Brent Weber

Xiang Gang! - Day 1

2009-03-23T20:38:00.000-07:00

After a few recent gig to Chongqing and various semester-starting meetings at SCCM, I finally have time to embark on the final chapter of my Chinese New Year trip. Guandong province's Hong Kong was our last stop before heading back to Sichuan this last february. We arrived in the morning and stayed for four nights, so the next four blogs should be a good guide if you want to get the most out of a five-day trip to Hong Kong.

Day 1
Because we entered Hong Kong from the mainland, there was an immigration process before we came into the city. Even though Hong Kong is officially part of China, there still is a different government, currency and language than the mainland. Therefore, before we took the train from Shenzhen to Kowloon we had to go through security checks, fill out immigration cards and wait in long lines before entering seemingly, another Chinese city. We got through customs and were in Hong Kong! Well, it was technically Kowloon, but you could consider Kowloon the peninsula half of Hong Kong. We bought MTR (Hong Kong's subway/metro) tickets at an computerized kiosk, waited about ten minutes for the next train, and we were off to find the Panda Hotel in the Tseun Wan district.

Hong Kong's hotels are much more expensive than mainland China. My advice is to do your homework and shop on the internet first. I was able to book the Panda，a four star hotel for only 400 hong kong dollars per night. We checked into our posh Norther Kowloon hotel, and we were off in the hotel shuttle to Tsim Sha Tsui then MTR to Hong Kong island. On the island we strolled around Central, checking out some cheap clothing shops, then ate at one at one of Hong Kong's famous diner-style restaurants.

The Peak was our first tourist trap of our Hong Kong experience. Hong Kong's Peak is located at the top of a small mountain where they have built a wok-shaped tower so you can get a view of the famous Hong Kong skyline. That area was also home to many junk shops, restaurants and a Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum. I thought it would be interesting to go to a wax museum featuring Chinese celebrities, so we planned ahead and bought discount tickets in the taobao.com (Chinese e-bay). I was impressed with the wax museum because it not only contained every Chinese celebrity in the last century (including a life-sized Yao Ming) but also had respresentations of most Western celebrities. We purused the shops and ate a small meal at Burger King (I hadn't seen one of those in a LONG time！）after that, is was about dusk, so we headed up five of six escalators to the top of the tower to check out the city lights. As you can see from the first picture in this blog, the view was pretty breath-taking. If walked around to the back of the Wok, you could also see huge houses on the hill, probably owned by Hong Kong movie stars we guessed.

The first day was a success. We checked into our hotel, learned the MTR system, saw most of Hong Kong island, including the Peak and wax museum. Coming up next...Lantau Island, home of the Big Buddha!

Shenzhen

2009-03-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

Continuing my Chinese New Year trip, port-city Shenzhen was my next stop. It really was just a 'stop' because we flew there from Kunming enroute to Hong Kong. After shopping around for air tickets, we found it much cheaper to fly into Shenzhen, then take the train into Hong Kong. Not only did we save money, but got a chance to see another Chinese city.

Shenzhen the capitol of the Guandong province in Southern China. It's a moderate sized Chinese city (about 8.6 million people) and the second busiest ports behind Shanghai. As we drove into the city to find our hotel, I was first impressed by the towering skyscapers. Compared to where I live in Chengdu, the architects focused more on beauty rather than efficiency in their buildings.

Because I was in Shenzhen for only one night, I didn't have much time to see much of the city or surroundings, but I did get to eat the seafood. We took a taxi to the 乐园路（le yuan road) and found a street lined with seafood restaurants. Each restaurant had an area outside the entrance with tanks filled with seafood of your wildest imagination. Pictured are just a couple items available. We also saw various sizes of shrimp, crabs, fish, some things I've never seen before and one place had live snakes. We couldn't eat everything, so we chose some shrimp, oysters and weird tube-worms things. Pretty tasty!

Stay tuned because next stop...Hong Kong!

Luoping & Nine Dragon Waterfall (罗平和九龙瀑布

2009-03-01T20:28:00.000-08:00

Nearing the end of my time in the Yunnan province，we took a three hour train ride from Kunming to the farming town of Luoping. I was excited for this place because it contained the reason I wanted to go to Yunnan in the first place. Last year National Geographic magazine came out with a special issue featuring China. There was a picture inside with vast grasslands with sharp mountains poking out randomly. I had never seen anything like this in America and immediately wanted to visit the place in the caption.

The city of Luoping itself was not so accomidating. It was definitely a farming town, as we saw abandoned shops converted to grain and feed storage. Finding a decent hotel was the next almost impossible task. After holding our breath in the first few places we found a newly remodeled hotel for the bargain price of 80元/night. The next morning, after a breakfast of ersi we boarded a bus going to the rumoured natural spot. One vehicle change, endless potholed roads and a couple hours later, we were dropped off at what seemed like the exact spot where they took the photos for National Geographic. Unfortunately, this time of year the fog hangs in the valley until the afternoon, so my pictures didn't turn out so great. Still, the fields with limestone peaks jutting out were something you can only find here. We paid a couple 9 year old guids one rmb each to lead us to one of the peaks to get a better look. It was even more cloudy at the top of the small mountain, but the view of the patchwork farmlands was still very beautiful.

