Beijing, Jan. 13, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Context, the critically acclaimed walking tour company whose small-group, scholar-led "walking seminars" have revolutionized day tours in cities like Rome, Paris, and New York, announces its expansion to Shanghai and Beijing. Working with university professors, architects, curators, and other local professionals, Context’s urban walks in these cities offer "intellectually curious" visitors an alternative to bus tours, land packages, and other traditional travel products.
"Travelers look for Context walking seminars when they visit complicated, dense, and extremely ‘foreign-feeling’ cities," remarks Context co-founder Paul Bennett who spear-headed the company’s Asia expansion. "When we asked our customers where they’d like to see us next, Shanghai and Beijing--two extremely complicated but fascinating cities--topped the list."
Working with local experts, Context will offer a small selection of walks in each city at the start of 2012. These will include walks of Tiananmen Square and the 798 Art District in Beijing, as well as the Bund and Shanghai Museum in Shanghai. Alongside these will be a series of focused, thematic walks, for which the organization is well-known. These include "Pure Land, Buddhism and China" in Shanghai, in which a scholar of East Asian iconography takes visitors to a number of important Buddhist temples to paint a portrait of Buddhism’s history in China.
The company plans to expand dramatically a spring approaches, launching at least 4-5 new walking tours in each city.
As with its tours in Europe and the United States, Context will cap its group walks in Shanghai and Beijing at six participants, the lowest group size in the walking tour industry. Most walks will last three hours and be led by local Ph.D.-level scholars and other experts--Context’s signature. Known as "walking seminars," each activity is aimed at independent travelers who want to acquire a deeper understanding and appreciation for these cities and their histories, but who don’t want to be constrained by a pre-determined travel package.
Walks will be offered both privately on request and as regularly scheduled group walks. Private walks will begin at 2500 CNY, while group walks will cost 550 CNY per person.
More information can be found on the company’s website, at: www.contexttravel.com
Founded by National Geographic writer Paul Bennett and graphic designer Lani Bevacqua, Context is a network of English-speaking scholars and professionals, including art historians, writers, architects and gastronomes, who organize and lead walking seminars in eighteen world cities, including: Florence, Rome, Venice, Naples, Paris, London, Madrid, Berlin, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Istanbul, Athens, Shanghai, and Beijing. A certified B Corporation, Context Travel was named one of the fastest growing American companies in 2011 by Inc Magazine. To learn more about Context, visit its website at: www.contexttravel.com