing over the past 60 years. In Guilin, you will experience an art park, unrivalled in any country for contemporary art by living artists whose ethos prioritizes beauty over practicality. In Shanghai you will witness the city's fast-paced economic development together with a Chinese interpretation of its effects as expressed on the artists' canvas. This tour shows you today’s China from the Chinese perspective.
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Tour At a Glance - 9 Nights |
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Our Standard Services:
- Only the best hotels (and larger room categories)
- Only the best restaurants and dining venues
- Non-commissionable shopping
Art Tour Highlights:
- VIP airport pickup for all guests
- History of contemporary art lecture by the founder of the Asian Art Council
- Private banquet atop the Great Wall
- Expert historian walking lecture on the Great Wall
- Guided tour of the Forbidden City by a former Sotheby's expert
- Expert tour of Beijing's 798 Art District
- Meeting with founders of several notable Beijing & Shanghai art galleries
- Artists' studio visits during the Hotel of Modern Art's annual symposiums
- Traditional bamboo raft ride on the Li River
- Colonial architecture walking tour in Shanghai
- Expert tour of Shanghai's M50 Moganshan Art District
- VIP seats at the Shanghai acrobatic show
- China Host personal shopper services in Shanghai
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Day One: Beijing |
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You will be met at the gate of Beijing International Airport by airport VIP staff who will lead you through immigration, baggage claim and customs directly to your China Host. Your China Host will accompany you during the remainder of your stay in China and act as a personal concierge throughout your stay in China, allowing you to make changes as you see fit…this may mean adding a site or taking out a site, changing a restaurant or booking a foot massage! Upon transferring to the hotel, you will have the remainder of the day at leisure. ( Raffles Hotel) |
Day Two: Beijing |
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Today you will enjoy an in-depth tour of the city’s contemporary art, beginning with an introduction to the history of Chinese contemporary art by the founder of the Asian Art Council. This lecture will provide a concise but thorough look at the development of Chinese art from the late Qing dynasty, when western techniques first began to influence Chinese art to the 2010’s when Chinese art has astounded the world by commanding extraordinary prices at international auctions.
Your tour will include visits to key galleries and artist studios under the direction of the contemporary art expert who is familiar with the Beijing art scene and will be able to introduce you to the themes of contemporary Chinese art and explain why Beijing has become one of the hottest contemporary art cities in the world.
The visit will include a private tour of one of the city’s earliest and most influential galleries, where we will be welcomed by its founder. We will also take in the landmark Ullens Center for Contemporary Art and Three Shadows Gallery as part of a tour of the renowned Factory 798. In order to give you a broader understanding of Beijing’s art scene we will visit artists’ studios such as those of painters Zeng Fangzhi and Li Songsong.** (B, L, D)
**Note that visits to specific artists’ studios and gallery showings will be pending confirmation closer to the date of travel.
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Day Three: Beijing |
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Today, you will visit the Great Wall of China. Built to protect China from the incursions of predatory nomads, the utility and meaning of this fortification has
been contested for centuries. The unprecedented scale and unexpected charm of the Great Wall may inspire you. Once there, you will be treated to a private banquet on the Wall itself (weather permitting).
To deepen your experience of the Great Wall, you will be accompanied to the Wall by an internationally acclaimed historian who holds degrees in ancient Chinese history. He devotes himself full-time to walking, studying and writing about the Great Wall, and is now arguably the most informed historian on the Great Wall in any country in any language. (B, L, D)
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Day Four: Beijing |
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Early Morning Option: For shoppers, Beijing’s largest open-air market will come close to paradise. Here you will mingle with Beijingers, overseas and local art dealers, and even farmers who import goods from the countryside. This is your opportunity to buy from an astonishingly rich variety of Chinese and Tibetan cultural objects (at usually a tenth the price found in the U.S. and at often half the price found at local shops). For non-shoppers, this market can be thought of as China’s largest museum of modern cultural life, where you can see, talk to and photograph a wide range of local and regional Chinese going about their daily lives and business.
Whether by force of irony or expediency, China’s government has been located in the same area continuously for over six hundred years. You will walk back in time; strolling across Tian’anmen Square, one of the largest squares in the world, you will pass the Monument to the People’s Heroes -- dedicated to the ravages of the hundred year long Opium War -- and finally enter the ancient epicenter of Imperial Power, the Forbidden City.
We will invite a former Sotheby’s expert to bring the history of the Imperial Palace to life through a guided tour on Court Life of the Forbidden City. As this site was at the apex of political might for nearly five hundred years, this introduction combines general topics such as the organization of Imperial private life or the role of eunuchs in government with the particular challenges, solutions and idiosyncrasies of various Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasty. That said, guests are invited at all times to ask questions and so influence the direction the tour takes. Your visit will include special access to a section of the Forbidden City that is normally closed to the general public. You might be interested to have lunch in the company of the Beijing-based academic who holds a curatorial position at the Forbidden City.
After lunch, we take an intimate pedicab tour through Beijing’s traditional alleyways (or hutong). This is a great opportunity to see Chinese people still living in the traditional neighborhoods that have furnished inspiration in the collective memory of many Beijing contemporary artists. During our visit, we will stop at the home of a local artist to get a deeper impression of life in the hutongs. (B, L, D)
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Day Five: Beijing - Xi'an |
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This morning you will visit a top gallery in the Cao Changdi area, where the founder will discuss her personal love affair with Chinese art - having arrived in Beijing over a decade ago to study, she has become one of the leading figures in the contemporary art scene. Afterwards we will spend some time in the area to visit such galleries as F2, Three Shadows and Galerie Urs Meile, as well as artists’ private studios.
