Electric outlets in China

There are several transliteration systems in use when transcribing Chinese into English and other western languages. The two most common are Pinyin and Wade-Giles. Although Pinyin is the preferred transcription language today, many older references used Wade-Giles. To help you with the various Chinese terms and names (for example: Ch'in in Wade-Giles is Qin in Pinyin), here is a Pinyin-WG conversion table.

Need help packing? Here's my recommended packing list for our 5-day journey.

The final itinerary.

Your overall introduction to the historicity and significance of the sites we're visiting: Xi'an Briefing Notes.

A complete translation of the Nestorian stele we'll see in the Forest of Steles.

The story behind the Tang Emperor Taizong's mausoleum Zhaoling, which we'll see west of Xi'an, and the story of his famous six steeds, four of which we'll also see in the Forest of Steles.

Maijishan Grotto Worksheets

A one-page summary of Famensi, an historical Buddhist temple and home to a museum holding the artefacts recently excavated from its treasure chamber, including relics of the Buddha (sarira).

Allan, Sarah. The Shape of the Turtle: Myth, Art, and Cosmos in Early China. SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture. Albany, 1991.

Bagley, Robert W. Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections. Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections 1. Washington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987.

Birrell, Anne [M.] Chinese Mythology: An Introduction. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.

Bodde, Derk. China's First Unifier: A Study of the Ch'in [Qin] Dynasty as seen in the Life of Li Ssu 180-208 B.C. HK University Press, 1967 (originally published in 1938 by Brill, Leiden). As Bodde writes in the introduction, "Of all the events in China's long and varied history, perhaps none are so full of interest, drama and significance, as those leading to the rise of the petty state of Ch'in...." [Perhaps this is a good time to note that the older Wade-Giles spelling of Ch'in has been replaced by the Pinyin spelling Qin.]

Cameron, Nigel. Barbarians and Mandarins: Thirteen Centuries of Western Travellers in China. NY: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Cotterell, Arthur. The Imperial Capitals of China: An Inside View of the Celestial Empire. Great Britain: Pimlico, 2007. ISBN 9781845950095. Chapters 1-2 and 5-6 on the cosmology of the Chinese capital and the first imperial capitals: Qin Xianyang and Chang'an, plus the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Cottrell, Leonard. The Tiger of Ch'in: The Dramatic Emergence of China as a Nation. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1962.

Gernet, Jacques. Buddhism in Chinese Society: An Economic History from the Fifth to the Tenth Centuries. Columbia: University Press, 1995.

Lawton, Thomas. Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Continuity, 480-222 B.C. Washington: Freer Gallery of Art, 1982.

Paludan, Ann. Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial China. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 10:0500287643, pp. 24-117.

Rawson, Jessica. Ancient China: Art and Archaeology. Great Britain: The British Museum, 1980. ISBN 0 7141 14146. This wonderful book by Rawson is one of the best general surveys of the art of China from the Neolithic through the Han Dynasty.

Sullivan, Michael. Cave Temples of Maichishan. University of California Press, 1969.

Watson, W. Ancient Chinese Bronzes. London, 1962. A classic.

Watt, James C. Y., ed. China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD. NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2005. ISBN 1-58839-126-4.

Wriggins, Sally Hovey. Xuanzang: A Buddhist pilgrim on the Silk Road. Boulder: Westview Press, 1996. [alternatively her work: The Silk Road journey with Xuanzang, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2004]

An excellent source of scholarly articles on Asia, history, art, archaeology and related topics can be found at the Singapore National Library digital library. Go to www.nlb.gov.sg. In the left-hand column choose "National Library". On that new page, click on the E-RESOURCES menu item. Then under "Login" click on "Register" and follow the instructions. Access is open and free to all residents of Singapore. Once you have a username and password, go back to the E-RESOURCES page and under "Login" click on "Login". Log in to bring up a menu "By A-Z" and select the letter "J". Find JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal Archive and click in. Just click "ignore" or "cancel" on any "certificate warnings" that may appear, then fill in your key search words to "search the collections". User tip: When you find an article you want to read, select "Download pdf" to save it on your hard drive to read (and re-read) at your leisure. This is one of the finest resources you'll ever need, and it's free courtesy of Singapore's National Library. Thank you NLB!

The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: The Bronze Age; more on Ancient Chinese Ritual Bronzes, and an excellent overview of the most common types of ancient Chinese bronzes with drawings and explanations can be found by clicking here

Tianshui is said to be the birthplace of Fuxi, one of the legendary figures of ancient China; read more about Fuxi and other legendary figures here

For information about the Zhou Dynasty, and the Spring & Autumn to Warring States Period

Click here for an interesting overview of the First Emperor of China: Qin Shihuang and his teracotta army's museum that we are visiting

Sino-Platonic papers is an occasional series edited by Victor H. Mair of the University of Pennsylvania's Department of East Asian Languages and Civilisations. It makes available excellent articles FREE in .pdf download format. There are hundreds of articles on this site but the one you should download and read is entitled Zhaoling: Mausoleum of Emperor Tang Taizong, by Xiuqin Zhou, Chapter 6 in particular on the ancient site of Qianling (April, 2009).

Sogdians in China and another article on Sogdian burial practices

How to Record a Podcast using GarageBand

How to share your podcast with your fellow tour members. (This document also includes easy-to-use information on how to record a podcast using a free utility program in the event you don't have access to Apple's GarageBand or are using a Windows platform.)