Xi’an & Dunhuang with Lee Mei-yin (Conducted in Cantonese & Putonghua)

Overview:

Xi’an (西安), also known as Chang’an in ancient time, is one of the oldest cities in China and has served intermittently as the capital of thirteen dynasties including Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui and Tang. It prospered as an international city benefiting from its location at the eastern starting point for the great trade caravans of the ancient Silk Road.

The tour’s program begins in Xi’an with a visit to the Shaanxi History Museum (陝西歷史博物館) and the Xi’an Museum (西安博物院) to view the important collections, dated from pre-history of 150,000 years ago through different dynasties to the Qing. We will visit Yangling Tomb (漢陽陵), the Mausoleum of the Western Han Emperor. It was built in the year 153 and housed up to 60,000 burial objects – painted pottery figures, utensils, chariots and weapons, including a large number of animals have been unearthed. Xi’an’s old City Wall (古城牆) was one of the largest and most complete ancient military systems of defense in the world.

Dunhuang (敦煌), a small town in northwestern China renown for its art treasures, was an oasis located amid the Gobi Desert along the Silk Road from 2 BC to 14 AD. The caves in Dunhuang are the highlights of the tour. The Mogao Grottoes (莫高窟), popularly known as “the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas”, form a complex of 492 cave temples containing some of the finest examples of Buddhist art. Spanning a period of 1,000 years, from the 4th to the 14th century, they visually represent, with brilliant details, the culture of medieval China. They were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. The Yulin Grottoes (榆林窟), known as Wanfoxia “Gorge of Ten Thousand Buddhas”, were carved between the Northern Wei (439–534) and the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) on two sharp cliffs facing each other on the banks of the Yulin River.

This tour will be conducted in Cantonese and Putonghua. We are very privileged to have Lee Mei-yin, a Special Research Fellow of the Dunhuang Academy, guide us in Xi’an and Dunhuang – two important ancient cities on the Silk Road. A graduate of The Chinese University, she is an advisor to the Hong Kong Institute for Promotion of Chinese Culture and has conducted in-depth research on Chinese ethnic culture, Buddhist art and Chinese embroidery for many years.

西安，古稱長安，是中國古城之一，先後有周、晉、漢、隋、唐等十三個皇朝定都於此，不僅是著名古都，而且是盛譽的國際城市，是絲綢之路的起點。

昔日的繁榮，西安給我們留下寶貴的遺址及文物，西安古城牆是我國現存最完整的一座古代城垣建築，奢華的帝王陵墓及陪葬器物，都是十分珍貴的歷史文化財富，現存陝西省歷史博物館及西安博物院。

敦煌是戈壁沙漠上的一個綠州，歷史上中西交通要道上的重鎮。

莫高窟，俗稱千佛洞，是個結合建築、彩塑、壁畫三為一體的藝術寶庫。莫高窟現存四百九十二窟，塑像兩千四百餘尊，壁畫四千五百平方米，被譽為世界最大的畫廊，是世界上現存規模最大、內容最豐富的佛教藝術地。1987年年更被聯合國教科文組織列為「世界遺產」之一。近代以來，又發現了藏經洞，內有5萬餘件古代文物，並衍生出了一門專門研究藏經洞典籍和敦煌藝術的學科—敦煌學。榆林窟又稱萬佛峽，位於安西縣城東南75公里處的祁連山中。它是敦煌藝術的一個組成部分，和莫高窟一起被稱為絲綢之路上的姊妹窟。

全程由李美賢女士帶領參觀。李女士畢業於香港中文大學，從事中國少數民族「民族史與服飾」研究、中國文化教育及推廣工作二十多年。近年研究範圍包括佛教藝術「佛教雕塑」、敦煌、絲綢與刺繡賞析等。現任香港中華文化促進中心之學術顧問「民族文化」，和敦煌研究院特別研究員。