IMPORANT NEWS Sept. 1 - 17 Tour Notice. This is our update page for all breaking news and important tour facts, so please check back regularly. China Handbook. Please print this file and carry with you. Includes phone numbers, directions to our hotel, and vital Chinese phrases. New Location. Our workshop has moved to sacred Wudang, about eight hours by bus or train from Xian City. Meeting Place. Changed to Xian City. Please plan to arrive in Xian on or before Sept. 1. Airline Tickets. For those with tickets to Chengdu City, please change ASAP. Get a refund, and change or reroute your flight for arrival in Xian City on September 1. Cancellations. Please contact Jesse ASAP if you plan to cancel.

Last Update June 20, 2008
IMPORTANT TOUR UPDATES
September 2008 Study Group

What's New

• CHINA HANDBOOK. Please Print & Bring Along.
  Click above link and print the 3-page file that appears. Don't forget to bring it with you. It includes phone numbers, directions to get from Xian Airport to your hotel, and vital Chinese phrases. PLEASE PRINT IT & BRING IT WITH YOU.
   
• VISA DOCUMENTS. You will need a visa to enter China. If you haven't gotten your visa yet, please apply asap. You'll need to include some special documents with your visa application -- we've already sent these documents to each tour participant, but if didn't receive them, please contact us as soon as possible.
   
• We provided the following to each member:
  1. Visa Invitation Letter (fill in your name)
  2. Hotel Confirmation Letter
  3. Hotel Business Card
   
• You should have already received all three in an email attachment. Please print these three documents out in color, and submit them with your visa application. You may wish to use a visa expedite service to help in the application process such as Visa Rite.
   
• PACKING FOR YOUR TRIP. Many students wonder what to pack. In September, there can be fog at times in Wudang, and we will be lodging at the top of the mountain. This can make for cold mornings and evenings. So bring comfortable clothes for the meditation practice, and perhaps a few long sleeve shirts, and a hooded athletic jumper perhaps for any change in weather we may experience resulting in cold conditions on the mountain. If you have other questions, please feel free to ask.
   
• FOR SEPTEMBER PARTICIPANTS. Please stay tuned for updates. At the moment, nothing has changed in terms of dates, but our new meeting place will be XIAN CITY (not Chengdu). After Xian, we will travel to Wudang (see photos here) to pursue our study. Please let me know asap if you plan to cancel, as we need to have the eact number of attending students for rooms, food, and related supplies. Please contact me here.

Arriving in Xian, Getting to Our Hotel

• Xian Airport to Hotel. Sorry, but we won't have people at the airport to meet you upon your arrival. So please make your way by BUS to the Bell Tower and then to our hotel. Don't worry. Getting there is easy. See the China Handbook for detailed instructions and useful Chinese-language phrases. Do not take private-taxi services, as they will charge you too much. Take the bus (or public taxi service if you don't mind spending more). My phone number is included in the China Handbook. Print it out and bring it with you. Please call if you experience any trouble.

Avoid Chengdu Entirely if Possible

• We will no longer be meeting in Chengdu. Our new meeting place is Xian. The temple where we were scheduled to hold our Sept. 2008 workshop was totally destroyed, as were many other temples, schools, and buildings in the Chengdu area. We have therefore changed our workshop location to sacred MT. WUDANG. Our meeting place has also changed. We will no longer meet in Chengdu, but rather in Xian City. Some members, however, are still scheduled to arrive in Chengdu, and some are having trouble changing their airline tickets. Please review our strategies below for dealing with these important issues. If at all possible, please AVOID Chengdu entirely. For those with tickets to Chengdu City, please change ASAP. Get a refund, and change or reroute your flight for arrival in Xian City on or before September 1.

AIRLINE TICKETS AND MEETING PLACE
MEMBERS WHO CAN CHANGE FLIGHTS TO XIAN

• Our meeting place has changed to Xian City.
• Sept. 1. Members arrive in Xian. Some members like to arrive one or two days early to rest up before the event begins, and this is fine; we will be at the hotel early, and it is no trouble. Just let us know in advance of your travel plans.
• Sept. 2. Visit 8 Immortal Temple, local bazaar, enjoy classical dinner music show. 
• Sept. 3. Depart for Wudang in morning (chartered bus); arrive there in evening.
• China Handbook. Print this file and carry with you.
• PLEASE CONTACT JESSE ASAP WITH YOUR FLIGHT PLAN OR DECISION TO CANCEL.

AIRLINE TICKETS AND MEETING PLACE
MEMBERS HAVING TROUBLE BOOKING, CHANGING, OR RE-ROUTING FLIGHTS
We strongly recommend that members AVOID CHENGDU ENTIRELY.
Get your travel agent to re-route your flight to Xian City, avoiding Chengdu.

