Somewhere over the China Sea   We left the hotel at 7 am.  Given we were under the flight path we didn’t have far to go but the hotel buses weren’t quite prepared for our voluminous luggage.  So, we stuffed and stuffed and crammed everyone and everything on board.  We got to the airport in plenty of time and had another easy check in.  Our flight to Hong Kong was on a 777 so we had no issues storing our equipment.   We are getting quite good at it.   Transferring to the International terminal at Hong Kong was a zoo.  We had to switch terminals, take a train and get rescreened to get to our next flight.  We didn’t have a lot of time to spare but as luck would have it, the flight to SFO was delayed and we got to switch gates as well.  But, we are all on board and settled in for the 11.5 hour flight.

We have a 747-400 this time.  Of course, we are at the back but it’s comfortable none the less.  There are over 100 movies and lots of video games to choose from.  We hope to sail thru security and be on time for our final leg of the journey but were 1 ½ hours late in departing from Hong Kong .   I’ve asked a lot of the kids what was the highlight of the trip.  Most don’t have an answer but the most common answers are the Great Wall, the first performance in Beijing , the school visit in Guangzhou and the Guilin Impressions performance we watched.  I would agree.  The Wall is something you read about and imagine.  Being on it is a surreal experience especially when it’s a Chinese Holiday and there are literally millions of people with the same plan.  The first performance in Beijing was a school exchange and we played really well.   The school was very welcoming and seeing the Chinese instruments was really special.  The pressure was off that night and it was the best performance on our end.  Walking into several hundred kids clapping and the performance that was put on in our honor at the experimental school in Guangzhou was so moving.  The banquet there was one of the best meals of the trip too.  And Guilin was an incredible place. The beauty of the landscape, clean air and watching a performance enhanced by the natural surroundings and a monsoon was unforgettable.  It took days for our shoes to dry out but it was worth it.

The lessons learned – patience and flexibility pays.  Self reliance and trying new things such as foot massages, mysterious foods and exploring a new culture can be fun.   Sleep is necessary.  Making new friends can be terrific.  I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.  I too look forward to flush toilets, not needing a room key and a scrambled egg.    I hope you enjoyed following our adventures thru China!

My hotel internet didn’t work so I will attempt to upload some photos at the airport, in San Francisco or Denver.

We also got word that the DVD’s were formatted for China.  If yours doesn’t work, we have a techie working on it and we can swap it out later in the summer.

We will see you in Denver!

Janice

Day 15–    Hangzhou to Xi Tang   What a nice day.  We loaded up the buses at 9 after a great breakfast.  This hotel was very nice – had eggs for breakfast!  It’s the little things in life.   We started off at an Ancient Street for some shopping.  This was more the shopping I expected – street venders and permanent stores with a variety of goods – tea, herbs, toys, chop sticks etc.   We spent an hour wandering the street.  The buildings were very beautiful and there was something for everyone – even Dairy Queen.  The air quality was better too.  Then we headed to a tea plantation.  This was an interesting tour and we got some more tea etiquette.   It was Longjing tea- the national tea of China.  After running the gift shop gauntlet, we headed to a very nice setting for lunch.  There are lots of tourists in this area but most are Chinese.  We are glad to have our Rockies and Avalanche signs to identify our buses after so many drivers and tour guides.    We are now driving to Xi Tang, an ancient water town.  Hopefully our hotel will not be ancient.  We know it’s a small town of 500,000.  It’s a 2 hour drive thru rice patties – what I expected the countryside to look like.  There are actual houses in this area – mostly we’ve seen condo/apartments buildings on our trip.  We’re on a highway and for once there is little traffic.  The slower pace is a nice change.  After the frantic pace of Beijing we are certainly ready for a break.  We stay in Xi Tang tonight and head to Shanghai tomorrow.  I don’t think Shanghai will be slow.  The Expo is big news here and the crowds in Shanghai are huge.  Their slogan is Better City Better Life. 

We arrived in Xi Tang and checked in to a rather spartan hotel.  After a brief time to unload and unwind, we headed to the ancient city.  It’s a water town with canals, old buidings, interesting shops and restaurants.  The tour company gave us money for dinner and we explored on our own.  There were tea shops, arts and crafts, restaurants, tiny grocery stores etc.  There were lots of curved bridges connecting islands.  Small boats cruised around one section.   There were lots of Chinese tourists and us.  The group I was with a pork noodles outside.  They were very good.  We headed back to the buses and ran into a large group with Keynes that had ordered Won Tons.  They were great. 

Then I got to play the daily game of figuring out how to log on to broadband in this hotel.  This is a ritual every time we move.  Lap tops are not common and in non tourist hotels, they are a curiousity.  The drill this time was to connect everything and have a log in page come up.  I had already determined that the front desk staff doesn’t speak English and our local tour guide doesn’t have an understanding of the issue.  The log in page asked for room number and password.  I had one but not both.  So after rebooting and that not working- that sometimes works in other hotels -  I disconnect everything to carry my laptop down to the front desk.  Given the log in instructions were in both English and Mandarin, I thought this would work. 

