8-Day Choir Exchange & Joint Concert Tour

Morning/Afternoon — Arrival & Hotel Check-in
Arrive in Beijing, where your guide and driver will welcome you and transfer you to your hotel. Your guide assists with check-in, and you will have time to settle in and rest before the afternoon's activities.

Afternoon — Beihai Park
Visit Beihai Park, one of China's oldest and best-preserved imperial gardens, first laid out in the 10th century and used by emperors for more than a thousand years. Take a boat ride across the lake to the island crowned by the White Dagoba, a Tibetan-style stupa built in 1651 that offers lovely views over the water. The park's blend of open lake, wooded islands, and classical pavilions makes it a favorite retreat in the heart of the city.

Lunch — Near the Park
Lunch is arranged near the park.

Evening — Dinner at the Hotel
Dinner is served at your hotel, and the evening is yours to enjoy at your leisure.

Meals
Breakfast at the hotel; lunch near the park; dinner at the hotel.

Accommodation
Check in at your Beijing hotel.

Morning — blend before volume
The first session is sectional. Sopranos and altos work in one room, tenors and basses in another, with a local conductor and a pianist. The work is on vowel shape, entries and the two habits that most amateur choirs have to unlearn: singing louder when uncertain, and breathing in the middle of a phrase because a neighbour did. The repertoire for the programme is mixed on purpose - one Chinese piece, one Western piece, and one arrangement of a folk song that both groups will sing together - and each voice part is given a marked score with the conductor's breathing plan written in.

Late morning — repertoire and context
The second block puts the Chinese items in context. A great deal of the Chinese choral repertoire in circulation was written for political or film use in the twentieth century: the Yellow River Cantata was composed in 1939 by Xian Xinghai and rewritten in 1969 as a piano concerto, and it is now standard for choirs of every kind. Folk material travels even further - the Jiangsu tune Mo Li Hua, known in English as Jasmine Flower, has been arranged hundreds of times, and it was quoted in the 2008 Beijing Olympic ceremonies. Learning how a tune moved from a province to a national symbol is part of learning the piece.

Lunch
Lunch with the conductor and accompanist, usually in a canteen or a nearby restaurant, with the afternoon's combined rehearsal timings agreed over the table.

Afternoon — combined rehearsal
In the afternoon a local choir joins the group in a larger hall, arranged through our music partner; the specific choir is confirmed before departure. The joint items are rehearsed first, with the two choirs alternating and then merged, then the whole programme is run in order. This is the point at which a choir programme either works or does not: pitch does not drift when everyone has learned to listen to a section that is not their own, and the conductor will usually spend more time on standing order and spacing than on notes.

Evening — the concert
The joint concert is held in a community theatre or school auditorium, arranged with the local partner. Both choirs perform separately and then together, and the closing item is the arrangement everyone rehearsed that afternoon. The audience is mostly local - families, students, members of both choirs - which is exactly the audience a first joint performance should have. A short reception afterwards gives the singers the part of the day that actually matters.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
In Beijing.

Morning — Temple of Heaven
Begin your day at the Temple of Heaven, an esteemed complex of religious structures where emperors once prayed for good harvests, epitomizing the connection between Earth and Heaven. Built in the Ming Dynasty and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is also a beloved public park where you can watch local residents practicing their distinctive morning exercises.

Lunch — A Well-Known Local Eatery
For lunch, enjoy a meal at a well-known local eatery featuring authentic regional cuisine. Your guide assists you in selecting dishes that suit your taste.

Afternoon — Tian'anmen Square & the Forbidden City
Stroll through Tian'anmen Square, one of the world's largest public squares, then delve into the enigmatic Forbidden City, the world's largest imperial palace. Home to 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, it contains hundreds of halls and courtyards; venturing off the main axis uncovers fascinating tales of notable figures often overlooked by conventional tours.

Evening — At Your Leisure
The evening is yours to enjoy at your leisure in Beijing.

Morning — Summer Palace
Explore the Summer Palace (Yiheyuan), the Qing Dynasty imperial garden built around Kunming Lake. Walk the Long Corridor with its painted ceilings and view the Marble Boat for a taste of royal leisure before leaving Beijing.

Afternoon — High-speed train to Shanghai
After lunch, board a high-speed train to Shanghai. The Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway covers about 1,318 km (819 miles) in roughly 4.5 to 6 hours, one of the fastest and busiest rail lines in the world, offering a front-row view of China's changing landscapes.

Evening — Arrive in Shanghai
Arrive in Shanghai and transfer to your hotel in the city center, convenient for exploring the bustling waterfront and neighborhoods in the days ahead.

