Programme Overview
Duration
14 Days · 13 Nnights
Route
Beijing → Hangzhou → Suzhou → Shanghai
Highlight
1 University studio exchange
4 Signature field access visits
3 Hands-on creative workshops
6 Iconic cultural & architectural experiences
Why This Programme
China gives Art & Design students a rare chance to study visual culture as a living continuum: imperial architecture, garden aesthetics, ink traditions, craft heritage, contemporary art, urban design, and creative industry all operating within one journey.
Across Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Shanghai, students do not only observe artworks and buildings. They examine how materials, space, symbolism, landscape, craftsmanship, and modern creative practice shape Chinese visual identity from the imperial past to the contemporary city.
What We Do
The programme turns China’s art and design landscape into a structured creative learning journey. Students begin in Beijing with imperial architecture, contemporary art, and the 798/UCCA creative scene, before moving to Hangzhou for China Academy of Art, West Lake, tea culture, and Liangzhu’s architecture and heritage landscape.
In Suzhou, the focus shifts to classical garden design, silk embroidery, textile patterns, and canal-side aesthetics. In Shanghai, students study the Bund’s architectural history, M50’s contemporary studios, fabric markets, Yu Garden, and the Former French Concession. The journey combines guided site study, artist/studio engagement, academic exchange, hands-on workshops, and reflective creative tasks.
Key Takeaways
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Analyse Chinese visual culture from imperial architecture to contemporary art, design, and creative practice.
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Understand how space, symbolism, materials, colour, craft, and landscape shape Chinese aesthetics.
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Study classical garden design, architectural rhythm, borrowed scenery, and spatial storytelling through Beijing, Hangzhou, and Suzhou.
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Develop practical creative confidence through workshops in observation, ink, painting, textile pattern, craft, and visual reflection.
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Build a stronger portfolio of ideas by connecting first-hand cultural experience with art, design, architecture, and visual research.
Destinations
Beijing
China’s political and cultural capital, where students study imperial design, architectural symbolism, spatial order, and contemporary art through the Forbidden City, Jingshan Park, 798 Art District, UCCA, and the Great Wall.
Suzhou
A city known for classical garden aesthetics, canal-side urban form, and silk craftsmanship. Suzhou helps students examine spatial composition, borrowed scenery, embroidery, textile pattern, and the refined design language of Jiangnan culture.
Hangzhou
A UNESCO World Heritage city and the birthplace of China's digital economy. Home to Alibaba — the company that built China's platform commerce infrastructure from the ground up. Students encounter how digital markets, cross-border trade, and platform strategy operate at national scale.
Shanghai
China's most international city and its largest financial hub. Shanghai provides the commercial frame — scale, market access, urban infrastructure, and the global business context through which most international companies first encounter China.
Field Access
China Academy of Art
(Art & Design)
One of Asia’s leading art institutions, offering students direct exposure to Chinese art education, campus architecture, studio culture, and creative practice; a chanel to understand tradition, experimentation, material thinking, and contemporary design in China.
Liangzhu Cultural Village
(Architecture)
A unique architectural and cultural landscape combining Liangzhu’s ancient heritage with major contemporary buildings by leading architects. See how architecture, memory, materials, landscape, and cultural preservation interact in a modern environment.
A major contemporary art district in Beijing, centred around converted industrial architecture, galleries, artist studios, and UCCA. Key representations of Chinese contemporary art responds to global ideas, local identity, industrial space, and changing visual culture.
798 Art District & UCCA
(Contemporary Art)
Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute
(Heritage)
A specialist site for Suzhou silk embroidery, one of China’s major embroidery traditions. Students explore how craftsmanship, pattern, colour, material, and regional aesthetics inform textile design and contemporary applied arts.
Itinerary
BEIJING
Welcome Dinner & Free time
A welcome dinner followed by ice breaker.
Programme Briefing
Short orientation session outlining the journey, logistics, and experience flow.
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