• If you cannot get your travel agent to help you, and are still willing to brave the flight into Chengdu to get a connecting flight to Xian, please take the below actions:
   
• You may buy a connecting flight yourself online from Chengdu to Xian for about $70 USD at ChinaTravelDepot. One of our members used this service and thought it might help others. We strongly advise against this strategy.
• We just spoke to the travel agent at ChinaTravelDepot (see link above), and she informed us that flights are randomly canceled and delayed for long, long periods of time due to the activity of people's liberation army in Chengdu. They are using the airport as a base of operations for the relief effort due to the earth quake. So if at all possible, make the effort to talk to your travel agent in your home country, and somehow re-route your ticket to AVOID CHENGDU - and arrive in XIAN directly. You may encounter much trouble and frustration at the Chengdu airport, and it is very possible you may get to Chengdu but discover your connecting flight to Xian is canceled.
• We are no longer making plans to help students transfer from Chengdu City to Xian, so please take care of gaining the transfer ticket to Xian -- please reroute your ticket yourself to Xian.
• So please make the effort to talk to your travel agent in your home country, and somehow re-route your ticket to AVOID CHENGDU - and arrive in XIAN directly on Sept. 1.
• Emergency Handbook. Print this file & carry with you.
   
• CONTACT JESSE ASAP WITH YOUR FLIGHT PLAN OR DECISION TO CANCEL.

ITINERARY, PRACTICE SCHEDULE
WORKSHOP CONTENT

• This is not a tour of China for sightseeing or tourism. The main workshop focus and aim is to teach and transmit the rare practice of Taoist Internal Alchemy Meditation. We try at times to go on hikes, or see some interesting sites when possible such as local Wudang Taoist Temples, but this is not the main theme or important aspect for us on this journey.
   
• Intensive Workshop in Taoist Internal Alchemy Meditation. As such it is a seated practice; though members with leg pain or injury are also allowed to sit in a chair during practice if this can aid them. We will be training in this seated meditation practice under the guidance of Teacher Hu Xuezhi three times per day in Wudang. Please visit the How To Practice page to try the basic home practice to help you prepare for this intensive training in Wudang.
   
• Our Daily Schedule. See general outline below. But the daily schedule is subject to change, due to local conditions, our personal judgment, and the health and feelings of the students. We are seeking to learn about Taoism, and as such, we should all have some flexibility, and be able to embrace change as it takes shape during our journey together.
   
• Early Morning Meditation Practice - 5:15 am - 6: 45 am
• Morning Taoism & Buddhism Theory Class - 8: 30 am - 10:30 am
• Noon Meditation Practice - 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
• Evening Meditation Practice - 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
• Afternoon free time for resting, sleeping, hiking, and enjoying Wudang
  1:00 pm - 7:00 pm
  
   
• Sept. 1. Meet in Xian City. Members arrive from their respective countries, and make their way to the hotel using our China Handbook. Some members like to arrive one or two days early to rest up before the event begins, and this is fine; we will be at the hotel early, and it is no trouble.Just let us know in advance of your travel plans.
   
• Sept. 2. Morning practice, and afternoon tour of Xian (Eight Immortals Temple, Antique Bazaar). We will be out all day long today.
   
• Sept. 3. Travel to Wudang by bus. Take morning bus to Wudang and arrive in Wudang on evening of same day; we will travel first class. We transfer to the mountain by bus, settle in to our hotel on top of Wudang Mountain, and have an evening lecture on How to Practice and perhaps may take part in our first evening practice that night after the lecture. Photos of Wudang area.
   
• Sept. 4 through 15. Lectures, workshops, practice, and study
  -- Taoist Internal Alchemy (see training manual) with Teacher Hu
  -- Wudang Tai Chi with Teacher Shao
  -- Taoist Yoga
  -- Buddhism and Taoism Theory in daily lectures
  -- REFERENCE: Please see Wudang Study Tour ARCHIVE 2007
   
• Sept. 16. Transfer back to Xian (or Chengdu) by bus
   
• Sept. 17. Members may depart for their home countries, or continue their travel in China.
   
• Getting Enough Rest. The daily meditation training is very intensive, and often times we encourage the students to rest during the afternoons for the first 5 to 6 days to enable them to have proper practice sessions in the meditation practice. It is a very common experience for the students to be very tired and exhausted during the first 4 to 6 days of training, and it is in their best interest to sleep and rest during free times.
   
• Taoist Yoga. We try and introduce some basic aspects of Taoist Yoga -- seated and standing -- but we do not try and teach this in any real depth during the workshop. Simply put, we are not going to be teaching many movement forms and such during this training. Movement may look attractive, but in reality, there is not much internal growth or development one can gain from such practice. 
   
• Rare Opportunity. We have found that there is no course being offered in the public light that compares in any way to the contents and methodology we share; so we hope students may understand, and enjoy the rare teachings being offered in the form of Taoist Meditation and the rare theory and explanations of Taoism and Buddhism Theory.

WUDANG AND LODGING

• Each member will have their own private hotel room and hot shower.
• We will utilize a very large private meeting hall for lectures/seminars.
• Wudang is my home in China, and I have an apartment there; so I love the area and just try and overlook all the tourism. Here are some photos of Wudang to let you see the natural area we will be in. Despite the growing tourist element in Wudang, the mountains still maintain their magic and beauty.
• I will act as mountain guide at times in Wudang, and show people around the various temples and sites in Wudang during our free times in the afternoons; we will have a lot of fun.
• Thank you for keeping the faith, and we will do our best to provide you with an amazing workshop and spiritual experience.

Let us hold our hearts in prayer for all those that have suffered from this event.
With all my best, love and light

Jesse (contact page)