The UD Alumni Association is offering alumni and friends of the University an opportunity to tour China with renowned faculty violinist Xiang Gao and his wife, Renee Dong, Chinese language instructor. Both are bilingual natives of China who will provide a rare, in-depth experience of the country and its 5,000 years of history, culture and music.

The 14-day tour, departing from New York on May 28 and returning there June 11, 2007, will stop in the historically important cities of Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai, Suzhou and Zhou Zhuang. Highlights will include visiting the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City; attending Beijing Opera and traditional acrobatic performances; viewing the famed Terra-Cotta Warriors; and touring Shanghai, known as “the Paris of the East,” and Suzhou’s beautiful Liu Garden and famed silk factories.

Talks by Gao and Dong will focus on music, culture and modern Chinese society, and classes will be offered in such subjects as calligraphy and brush painting.

Included in the tour cost of $3,519 per person will be international and domestic air and ground transportation, 12 nights’ world-class hotel accommodations and 31 meals. The reservation deadline is Jan. 31, and early reservations are recommended.

For more information, call the Office of Alumni and University Relations at (302) 831-2341 or visit [www.udel.edu/alumni].