Meals
Lunch is on your own (available on the train or before boarding); dinner on your own in Shanghai.

Accommodation
Your hotel in Shanghai.

Morning — combined rehearsal
The local choir arrives at nine and the two groups rehearse together for two hours. The shared programme is built around three items: a Chinese choral piece that the local singers know from memory, a Western piece that will be sung in English, and one arrangement in which the two choirs alternate verses before joining for the final refrain. A local conductor works the combined sound; the technical difficulty is always the same, which is that two choirs trained separately have different vowel colours, and the only fix is to sit the parts next to each other rather than in national blocks.

Late morning — pitch, text and pronunciation
Before the break, time is spent on the Chinese text. Mandarin sung on pitch narrows the tone distinctions that carry meaning, so the choir is given a pinyin text with tone marks and a short coaching session on the syllables that are hardest for English speakers. The same is done in reverse for the Chinese singers on the English lines. Nobody gets it entirely right and it does not matter much: what matters is that both sides hear each other trying, which is the reason a choral exchange works better than a choral visit.

Lunch
Lunch with the local choir, seated in mixed groups; the conductors use the hour to fix the running order for the evening.

Afternoon — dress rehearsal
The afternoon is a dress run in the concert venue, arranged through our local partner with the venue confirmed before departure. Standing order, spacing and the entry and exit are all set, and the combined items are run twice so that the children and the older singers in the local choir - most community choirs contain both - know exactly where they walk and when. A short run-through of the whole concert follows without stopping, then a break and dinner before the audience arrives.

Evening — the joint concert
The concert runs about seventy minutes: the visiting choir, the local choir, the combined items, and a closing piece sung by everybody, including the audience if the conductor can get them to stand. Repertoire is chosen so that the two biggest items come before the end and the last piece is the one both choirs learned together. There is a short reception afterwards; the visiting singers should expect to be photographed with everyone who was on stage.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
In Shanghai.

Morning — Yuyuan Garden
Visit Yuyuan Garden, a classical Chinese garden built in the Ming Dynasty (completed in 1577) in Shanghai's old town. Its pavilions, rockeries, ponds, and carved halls show the art of southern garden design, beside the lively Yuyuan Bazaar.

Midday — Shanghai Museum
Explore the Shanghai Museum, home to over one million artifacts including bronzes, ceramics, calligraphy, and paintings that trace China's 5,000-year history. Its rounded building on People's Square is itself a city landmark.

Evening — The Bund
Stroll The Bund, Shanghai's iconic waterfront along the Huangpu River, where colonial-era buildings from the early 1900s face the futuristic skyline of Pudong. An optional acrobatics show can be arranged.

Meals
Lunch and dinner are included, featuring local Shanghainese cuisine.

Accommodation
Your hotel in Shanghai.

Morning — The Bund & Yu Garden
Begin your day at The Bund, Shanghai's famous waterfront promenade along the west bank of the Huangpu River. Stroll past the 'International Architecture Exhibition Group,' a row of 52 historic buildings in Eclectic, Baroque, Gothic, Renaissance and Art Deco styles erected when Shanghai was an international concession port from the mid-19th century. Cross the Waibaidu Bridge — the city's first all-steel bridge, completed in 1907 over Suzhou Creek — for classic river views. Then explore Yu Garden, a classical Jiangnan garden first laid out in 1559 during the Ming Dynasty by merchant Pan Yunduan for his father. Wander its pavilions, ponds and rockeries, and admire the celebrated Yulinglong scholar's rock, one of the three great limestone rocks of the lower Yangtze.

Lunch — Traditional Shanghainese Restaurant near Yu Garden
Enjoy lunch at a traditional Shanghainese restaurant near Yu Garden, tasting local favorites such as xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) and shengjian (pan-fried buns).

Afternoon — Pudong Skyline
Take the short public ferry across the Huangpu River to Pudong. Walk the Lujiazui Ring Bridge for close-up views of the 'Three Towers': the 468-meter Oriental Pearl Tower (opened 1994), the 420-meter Jinmao Tower (1999) and the 632-meter Shanghai Tower (2015), the tallest building in China. You may ascend the Oriental Pearl Tower or simply take in the skyline from the open-air viewing platform.

Evening (Optional) — Bund Night View & Nanjing Road
Return to The Bund after dark to see the historic facades and the Pudong skyline lit up in a nightly light show, then stroll Nanjing Road — one of the world's busiest shopping streets — for shopping and snacks. (Evening activities are optional and not included.)

Morning — Departure Transfer
Your guide and driver will pick you up from your hotel and transfer you to Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) for your departure flight home, bringing your journey to a close.