Tourchestra 2012: Suzhou

Hola! Or I should probably say, "您好！" Last I left you, the Westmont Orchestra was on an overnight high-speed train, headed away from Beijing towards the city of Suzhou. We arrived early the next morning to two additional tour guides (the guide in my bus was named Ken, but nicknamed Rabbit, Banana, Bamboo, and a plethora of other names) and some rather rainy weather.



Here we are trudging through the rain with our instruments. I just noticed this now, but I'm pretty sure our friend Cameroon has a checkers set in hand. So cultural.



Our first activity in Suzhou began soon after entering the city (and no, I'm not counting our fast food "breakfast" as an activity - what was it, KFC?). Suzhou is located by the Yangtze River and is right on the shores of the Taihu Lake, so she's (hope you don't mind me personifying Suzhou) lined with a multitude of canals from her medieval (I'm using what is commonly listed as the second and more colloquial definition of that word, in case ya wanna get all technical on me) days. The moats are so extensive that you can see a good portion of the city via boat, so we boarded water taxis and got our first impressions of the city via the Grand Canal. Sitting in the boat with David's sign is our new friend Bamboo.



A street view from the boat.



You'll notice throughout this post that Suzhou is a lot greener than Beijing. This is partially due to a wetter climate, but I think also can be attributed to the fact that it's not the sprawling metal-and-concrete metropolis that Beijing is (though it's still a big city).



That's the driver (pilot?) of our boat on the bottom right.





“这是第七单元三角洲。请求权限启动对接程序。超过。” *

*not intended for native speakers



We stepped off of the boats at what I believe was some sort of temple...



You can see it in the upper right of the above image and verify for yourselves whether you think it's a temple or not. On second thought, maybe it was a guard tower for the city. By now you can probably deduce how good my memory is...ok, just checked the itinerary: it was the Panmen City Gate. Whoops. At least I'm honest! Now that I think about it more, the cannon probably should have tipped me off. You don't typically see cannons at temples...



Josiah has a staring contest with a Chinese snail.



Plants everywhere. I like this place.



That afternoon we had a performance at the Suzhou Art and Design Technology Institute. These pictures are from our rehearsal beforehand (I finally brought my camera to a rehearsal).





After the performance, we had free time for the evening. I can't seem to remember what that chunk of time entailed, but I do remember lounging in bathrobes being part of the equation. Now that I think of it, I think this was the evening we went to Pizza Hut for dinner. Before you start having associations with the concept of cheap pizza in your head, I should tell you that Pizza Hut in China is swanky. It's a sit-down restaurant, and the interior was decorated accordingly to the level of swank that I attributed to it in the previous sentence. After finishing our food, we proved to the wait staff our American-ness by playing the Whose Line Is It Anyway Props game with the irregularly-shaped pizza platter. On the way back to our hotel, we made a stop at McDonalds (still swanky) for some helado. I also stole Rebecca's rain jacket so I could look trendy, but unfortunately I don't have pictures of it (if you doubt me, Danielsan can verify exactly how trendy I looked).



The next day we were scheduled to leave Suzhou by bus for Shanghai, but before we hit the road we made a stop at the Master of the Nets Garden. To steal from Wikipedia once again, "The garden demonstrates Chinese garden designers' adept skills for synthesizing art, nature, and architecture to create unique metaphysical masterpieces. The Master of the Nets is particularly regarded among garden connoisseurs for its mastering the techniques of relative dimension, contrast, foil, sequence and depth, and borrowed scenery." ← Yeah, what he said.



Here are some of my friends enjoying the garden!





More amigos.



Dr. Shasberger and Madison (she's turning over a new leaf with her full name, in case you hadn't heard :) are happy, trinkets abound, and Chinese ladies are texting.





After the garden, we made a stop at Pingjiang Road; it's more than 800 years old! It's a really popular location for portraits. The people on the upper left were one couple of two or three having a shoot in the short time that we were there.



This is the canal right next to the road.



One of our stops before heading to Shanghai was a silk factory. Before we were shepherded through the silk store at the end (ok, I'm being too cynical - I did after all buy gifts there :), we got to see all of the steps of the silk-making process, and were even allowed to feel live silk worms! On the bottom right, Bri is helping stretch out a tiny piece of unfinished silk fabric into a huge thin sheet; it was crazy how large a small piece of fabric could become.



And I must conclude this post by lauding Jerome's skills as a jello sculptor. Here you see an immaculate 1:325 scale model (assuming an average height of 6.5 meters for the Great Wall and a jello height of 2 centimeters) of the 4780th segment of the Great Wall.

