thebandinchina's blog

Jinshanling Great Wall - breath-taking experience

Ni hao to our family, friends, colleagues, and faithful blog readers (we've been told there were more than 1000 views):

Our trip to China could be described in many ways. I would do it all again, given the chance. Carlee said that she felt very privileged . . . both to have gotten the chance to go on the trip, and to be an American. She observed that the heavy presence of police, soldiers, and armored tanks was a regular reminder that we weren’t in Kansas! It wasn’t an overwhelming presence, in that we didn’t fear for our safety. But when the tour guides warned us not to take pictures of the armed soldiers at various road checkpoints, we took heed. The presence of “canned audiences”, volunteers who were all dressed alike, at the performances was further evidence to Carlee that the freedom to assemble is very limited in China. We were given 5-6 water bottles per day, having been warned not to drink the tap water. Lunches and dinners out were wonderful with a lot of variety of Chinese cuisine. Western food was available, in packaged goods at stores, and at the world-renowned McDonalds and KFC franchises (Read the reply to Carlee's post about the Great Wall Experience, to learn "the rest of the story", including Mountain Bus Racing and The Great McDonald's Caper).

The historical sites that we visited in Beijing, including Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Emperors’ Summer Palace were fantastic. We were in awe of the spectacles. However, we enjoyed the second week in Shanghai more than Beijing, mostly because we had more free time to explore and relax. For the musicians, much of the first week (Grand Epoch City – International Conference Center) was spent rehearsing in very oppressive heat and humidity. They performed at Tiananmen Square on August 3 – the first foreign group ever permitted to do so. The square was closed to visitors with a 2.5’ - 3’ high fence and soldiers/guards stationed around the perimeter. A group of about 200-300 Chinese volunteers with their “thunder sticks” was brought in to supplement the crowd of chaperones. Chinese Television was there in force along with media teams from some other foreign countries. NBC nightly news, Reuters, and KCRA3 from Sacramento broadcast the story.

 At the Great Wall on August 4, the Red Orchestra and Color Guard (USA, 700+ members) played 76 Trombones, & Sing, Sing, Sing. The Green Orchestra (Australia, Guam, Japan, Saipen – about 400-500 members) played the Olympic Fanfare medley and Classical Medley. There was a large cement square area just below the Wall where they played. The audience was the surrounding hills and any visitors who happened to be on that stretch of the 4000 mile long wonder. Most of the kids in our group would later say that this was the high point of the trip for them.

 On August 6, via a caravan of 57 buses (nearly 2500 people), we traveled about one hour to Tianjin’s Olympic Square for the final performance of the orchestra. All along the highway and into the city, policemen lined the route and stopped traffic so that we could arrive at our destination in one group. That was pretty amazing with people waving at us while we waved back. The Tianjin Olympic Square was festive, with a huge stage and Olympic decor. The full Tutti Orchestra, including Red, Green, and Yellow (China) numbered something between 1700-2008. I never got the final count. The audience was probably 2/3 the size of the orchestra, with the square surrounded by police in at least 3 rings. Again, it was broadcast throughout China on their national stations.

On to the Olympics! We saw China beat Sweden (2-1) in Womens’ soccer that evening in Tianjin, August 6. It was very exciting, with deliriously happy Chinese fans. A 10-hour overnight train ride to Shanghai (August 9/10) was a new adventure to many of us. I was sleeper car #24 dorm mother to three teenage girls. You can learn a lot doing that for a night. We toured both sides of The Bund, a riverfront showcasing old European and new skyscraper-laden Shanghai. We also saw a spectacular show of the Shanghai acrobats. We were coached by our tour guides in the art of “bargaining” and shopped the market-places and window-shopped the upscale shopping district. Carlee and I went on an optional tour to a “water town”, Zhujiajiao, which dates back 1900 years. It has canals for some of the “streets”. On our last night in China, we went to the Olympics again, this time seeing two mens’ soccer games in Shanghai. It was a terrific end to the trip.

 

Shanghai was a really cool city. I liked it better than Beijing. We went to the Jin Mao Tower, the second tallest building in Shanghai. It was 88 floors and we rode an elevator to the top where they had an observation floor. Looking out, you could see the whole city sprawled in front of you, 360 degrees. 20,000,000 people live in Shanghai.