Our next stop on the Luoping tour was the Nine-Dragon Waterfall. By this time (around 12pm) the sun was out and starting to warm up. The area was a national park and it seemed this time of year most people had gone back to work as it was barren of tourists. The Nine-Dragon Waterfall got it's name from the nine different falls. However, as explained to us by the bamboo raft operator, there are actually ten now (due to natural causes). I found this place interesting because after the Nine Dragons, you can keep following a path to numerous falls behind it. If you get hungry along the way, you can find vendor selling local foods along the paths. I tried the pickled radish and local noodles; not bad. Luoping and the Nine-Dragon Waterfall are definitely a must see if travelling to the Yunnan province.

Stay tuned as we're off to Shenzhen and Hong Kong for the last leg of my journies.

Kunming - Part 5 - Cultural Diversity

2009-02-28T04:15:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in my previous blog entry, the Yunnan province is a very culturally diverse place. Because it borders three countries (Burma, Laos and Vietnam) it's not surprising that Yunnan is home to numerous ethnic minorities. According to Yunnan Nationalities Museum, China is home to more than fifty minorities and Yunnan has a little bit of everybody! Just for perspective, most (over 1 billion) of the Chinese you see are descendants of the Han people. The other minorities include the Zhuang, Hui, Can, Naxi, Dai and the list goes on (for the other fifty or so ethnicities). Kunming celebrates all of the minorities in the Nationalties Museum and Minority Park across the street.

The Museum, which sounds boring, really was quite interesting. You get a chance to explore the costumes, art, architecture, history, lifestyle and most importantly, musical instruments of China's people. What I liked most about the Museum (besides the instrument exhibit) was the fact that at 10am, we were the only people in the museum! After paying the student rate of 10元 for admission, we were free to roam the grounds, uninterrupted and free from the shrieks of the unsupervised children.

The affiliated Minority Park was a little more spendy than the museum (70元/person) but don't forget your student ID to get 50% off. This place was more of a tourist destination as there were junk shops everywhere and people following you, asking you to dress up like one of the races and take overpriced photos. However, it was still an enjoyable place. 26 of the Chinese minorities were represented with actual reproductions of ancient villages and buildings. If you're lucky, you can catch a performance in the local style. When we stopped for some cross-bridge noodles (过桥米先) we were treated to a Naxi-style song and dance. After that, we wandered around the park to each of the villages. The only problem we faced was that because we waited until about 1pm to enter the park, we didn't have enough time to visit all 26 villages. By the time we made it to the Tibetan village, they were closing down. Fortunately, we caught the zip-line ride before they went home. That was the best 15元 I spent all day.

Kunming - Part 4 - 翠湖 Green Lake

2009-02-27T18:31:00.000-08:00

Today, there aren't many places you can enjoy art in the raw. When I went to Kunming's Green Lake (翠湖), I found it thriving with music and dance. As you enter you are met by billboards and line of junk shops. Don't dismiss this place on first impressions; just across the bridge and a short walk to the right you can find public traditional dance classes, music of every Chinese ethnicity performed on local instruents, local tasty snack foods and crowds of Kunming's diverse people.

After a brief lesson in Naxi dancing we passed a little comedic performance with live singing and erhu playing. Under a pavillion was a group of musicians accompanying a couple dancers and a vocalist. Understand that most of these performers are part of the older community in Kunming. The music and dance they perform is mainly passed down by rote; from family to family...and it's amazing! Throughout the park, there was at least twenty small ensembles. In these little bands, you can find all types of instruments from those made in Yunnan, to Western instruements to those found as far North as Xinjiang. And the best part about this park is that it's all free!

Towards the center of the park we found a vendor selling sheet music. This music was all written in numbers and Chinese rhythm notation. This seemed like the place to go if you were interested in studying Chinese folk music. The music was all photocopied in small plastic binders and only cost 2-10元 depending on how many pieces were in the collection. After moving on to the next performance I notivced a group of people set up behind the venue with music stands but no instruements. We asked what they were doing and they responded: “just following along!" Sounds like something I could do after I retire.