Later that afternoon, we had a small casual performance at the Suzhou Center for Disability (our musicians with bigger instruments didn't have their rental instruments for this one, the stage was rather small, and there were no music stands available, so improvisation was key :), and then we started the long bus ride to our last destination, Shanghai. But that's for my last China blog post, so you'll have to wait a bit longer for that! Until then, adios!

Tourchestra 2012: Beijing

Why hello there! Now that I've finally finished blogging about my Semester in Spain, I figured it'd make sense to tell you all (translation for Esther: y'all) about the Westmont Orchestra's tour to China (more conveniently and efficiently, "tourchestra").

Every year, both the orchestra and the college choir at Westmont go on their own tours, typically during some long weekend or school vacation during the semester. Every third year, however, these tours are shifted to the summer, and the itinerary calls for an international destination (for instance, the college choir went to England and Scotland [but not Finland or Newfoundland] at the beginning of last summer). This summer it was the orchestra's turn to travel abroad, and the destination was China (specifically Beijing, Suzhou, and Shanghai). This particular post pertains to our time in Beijing. As we spent the greatest amount of time in Beijing, and as I'm trying to blog about this trip in only three posts, this first post is going to be kind of on the long side. But if you get sick of reading, just scan the pictures. If you get sick of the pictures, go take a nap. If you get sick of napping, I have no solution for you.



The reunion with all of my Westmont friends was nothing short of joyous. After a semester of being away from the Westmont community, being jammed into airplanes, buses, boats, and trains together was the perfect "welcome home" (well, sort of home) gift. Even thinking back now on first seeing people like Brad and Dean in the airport, I still feel some of that initial euphoria of seeing them after being gone for a whole semester. The view out the window, by the way, is Alaska, and the title of the book that Josiah is holding is "The Etiquette Guide to China." Fitting.



And then, after a somewhat lengthy flight that involved wearing pillows on our heads with Emily and reading Time magazines with Brittany, Nick, and James (among other time-eating activities), we were reunited with Danielsan! Now THAT was a euphoric moment. For those of you who don't know, my roommate Daniel was studying in China for the whole semester and met our group in the Beijing Airport. Micah, by the way, is Buzz Lightyear, as you can see in the picture above, and that's our hotel in Beijing.



Reliving a brief high school tradition of taking long exposure pictures out the window of our hotels on jazz band trips, I took a picture of the view out of Ryan's and my room. Oh yeah. We trumpet bros had the fortune of rooming together while in Beijing.



The next day was our crazy sightseeing day. I think we had four or five locations on the itinerary. First stop, Tiananmen Square, the site of the 1989 protest and subsequent massacre that apparently never happened. Note Cameron with the Chinese ladies...the response of the Chinese people to us was surprising. People would just walk up and take pictures of us, and the bolder ones would ask for pictures with us! Of course, we'd usually comply... :)



Here's the chairman himself.



And here we are in the Forbidden City. Dr. Ficsor is stealing David's identity. Our tour guides we pretty cool, by the way. Their names were David and Ping, so if I refer to them later you'll now know what I'm talking about.











We left the Forbidden City a different way than we had come in, and had to walk a bit through the street to get back to our bus. Here are some street shots I grabbed along the way.



Our first meal in a Chinese restaurant in China (excluding breakfast at the hotel). Enoch proved to us his manliness/Asian-ness by eating the tea leaves after we finished the teapot. And I can almost sense the sass that Esty-pants is undoubtedly about to unleash in the picture on the left.



This was our next stop, the Beijing National Stadium (commonly known as the Bird's Nest), where the 2008 Summer Olympics were held. There were a plethora of vendors selling food and drink, but also a lot of guys selling the long kites you see pictured. The man you see above (with the very anime-like hair) was following me from a distance for a while, and then finally mustered up the courage to ask for a picture.



First, take some time to laugh at Brad. Next, I'll introduce you to where we actually are. This is the Temple of Heaven, a famous religious site in Beijing. There are a lot of really pretty lawns/gardens surrounding the actual temple, and seeing groups of older people exercising there is pretty common.

As Daniel informed us, some scholars would argue that the god that the Ancient Chinese would worship here, known as Shangdi, is the same as the Abrahamic god of Christianity. From the Wikipedia (don't tell me Wikipedia isn't reliable) page about the ancient Chinese practice known as heaven worship: "The Ancient Chinese believed in a non-corporeal entity called Shangdi, an omnipotent, just, and monotheistic supreme being." Definitely some similarities as far as those listed characteristics go...



This is Peking Opera. Interesting, to say the least. High-pitched, percussive, and sleep-inducing are several other adequate adjectives.



The next day, we were heading to the Great Wall!!! First, however, we stopped for a tour at a factory where they make iron (I think that's what the metal was) vases. The coolest part was when they opened up the kiln and brought vases that were cookin' out...this huge wave of heat hit us less than a second after the lid came off!