Given energy is in high demand, all rooms have a slot by the door to place your room key.  As soon as it’s removed, the power goes off in the room.  So, down the elevator I go.  The desk clerk could see my problem as the log in screen was displayed, so he grabs my computer and we head back up to the room.  After reinserting the room key so the air conditioning would restart, the lights go on and he proceeds to type in a code – mind you – neither of us have spoken a word and he doesn’t write down the code.  I won’t be disconnecting tonight so I can avoid repeating this process.   I thank the clerk and off he goes.  After toilets, how to connect is the most common topic of conversation.  Given I’m able to post, it worked…

Back in Colorado, I used to look at the Denver city line and think ‘Look how polluted Denver is!’, but getting to China has changed my view on that entirely. Looking back to the beginning of our trip, in Hong Kong, the humidity and pollution were more than evident. Buildings had grime and dirt running down their sides, and at times, you could barely see the buildings in the distance. Some of that was attributed to the little rain we were experienced during our stay, but most of it was just city pollution.

Guangzhou wasn’t that much better, in comparison. We did see a little patch of blue sky on occasion, but otherwise it was almost worse than Hong Kong. Looking into the Yellow River from across our hotel was almost sad, to see all of the trash floating on the sides of the river. What was especially evident in Guangzhou was the mold. When we first went into our hotel rooms, the smell of mold was in the air and black stains presented themselves on the walls. It got to a point of having to switch hotel rooms during the night.

Luckily, our next destination was Guilin, which was much more remote than the previous cities. Here, though it was rainy and rather overcast, the air was much cleaner. Unfortunately, going back to the big cities again, Xian showed much more pollution that we were used to in Colorado. It was undoubtedly better than our first two cities, but it was still hard to see buildings at times. Fortunately, the humidity had definitely gone down as we slowly moved North, and the mold smell was less present. After Xian, we flew to Beijing, which was a little worse than Xian, but somehow felt better than Guangzhou. Of course, it’s hard to say that when looking out the airport window you can hardly see beyond the flight towers. Can’t wait to get back to Colorado skies!   Analie

Day 14   We’re waiting for our flight at the Beijing airport.  There has been an effort to clean up the Broken English signs but some are still amusing.  Above an electrical plug here says “please take care of your children avoiding touching the device”.  We have also been advised that something is for “disaled only” instead of “disabled only”.  “Please just wear underwear in the hallways” and no going “nuked”.  I liked the hall of “mental cultivation” at the Forbidden City.  In a park we were advised to follow the park rules and “don’t push people”.  This one is constantly broken by the locals.   But most favorite was a nail salon in Xi An.  Its sign read “Shuttle extremely seductive, warm, luxurious polish to experience”.  Who wouldn’t want that!

Beijing is a huge modern city that has made a tremendous effort to beautify the roads.  There are lots of parks, flower beds and statues.   The air quality however isn’t great.  The hardest cities have been Xi An and Beijing for breathing.  Everyone is doing fine but we’re not going jogging anytime soon.     We have had very few injuries and illness, thank goodness.  The kids have learned to sleep on the buses and have held up very well.  Just feed them regularly and they’re fine.  We drink tea instead of water at most restaurants but have bottled water on the buses.  Soda and ice cream are available at most tourist sites and the hotels have had snack bars so the kids eat ramen at night if they didn’t get their fill during the day.

We had 2 flights again – ½ are on a China Airlines flight and my group is on a Hainan Airlines flight – we get breakfast so we’re excited.   Sure beats the train even with the early departure.  We got group boarding again and sailed thru the airport.   We have an easy afternoon of visiting West Lake which will be nice.  I expect you’ll see tired faces at DIA in a few days.   After tonight in Hangzhou, we move to Xi Tang, a small ancient village and finally Shanghai.   Shanghai will be more crowded than usual with the Dragon Boat holiday, the Expo and the 20 million local residents.

World Cup is big- I could get coverage in three languages on my t.v. last night.  Beijing was the first hotel to have an English station.   The kids have been watching Chinese t.v. and enjoying that.  There’s been little down time but they make the most of it.   Later on  – We had a great flight and arrived into West Lake in time for lunch.  After lunch, we got on a boat to cruise the lake.  The shoreline is beautiful but given the holiday, it’s very crowded. Its also smoggy.  We ended at the Silk Museum - more shopping little museum.   10 of us joined Keynes for dinner at a local restaurant.  We had a wonderful meal in a very nice restaurant.  we were the only foreigners there.   We ate lotus, pork belly, jelly fish, Westlake Bass, crab, seaweed and others I can’t remember -for $15.      Tomorrow we visit a tea plantation and head out for an ancient village.

