To the Xi'an train station-when you imagine us in China this is what you see, the crowded, pushy streets. Once managing to fight our way through the crowds and getting safely situated, we started our eleven hour-long train ride to Beijing. Although the train station was crowded and a bit confusing, we were "sticky rice" and everyone (including our 123 backpacks, instruments and luggage) navigated safely onto our train cars. We had cars #11, 12, 13 & 15. Time to PARTY!
Late night train reflections...
It’s quite an experience to be in China for the first time, and in 2007. Midori and I have spent much time in Japan, but none yet in either China or Korea. My godmother visited China about 15 years ago, recalling to us images of poverty, sewage running in street gutters, beggars, and people generally living simple, traditional and isolated lives without very much modern technology.
To see now a country which makes probably 60% or more of the entire world’s goods, with all the city skyscrapers, highways, trains and jobs to go with that, is simply astounding to me. I expected to see a much more modern country, but the skyscraper rooftop designs and TV towers made Shanghai seem like the Jetsons could appear in the sky in their flying saucer ‘car’ and zoom home to their skyscraper condo after a night out on the town.
Although the audience’s receptions to MYA’s great performances haven’t been that enthusiastic, they were more so in Xi’An and I think over time, the Chinese will learn to appreciate western classical music more and more. The Terra Cotta Warriors’ archaeological pits were fantastic; I’m glad I didn’t read too much in advance about what I was going to see entering those buildings. It made the impact even stronger.
I look forward to our journeys next to Beijing and Seoul as I sit here on the overnight train ride to Beijing with our friends Pam and Pedro and all the wonderful kids, parents, teachers and chaperones that make MYA such a magical and unique family.
Kevin O. (Parent)
Early morning train reflections...
Overall it’s been an amazing experience. We have 3 tour buses full of students and parents. The cities, like Kevin wrote, are so modern and the architecture very avant guard. One of the parents, Gary K., joked that it’s like “pimp my roof”: one roof is more fantastic than the next – especially in Shangahi. In Xi’An, there is a female architect who has designed modern buildings with the lovely traditional upturned roofs to make a downtown area that is both dramatically modern and traditionally Chinese and compliments the remaining historical Bell Tower and Drum Tower. Ed took a group picture there, so you will see it.
I have particularly enjoyed visiting the temples. I had read part of Journey to the West, an early Chinese mythological novel about a Chinese Buddhist priest who travels to India to get some Buddhist texts. He was actually a historical figure, too, and I loved visiting the Big Goose Temple in Si’An, where his relics are and he and his mission are honored. It was very serene and understated, not very commercial.
We visited several other temples, too. I enjoyed seeing the Taoist temples. To be continued………Pam C.
11 hours later - BEIJING Train Station!