And then we eventually made it to the wall (dare you to try to find it in the above picture)! We had to drive for quite a while to get there, as the wall sits in the mountains that are a good deal north of the city. The terrain was pretty incredible, and the rainy weather added to the atmosphere (not in the physical/meteorological sense of that word) of the whole visit.









Unfortunately, we didn't have as much time as I would've liked to have at the wall, but fortunately, there was a meal shortly afterwards to help console me. The place we went to was a combo restaurant/jade factory, and they had millions upon millions of dollars worth of jade in there. There was even a model of a ship probably about fifteen feet in length made entirely out of jade!

I'm pretty sure we had a performance that night, since my pictures next pick up on the following day (I didn't have my camera at most of the performances, seeing as simultaneous trumpet-playing and picture-taking presents substantial difficulties). Our first performance was probably our biggest, which was kind of nerve-wracking since it was my first time playing with the orchestra in months! The performance went pretty well, despite being our first, and when we returned to our hotel I was ready to pass out.



The following morning we had a small, less formal performance at an NGO that works with the children of convicts. Afterwards, we threw a frisbee around with some of the kids and staff members. What can I say; frisbee unites the world! :)



They put up a big sign for us that read, "Welcome, most awesome, coolest, and good-lookin' orchestra in the world!" Daniel, that's what it says, right?



More shenanigans, this time on the way over to lunch. We ate at a farm that had a dining facility/restaurant attached to it, but first they took us to one of their greenhouses where they grow strawberries.



Here it is!



The food at this place was significantly different from what we had been eating at our previous meals; I'm guessing that the food here was a lot more like what people in Beijing prepare on a regular basis in their homes. Anyhow, the noodles they gave us were really good! And there was this bean-based liquid that I surprisingly took a liking to (everyone else wasn't a fan).



When we got back to our hotel, Daniel offered to take us on our first Chinese subway ride. It was packed, but definitely a fun experience (and I thought I had experienced packed public transportation during Feria in Sevilla...)! We went to one of the big markets in town, called the Silk Market (I think).



For dinner, a group of us went to a less-ritzy neighborhood with narrow streets (they call these types of neighborhoods hutongs). Despite the dead fish in the aquarium, the place we ended up choosing (well, it was the only one that had the capacity to seat all of us) was really good! Maybe one of my favorite meals in China.



The next day, Sunday, was our last in Beijing. We started the day off by going to the panda exhibit at the zoo. I know, kind of a big deal. And to make things even better, he was eating while we were there. Nom nom.





Once we had finished with the pandas, we went to a state-approved church service. It was a very interesting experience. Ask me about it in person sometime and I'll delve into the specifics with you!



We then went to the Summer Palace. Not surprisingly, Ryan had a girl ask him if they could get a photo together (not the first nor the last time that'll happen). Also, note the man taking a picture of us on the top left, and one of Tori's classic expressions on the bottom right.



We also got to take a boat ride on the lake (IN A DRAGON-SHAPED BOAT!!!), during which we took the liberty of singing through the William Tell Overture, I believe. Quite a funny dorkestra moment. Also, please note Dr. Shasberger and Dr. Fiscor.



Our last activity in Beijing was a guided rickshaw tour through another hutong. I sat next to David, one of our tour guides, and he told me all kinds of interesting things about China, from the difficulties in registering your car to the different methods of Chinese character input on cellphones and computers.



Some scenes from the ride. The bathrooms in this particular hutong are communal, and there are old bikes everywhere! And those old guys are playing hacky sack with this shuttlecock-resembling projectile; pretty common here with the older people, and they're all really good too!



In the middle of the tour, we stopped by at the house of an artist who was specially-acknowledged by the Olympic Committee in 2008. Her type of art is pretty crazy; she specializes in painting the insides of these tiny glass bottles, and she's phenomenal at it. I tried it on a sample bottle she had, and it's just as hard as it seems it would be. Well, probably even harder than that.



More rickshawing.



To end our hutong tour, we went to this huge tea shop right by the hutong that had rooms set aside for demonstrations on how to drink tea the Chinese way. It was pretty involved, and the tea was really good.



A shmancy fancy meal to end our time in Beijing.



And our overnight train ride to Suzhou! It had been probably eight years since I had slept in a train car (for some reason I just thought about The Boxcar Children - does anyone remember that?!). The ride was a lot of fun, and we had a blast experimenting with different combos of trumpet (muted with Brad's huge headphones), violin, erhu, a harmomica.

Well, it's late, and I need to go to bed. Hope you enjoyed looking/reading through this! Stayed tuned for a post about our time in Suzhou! 晚安。