In the afternoon, we will fly to Guilin to be welcomed by this area’s tropical warmth and exquisite landscapes. (Hotel of Modern Art). (B, L, D)
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Day Six: Xi'an - Guilin |
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**If you travel to Guilin during the Hotel of Modern Art symposiums, we can arrange a visit to an artist’s studio and communication session. Contact us for more information about the Hotel of Modern Art’s annual symposiums.
This morning you will take a tour of the contemporary sculpture park located on the hotel’s grounds. Many of the stunning sculptures that you see on the property (and in your room itself) were created in the artists’ atelier, which is the largest in Asia and home to annual art symposiums of local and international artists.** Those who are interested in a more hands-on experience will have a chance to take part in an art lesson.
After a white-linen banquet in the spectacular Karst landscape, you will have a chance to see rural China by traveling far from the tourist route deep into the countryside to view village life. You will visit a local school, watch villagers
prepare soy milk and tofu and wander through the rice fields. This is a wonderful place to relax and really enjoy rural China. (We ask you not to bring presents for the young children at the school. Imperial Tours takes care not to create a culture of dependency amongst the school children, and instead donates equipment to the school in return for the access it provides our guests.) (B, L, D) |
Day Seven: Guilin |
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The day begins with a ride on traditional bamboo rafts along a less visited stretch of the Li River. Children swim in the rippling waters, lined with overhanging clumps of bamboo. Local farmers rake the riverbed for reeds to give to their wives to dry out and weave. Fishermen click signals to their cormorants as they hunt the river bottom for fish.
In the afternoon, we will fly to one of the fastest developing and most astounding cities in China, Shanghai. Shanghai will take your breath away. Since the early 80’s this city has been growing like no other, the Pudong waterfront becoming as emblematic of economic prowess as that of Manhattan or Hong Kong. Shanghai’s breakneck development and cultural symbolism has long been a topic for local artists throughout the city.
Before dinner at one of our favorite restaurants on the Bund, you will have a chance to stroll or drive along the Bund itself. For your stay in Shanghai, you will settle in to the modern Park Hyatt Shanghai: a palatial hotel that is crowned with dozens of works from the Mori Group’s private collection. (B, L, D)
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Day Eight: Guilin - Shanghai |
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**If you travel to Shanghai during the the Shanghai Biennale, we can arrange special access & private meetings with participating artists. Contact us for more information about the Shanghai Biennale.
Our introduction to Shanghai begins with a lecture/walking tour on colonial architecture in Shanghai given by a member of the Shanghai Historical Society. This tour will take you into some of the most important buildings along the Bund and French Concessions including the former Hong Kong Shanghai Bank and the exquisitely redone Bund 18.
This afternoon you will visit one of China’s premier galleries, ShangArt with Lorenz Helbling. Lorenz will also discuss with you his personal journey to becoming one of the most well respected gallery owners in the country.
In the evening you be the guests of honor at a private home of a top Shanghai gallery proprietor. (B, L, D) |
Day Nine: Shanghai |
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Our tour of Shanghai continues at the Shanghai Museum, one of the most modern in the country. Arranged by category rather than according to a chronology, its collection introduces and elucidates the gamut of Chinese arts from ceramics to jade and ivory carvings to paintings. At the museum you will see the traditional art elements that Chinese contemporary artists have used as subject for both emulation and rebuff.
This afternoon you will visit a selection of Shanghai’s best art galleries. You will be accompanied by a contemporary art expert familiar with the local galleries and acquainted with the artists themselves. The visit will include a stop at Moganshan 50, an area of former factories that is now the focus of the city’s art scene and includes respected galleries such as Art Scene China, ROCK Bund and Eastlink.
Our farewell dinner takes place at one of our favorite Shanghai restaurants, boasting a magnificent view over the Bund and Pudong waterfronts. (B, L, D) |
Day Ten: Shanghai |
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This morning, you will be transferred to the airport in time for your international flight home. But don’t forget to wake up early to take one last advantage of both the Hyatt’s magnificent views and the fantastic art collection throughout the hotel! (B) |
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Please note that B, L, D denotes Breakfast,
Lunch, Dinner. |
Please contact us for pricing information on the above sample art tour itinerary. For a well-rounded experience of Chinese traditional and contemporary art, may we suggest destinations such as Dunhuang and Hangzhou to complement the above sample itinerary.
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Included in the tour price would be:
- 9 nights' accommodation in outstanding five star hotels
- 9 breakfasts, 8 lunches, 8 dinners at our careful selection of China's best restaurants (soft drinks & local beer included)
- Services of a Western bilingual China Host and local tour guides
- All internal flights in economy class (Beijing/Guilin, Guilin/Shanghai)
- All land transportation (as listed on the itinerary)
Entrance fees to all tourist sites (as listed on the itinerary)
- Local guide & driver gratuities,
baggage handling, hotel & domestic airport taxes
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Not included in the tour price
are:
- International airfare to/from China, visa processing
fees, travel insurance.
- Personal expenses such as alcoholic beverages,
excess luggage fees, telephone charges, room service and laundry
charges.
- Gratuities to the China Host.
- Tours can be extended with an option to visit other destinations such as Chengdu, Dunhuang, Hangzhou, Hong Kong & Macau , Huangshan, Lhasa, Lijiang, Sanya, Shangri-La, Suzhou, and Xi'an. Please contact us for details.
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