The Tour Begins! (Days 7-10)

I'm now writing from Beijing. The tour has officially begun!
The rest of our time in Shijiazhuang continued as previously stated, with a lot of freezing cold rehearsals and dust inhalation. In our final day in the city, we were supposed to perform an educational concert in the arts center of Shijiazhuang, but when we arrived at the hall for our morning rehearsal and sound-check, it was literally colder inside than it was outside! They didn't turn on the heat, and there were literally holes in the walls where they were doing construction. The concert hall people said it would only take a few minutes to heat up, but we waited for almost an hour, and struggled through rehearsing a piano concerto before Josep Vicent (the conductor) decided to give up and take us back to the hotel. We thought we would have an evening rehearsal after the hall warmed up and then continue with our concert at night, but they ended up canceling the whole thing, which I believe was for the best. We would have sounded so awful in such cold. Rumor has it, however, that we have to return to Shijiazhuang later in the tour to play there. I hope that we don't, or that if we do, they turn on the heat days in advance!
The morning after our canceled concert, we took buses to Beijing. Of course I took the bus whose heating system broke about an hour in so after that we had to squish onto only two buses. We arrived in Beijing around 4 yesterday afternoon, and by the time we were ready to go out, it was nearly 4:30. A lot of the sights closed at 4, so we went to the Temple of Heavenly Peace first. It was about to close, so we couldn't go inside, but we walked around and saw some stuff from outside the walls. Then three of us who were faster walkers than the rest decided to go check out Tiananmen Square. It was closed for some kind of ceremony that was taking place this morning, so we couldn't go inside, but again we were able to walk around outside. We also saw our concert hall, which looks beautiful! It was what I call speed-sight-seeing: three important sights in only 2 1/2 hours.
We got our first look inside the hall this morning when we had rehearsal there. After not rehearsing for three days, and then having shortened rehearsals before that because of the terrible quality of the facilities, we really needed those rehearsals. The hall is magnificent - it really reminded me of the hall in Madrid where the Spanish National Symphony performs, and where we played on the Spain tour in May. Between the morning rehearsal and the early afternoon sound check in the hall, I met Han Xiaoming. Mr. Han is solo horn in an orchestra in Germany, and he studied with Mr. Mackey when he went to NEC. Now he's in Beijing to set up a new professional orchestra as residents in the hall in which we are preforming. He told me that if I could get some complimentary tickets, some of his students from the Beijing Conservatory would like to come to the concert, where I could meet them, and then I would know some people in the city when I return after the tour. I got the complimentary tickets, but now it's a logistical nightmare to figure out how to get the tickets to them. I hope I can meet them, though - it would be really nice to see some of Beijing from a music student's standpoint.
So that's what's happening here these days. Our concert starts at 7:30. Another way to follow what's going on with the tour, in addition to reading here, is to watch the videos here. Supposedly they're posted every day, but there are only two there for the whole time we've been here already! Keep your eyes peeled and maybe you'll be able to see yours truly. Most of the speaking is in Spanish, but some of it is in English - just be patient!

I'm excited to be in China!

The face mask I have to wear outside so I don't get the smog-lung.

The Temple of Heavenly Peace

Outside Tiananmen Square

Crazy Asian Duck-Chef