April 5 Email from Andy Ferguson 

Dear Friends Bound for China,

In line with our tour’s theme, which is discovering the origins of Zen in China, I’m providing the following link to a page on my website where you can download a scholarly type paper about Bodhidharma and his travels in China. Did he meet Emperor Wu? Read the evidence here…

http://www.southmountaintours.com/bodhidharma_theory_04_10.html

By the way, I’ve been hoping the airlines will start offering some discounted air tickets and my partner travel agency Ananda Travel of San Francisco has been constantly checking on this. However, due to the Expo that will be in Shanghai this fall the airlines are being cagey about offering discounts. Of course you are welcome to book your own flights, but remember you will need to travel from the airport to the hotel on your own if you do this. This isn’t a big deal, of course, and I will give you instructions for doing this, but you should keep it in mind. I look forward to seeing many of you when I go to Rochester.

Please feel free to send the Bodhidharma link to friends who may be interested.

Andy Ferguson

China Trip September 15-28, 2010

The date for the pilgrimage to Zen Buddhist sites in China is now set for September 15-28, 2010. Andy Ferguson, author of Zen’s Chinese Heritage, will lead the tour. The price of the trip is $1,925 per person, double occupancy, and does not include airfare. Single room supplement is $595. The pricing is inclusive of customary tips to guides and drivers. For international air tickets many people will want to book their own flights (sometimes using their frequent flyer miles), but Andy will also offer tickets through his partner discount agency Ananda Travel in San Francisco. Because pricing for 2010 flights is not yet published he can’t give air flight pricing until later this year. However, it typically costs about $1,000 - $1,200, including tax, on Air China for an economy seat from San Francisco or New York to China and return. If we’re lucky it may be less than this. Ananda also offers very low priced connecting flights from USA airports to those hubs.

An important point Andy forget to mention before is that he recommends that people donate something to certain of the temples we visit. This is not included in the price of the tour. A typical donation is $20 from each person to a big or important temple and $10 each to small temples. The total for all such donations should be about $80 per person. We can collect that money during the trip and give it to the temple as a group. This is not mandatory but it’s normally expected for people to give donations

Here is Andy’s description of the tour:

This tour will be an unprecedented expedition that explores the origins and practice of Zen in China. Besides visiting and practicing at Joshu’s Dharma Seat, the home of “Mu,” it will visit Shaolin Temple, home to Bodhidharma’s cave, plus Empty Form Temple, the place where Bodhidharma was buried. This tour will also visit temples and historic sites related to where Bodhidharma met Emperor Wu and crossed the Yang-tse River “on a single blade of grass.” The tour will include a monastery stay where people will bunk four to a large room (with western bath). Otherwise we’ll stay at hotels, normally four-star or best available. Nearly all accommodations, meals, and transportation in China are included, an exception being that we do not provide airport transfers in China for people who do not take the arrival and departure flights with the bulk of the group (taxis are easy and cheap, however). 

Persons planning to go to China must have a passport valid for six months after their planned return date and must arrange to get a Chinese visa. The easy way to do this is to have our partner Ananda Travel get your visa for you. Their charge for this service is currently $30 and the cost of the visa itself is currently $130. You also must pay for mailing or courier costs for sending your passport back and forth for processing. These charges may change between now and the tour date. 

No shots are currently required for China travel but check with your doctor or health department for their updated advice. (personal note: we’ve never encountered serious infectious disease on our tours but stomach upsets needing Cipro or some similar antibiotic are fairly common, with about one person out of ten needing the antibiotic at some point on the tour. People can check with their doctor about this). We do not provide trip insurance and people who want it can buy it through Travelinsured or some similar company.

Andy has also set up a Facebook page especially for Zen in China. He will post to it during an upcoming personal trip to China,on which he plans to search for evidence about Bodhidharma and early Zen. Anyone interested can visit the Facebook group “Searching for Bodhidharma” and follow along on his trip, make comments, see pictures, and generally learn a lot before we go to China. He hopes to do continuous posts to the page and let it be a forum (using its “Wall” feature) for people to ask questions, talk to other people who have gone before, and generally learn a whole lot about China and Chinese Zen

Since the trip was originally scheduled for October 2009, do let Eryl Kubicka know if you are still interested now that it is set for September, 2010. Contact her by email: eryl@rzc.org. or by phone 585-409-6497. Andy will arrange for people to sign up on-line soon at www.southmountaintours.com