Sunday May 22nd: Busiest day:

Today was easily the busiest day. We started at 6:00 AM with breakfast, and then drove through Beijing to get to the Egg, National Center for the Performance Arts. Breakfast was great at the hotel. There were over a dozen hot dishes, plus tons of fruits, breads, and cereals. We had to have a quick breakfast because we needed to allow extra time for the Beijing traffic to get to the NCPA. This place was amazing. From the outside it looks a lot like a huge egg sitting in water. Surrounding the water is a clear glass floor, I don’t think you can walk on it, with a thin layer of water flowing over it. To get into the Egg we had to go down to the Atrium, through the underground parking garage, and into the basement loading dock. I was a little surprised by how big the hall was. From the outside, if you assume it’s pretty much just a performance hall, it seems the auditorium should be huge. But it actually was quite small and was just in the basement. The security was crazy, so we weren’t allowed to explore or get many pictures. We were only allowed backstage, downstairs where the dressing rooms were, and on stage. There were guards all around, ready to escort you out if you tried to go somewhere you weren’t supposed to. But despite this, it was very comfortable and an easy hall to play in. We had to set up quickly for an 8:30 AM rehearsal, than get ready for a 10:30 concert.

The concert went great. There were very few mistakes, and they were so slight I can’t even remember them. The by far was also the most pleasant audience we have had. While they did cough quite a bit and walk in and out during the performances, they did not talk to each other or on the phone during the concert. They gave strong applause after Gershwin, cheered a little after Bolcom, more strong applause after Sheng, loud cheering after our soloist played Kuster and Meditation, also strong applause and loud cheering after playing Star Wars. Then we did our encores. Another one with our soloist that they audience loved. There were a lot of UM alumni in the audience so we played Victor’s Valient. That was a huge hit and we continued with Stars and Stripes. They cheered and would not stop clapping after that, so we did a final and then were done. We were only allowed in the hall until noon, so we did not have an intermission. That was pretty hard, but we still weren’t able to end until 12:15. We struck the stage and were gone by 1:00.

We walked through Tiananmen Square to get to lunch. This was another similar meal to the two we had yesterday. There were no cold dishes, and only a dozen hot dishes. But it was still good and it’s not so bad that we are having lighter meals. After lunch we headed across the road to Tiananmen Square. When I visited five years ago it was smoggy and the weather was not great. Today it was bright, hot, and sunny. After a few pictures in the square we continued through the Forbidden City. We had 1 ½ hours to walk through the City on our own, and I did it in 45 minutes. I thought it was a lot longer, so I made sure I didn’t lolly gag and get left behind, but I was actually the first one to the end. But I still got lots of pictures and remembered past memories.

So far, we left the hotel at 7:00 and have been on our feet all day and haven’t had a chance to slow down yet. But after the Forbidden City we went to a Peking Opera at a fancy hotel. Well, we first had a great dinner. This was more like the dinners we had in the other cities. There were 4 cold dishes and over a dozen hot dishes. There weren’t any unrecognizable dishes, but everything there was very good and we were satisfied. We then went down stairs and watched a cool traditional Chinese opera. The story was about an Emperor who was trying to win battles, his wife who killed herself so he wouldn’t worry about her while he was gone, and a monkey king who was asking the general for weapons. Everything seemed pretty random, and since it was in Chinese and the translation didn’t work, we couldn’t really follow the story. But there were some really cool acrobatic tricks. The opera was only an hour long. Then we headed to the hotel and rested.