Xi'an-Lanzhou Study Tour Resources
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Visa Information The Chinese Embassy no longer accepts ordinary visa applications. For ordinary Chinese visas, you can (1) either apply in person at the China Visa Application Service Centre, 9th Floor, Royal Brothers, 22 Malacca Street; or (2) apply online (with a follow-up visit in person when your online form is reviewed and you leave your passport) by going to the website: www.visaforchina.com.sg. Phone enquires: 62262358/62262439. (Nearest MRT is Raffles Place, exit at A, B or D.)
Useful Information Electric outlets in China


Recommended Reading



This list compiled by Tour Leader Patricia Bjaaland Welch (2012)

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.

Beguin, Gilles. Buddhist Art: An Historical and Cultural Journey. Bangkok: River Books. French and English editions available. Country-by-country chapters with excellent photographs. Very useful reference book. China: pp. 279-332.

Birrell, Anne [M.] Chinese Mythology: An Introduction. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. through 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 [Perhaps this is a good time to note that the older Wade-Giles spelling of Ch'in has been replaced by the Pinyin spelling Qin.]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. So, Jenny F. and Emma C. Bunker. Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier. Smithsonian Institution, 1995. Fascinating exhibition catalogue featuring China's northern tribes and their cultures. Excellent resource articles.

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]


Recommended Websites

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 terracotta army's museum that we are visiting

For a description of Xuanzang's, Faxian's and Yijing's travels click here.

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).

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