Today we finally went to the famous Great Wall of China, and was everything we thought it would be. 3,100 miles of brick after brick, it was very impressive. There were more steps and stairs than I have seen in my entire life. The pathways were very, very packed with Chinese people, more packed than the shopping streets! Some of the pathway was very steep and I would slide down with my sandals but the wall was so incredible I think most kids really enjoyed it. Some people only climbed the wall for two hours while others are still climbing it as we speak, and the rest of us are sitting in a parking lot, waiting for Mr. Chen and a few others to order a huge amount of Mcdonalds. Ordering the food was almost too frustrating for words.  

We have four more days left in China and I think most are ready to go back to Colorado, but the trip has been something most will never forget. Everything we’ve been through has been life changing, disgusting or beautiful. It’s amazing we only have 4 more days. Bye.

Wow.  Beijing has nasty traffic on holidays.  The bad news this morning was the Starbucks was closed.  So we headed out and up very slowly.  Given the Dragon Boat Festival holiday everyone in Beijing headed to the Great Wall including us.  We didn’t want to short change ourselves so some decided to stay for 4 hours and the rest for 2.  It was hot, humid and very crowded.  We started up and up, down, up and down past various towers.  The views were great.  As with everywhere, our kids were photographed.  Can’t seem to get away from that.  We were at Badaling for wall fans.  After some had enough, a bus headed to the Summer Palace and the rest kept climbing.

Dinner tonight included Peking Duck.  Some went to an optional acrobatics performance and some returned for a quiet evening.  We had to say goodbye to a few of our students as they were heading home.  The rest will be up early to catch our flights to Huangzhou.  West Lake will be another highlight for sure.

The orchestra contains big and small.  Another photo is typical of the fan photo sessions and of course, I had to put in a photo of the Great Wall.  Have a great day!

Beijing

Today was another wonderful day.  There aren’t words to describe this trip.  Of course, that could be related to the fact that it’s almost midnight and I just got to my room.  Don’t worry – your kids were home by 10.   I worked on paying for the airline tickets to Huangzhou after that and then relaxed with some other chaperones.   The airline tickets and optional Chinese acrobatic show were in yuan and the Concert DVD was in dollars – go figure.   It made the accounting entertaining.

Doing business here is interesting.  Cash is king.  Your kids have learned that.  The eternal search for the ATM machine is a daily event.  Some are easier than others.  This morning’s variety assumed if I didn’t chose Mandarin, I was also blind.  My entire transaction was audible.  That made the experience much more interesting.  

We started off at Tianamen Square. It’s enormous.  We skipped Mao’s mauseleum – a very long line and walked from one end to the other.  Then we entered the Forbidden City.  It’s also huge.  After that it was off to lunch.  After lunch we went to a tea ”museum” and the kids learned the etiquette of tea and tasted several different varieties.  We will be bringing back lots of tea.  At least it’s light weight.

Off to the Conservatory and a tour of the campus.  Several kids played their Steinways.  This school is for middle/high school students and they finished their term 2 days ago.   We played and then their second string orchestra played.  They were fantastic.   They brought some of our kids to tears.  We had another meet and greet afterwards and that means photo opps.  This time, our kids went nuts -getting photos of their kids.   

We also had a birthday girl today.  She was treated to a t shirt signed by our students, a cake procured by our tour guide and a round of happy birthday by both orchestras.  Kelsey turned 16 in style. 

We arrived in Beijing and headed for the hotel.  Checking in 85 involves unloading 2 buses, getting 50 keys, assigning keys to people, locating the right building, moving 2 pieces of luggage plus instruments to the right rooms…Needless to say it was a late night.  The kids slept in and we loaded up for a visit to the Olympic Park.

Beijing is a busy place.  Everything looks modern and clean and there are gardens everywhere.  We spent about 45 minutes walking down a long pedistrian mall between the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest.  Both were impressive. 

The water cube is much bluer than the skies here but it’s raining now so hopefully tomorrow will be clearer.

After the park, we headed to the China Music Conservatory.  The kids got in a rehearsal for the first time in a week.  Afterwards, we had dinner and then a joint concert.  This school has traditional and Western musicians.  Tonight was traditional.  A wide variety of instruments were demonstrated and then the kids played.  They were great.  After a quick stage change, our kids took the stage.  Keynes explained we got in early this morning and despite their fatigue, the kids played great.  There were standing ovations all around and of course, more photos.  Both orchestras took the stage and the cameras went crazy.

It was photo mayhem.  There were several dignitaries in the audience including a composer who is known world wide.  I didn’t catch his name- maybe tomorrow.  Anyone blonde, tall or male got plenty  of teenage girls wanting pictures.  Our tallest boy stood up and the cooing started.  After about 20 minutes, we had to leave.  The kids were ready to head back to the hotel and relax.

Today we visited the Olympic Park and the kids are now in rehearsal at the music conservatory.  We will have dinner with their students and a joint concert tonight.  The school is beautiful – nice grounds and nice dorms and classrooms.

Tomorrow we visit Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City.  In the afternoon we have another exchange with another school followed by a concert.