The Enochs/Johansen/Fresno State group was the last American group to arrive in Beijing and the last to go home. The extra days in Shanghai were definitely worth the time. On August 12 we could choose to go to the Shanghai museum and shopping or go to one of Shanghai's 6 "Water Towns". I went to Zhujiajiao for the water town tour. Kind of like Venice, Italy, there are canals running through this village and we rode on small boats, with a rower standing at the back of the boat. It was nice to see a rural living area of China. You could tell that the residents were very poor. They had little shops along narrow walkways and their apartments above the shops.

Carlee and friends from Enochs and Johansen High School on evening cruise at the Bund on a balmy Shanghai night.

We survived the overnight train ride, in fact it was pretty relaxing. There were four to a room in sleeping cars and it reminded me of Harry Potter, only we boarded at Platform 10. There were two low bunks and two high bunks and a little bit of room for carry-on luggage to be stowed. We were served boxed dinners and beverages in our room. The train ride is something I would do again. It would be kind of fun to go across the United States on a train.

We went to the Bund (the muddy place), which is a walkway area along the river. There was a huge thunder and lightning storm that drenched us for a good 30-40 minutes. All of a sudden there were umbrella peddlers everywhere. We bought umbrellas and then found a little cafe where we had a delicious lunch with braised eggplant, rice, and chicken/peppers. It was still raining, but we had to hurry back to the place to meet our bus. The water was pouring down steps like waterfalls and it was at least 3-4 inches deep all across the elevated walkway. It was great because the water was warm. Shopping at the famous Temple Market was followed by the best dinner we've had so far, and then on to Shanghai Illumination Evening Cruise. They had Kenny G music playing and there was a light breeze with no rainfall. The evening lights of Shanghai on buildings and structures were very technologically advanced.

Enochs, Johansen, and Fresno State students relax in front of the Emperor's Throne Room on a hot muggy day in Beijing

For the past 2 days, we have been American tourists in Beijing. Our tour guide, Li, majored in Chinese history. He's been great. He's always got a joke for us. I've realized how rich the Chinese culture and history are in the time that we've been here. The feudal system is interesting. We went to the Forbidden City, home of the Emperors, and the Emperors' Summer Palace, which took 500,000 workers, 7 years to build. The movie, "The Last Emperor" was filmed in the places that we have visited. I want to see it when I get home. We also shopped on Wang Fujing Street, a famous upscale shopping area and the Pearl Market, both in Beijing. There are big screens and Olympic banners everywhere and we've driven very close to "The Bird's Nest" Stadium and the "Bubble" where the Aquatic sports will be held.

The scope of nearly 2000 musicians and color guard is very difficult to put into one picture!

We had a blast at the Olympics!!! Finally, the day came to go and see Women's Soccer, China against Sweden.

We started out the day on August 6 in a caravan of 57 buses. We were one long parade from Grand Epoch City to Tianjin. It takes a lot of buses to move 2500 people, counting musicians, chaperones, directors, and people who are traveling with us on the Shadow Tour. It was amazing to see policemen lining the highway and streets of Tianjin. They stopped all traffic for us! People would wave. We felt like celebrities. I guess we're kind of famous over here. We played our final concert in Olympic Square in Tianjin, China's harbor city. They had a big stage and a huge jumbotron screen. The audience members were Olympics volunteers. It was fun but also sad that we were done performing. The rest of our tour will be sightseeing and shopping.

Orchestra getting set up to play.

It was breathtaking on top of the Great Wall of China, even with the smog. Our orchestra played right below the wall on an open area, just big enough to fit our 700 members. Kind of like scenes out of "Sound of Music", we played to the hills. After we played a few pieces, we took individual school band pictures on top of the wall and then got to explore for another hour or so. It was cool that I could buy some souvenirs too. I got a set of several decorated chopsticks to give to friends when I get home. I was in awe of getting to go to one of the seven wonders of the world.

Check out the news stories on the Beijing 2008 Olympic Orchestra website. There are new news stories/videos and photos to see in the multi-media/press tab and the photos tab.

This is Carlee's Mom . . .

The musicians are out rehearsing this morning (August 5) and playing selected pieces for each other as Red, Gold, and Green Orchestras. They will have time for trading pins and spending time together this morning.

About the Great Wall  . . .  WOW. Carlee will be online later today, to tell all about the experience they had yesterday (August 4).