Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni (apparently)

I am one of those lucky people who seems to have done a lot of travel. I've traveled and even lived overseas for a few years, and done quite a lot of interstate travel in my lifetime.

But I'm not going to talk about most of those trips. Today, I'm going to talk about my trip to China.

As you will recall, Beijing was the host of the 2008 Olympic Games. You may not know that they formed a marching band consisting of students from China, America, Japan, Australia, and Guam. We weren't going to perform at the opening ceremonies but were rather an auxiliary band--we'd be part of other official events but not the main event.

As I play the clarinet, was a senior in high school at the time, and my parents could (just) afford it, I was able to go as part of the delegation. Months and months of preparation (including the memorising of 30 minutes of music) led up to our departure from Australia in August of 2008. We met and practiced with the other students for a couple of days, and then we went to Tian Anmen Square to perform--slightly exciting as we were the first foreign performers to ever perform there.

 

Hallo, Mr. Mao!

It was a rare sunny day in Beijing, and the heat was like... 40Celsius and so steamy, which is terrifying when you're supposed to be looking after a bunch of younger students. Anyway, our uniform did not help things:

Complete with high pants, cape and beret

Still, it was awesome. Over the next few days, we did a few more performances, but the real highlight of the trip was our performance at the Great Wall. Seriously one of the best experiences of my life. It was a rather steep walk with heavy instruments, and it was challenging, but I don't regret it, because the view (and the sound) was spectacular.

 

The Green Hub (Australia/Japan/Guam) performing part of our repertoire. Great Wall has Great acoustics.

 Fluorescent green isn't my colour; Great Wall is great

The Great Wall was our final performance in China, and we spent the remaining week in Shanghai basically shopping and hanging out. It was pretty awesome! I think I preferred Shanghai over Beijing--it was a lot more open and friendly; perhaps that was because of the high security in Beijing for the games, but Shanghai was much more vibrant. And, like all tourists, I did a lot of shoppping there:

Several fitted caps that I bought for my brothers and sister

Finally, something which I think you will enjoy. At our hotel in Beijing (which was seriously HUGE) there was a massage shop. Here is the sign outside said shop:

Ovary Maintenance? I...think...not.

In general, I think that meeting and mixing with people from all cultures was an amazing experience. Even if I never get to go back to China, I've always got that experience. It was truly awesome. I hope my life brings me many more stories like this.