Every two years, FotoFest holds its citywide international Biennial of photo-based art and ideas, including six weeks of events and exhibitions in March-April. This year’s FOTOFEST2008 Biennial,focused on China 1934-2008, with photographic work from 34 artists from China, some of whose work showed for the first time outside of China.

With this unprecedented collection of over one thousand images from China’s photographic history over the last 74 years, FotoFest organized school tours for 14 Houston-area schools and 8 colleges/universities during the Biennial. Participating in the tours were some 629 students from elementary to high school and nearly 200 college/university students.

Holly Rayna Raub prepared and led the tours. In advance of the tours, each school received a Literacy Through Photography-related pre-curriculum on the China Biennial. During the tour, each student received a map of China, and Literacy Through Photography’s guide, "Four Step Process for Reading Photographs". Some of the tours were able to meet the artists from China at their exhibit of work. Of the tour one student said, “My favorite photograph was a picture with lots of children at an orphanage and a little dog on a step. I liked it because it made me imagine that all of us are united.”