Kunming - Part 3 - Stone Forest

2009-02-26T05:22:00.000-08:00

The Yunnan province is a geologically special place in the world. Besides having amazing places like the Tiger Leaping Gorge, you can also find a unique limestone formation known as Karst. About two hours drive from Kunming is home to a significant outcropping of Karst. Here, known as the Stone Forest, you can find all four different formations of limestone Karst including: sword,

Like most national parks in China (this one protected by UNESCO) you can find English-speaking guides. Our's name was George and for the few hours we poked around the park, I was lucky enough to hear all about the geological, historical and mythical aspects of the Stone Forest. I found it interesting the local village was in the process of being relocated. George said this was due to the tourist's complaints of the 'terrible smells'. He also explained that over 15,000 km of Yunnan's topography contains Karst formations and was considered in ancient times to be one the natural wonders of the world. Today, although beautiful, the park has become an over-crowded tourist destination. So, if you don't mind wading through people and waiting in lines to take pictures in front of the famous formations, you'll have a great time! George explained that the park's popularity is one of the reasons that Yunnan keeps the air so clean. The revenue created by the millions of visitors each year is one of the reasons this province keeps factories away.

As we wandered through the winding maze of limestone we admired the names given to the famous formations. There was the Sword, Kissing-Birds, Elephant, Tom and Jerry, and Pair of Shoes formations. Surpisingly, they represented the names pretty well (except the sword rock which was broken in the last earthquake. There were certain places where the stone surface was perculiarily shiny. George explained that these were places that were rumored to give certain luck when touched. For example, if you able to jump and touch a certain rock, you would grow taller. Another place, if your neck was able to fit through, you would become rich. I hope that one come true.

At one of the resting points, we were able to watch part of a show put on by locals. Check out the video as they perform a song and dance in the traditional style.

Kunming - Part 2 - Light Festival

2009-02-23T19:33:00.000-08:00

Today's addition to my Kunming adventure comes the night of the Chinese New Year (Jan. 26th) and takes place in Kunming's park/carnival. On new year's day, we spent most of the day visiting relatives and non-stop eating. That evening we went to Kunming's famous lantern-style light festival. For only 30元/person it was pretty nice. They constructed a collection of scenes and characters depicting famous Chinese historical icons...in lantern style. There was everything from old style lanterns to Dragons and even Ultra Man made. Now, these weren't the traditional lanterns with a candle or oil burning wicks inside, they were definitely lit with modern light bulbs. Due to China's energy problems, it was advertised that this year, all of the light bulbs were changed to halogen to help with the environment. The show was quite long, it lead all they way until the ride section of the park(maybe a 3km or so). When Even though by that time is was around 10pm, the midway and rides were open. It was quite busy that night as people probably had the same idea as us to take a break from the family. We played a couple money-stealing games and rode one ride before calling it a night and walking back through the lanterns enjoying them one more time.

Check out my flickr site for more pics!

Kunming - Part 1 - Chinese New Year

2009-02-19T23:51:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Kunming, Yunnan on Jan. 23rd, so we had just a couple days to prepare for the Chinese New Year. And "what?" might you ask, does the typical Kunmingite to prepare for the holiday? Clean. Clean. Clean. It's said that if anything (house, clothes, you) is dirty during the arrival of the new year, then it will be dirty the whole next year. That sounded crazy to me, but who am I to argue with thousands years of tradition. So, clean everything we did: all of our clothing, every inch of her parents apartment including the food containers, etc. And then we ate. The eating never really stopped. Every meal was prepared to the excess with all of her family's favorite dishes. We ate pork, chicken, beef, fish, lamb, every kind of vegatable possible, local cheese, rice, noodles and it was all delicious. On the day of the new year, we visited most of Karen's relative's houses, eating more and more at each place. At her uncle's house we got a chance to witness an artist at work. In the below video, you can watch as 10 year old cousin wishes us happy and lucky new year in Chinese calligraphy. At about that point, the fireworks began and lasted until about a week later when the festivities died down.

If you ask a Chinese person how they celebrate the new year, the most common response is: 'be with my family'. This was definitely true as I got the chance to be a member of the Yi and Liu families this new year.

大理 Dali

2009-01-30T20:03:00.000-08:00

The next stop in my Tour de Yunnan was the ancient city of 大理 (Dali). After the 3 1/2 hour bus ride from Lijiang, we arrived where people were waiting to escort you to their hotel. We were a little wary, but after being quoted just 30元 per night, how could we say no? The hotel was, like most Dali buildings, in the style of the Bai people. As I have been learning, Yunnan is famous for housing over 26 different Chinese minorities. The Bai style of architecture is similar to the Naxi, with the open courtyard in the center of the building, but the outside is generally painted white with ornate paintings in different quadrants. The first night, we relaxed by strolling through the ancient town, eating the local cheese, drinking fresh juice and admiring the ethnic diversity. I found Dali very pretty as it is surrounded by the misty 苍山 (Cangshan) mountains and 洱海 (Erhai lake). Dali was very welcome to foreigners, (as they most likely provide a large percentage of the economy) they even made a street named 洋人街（foreigner street). Consequently, I had to take a picture under the gateway. Upon a quick walk down the street, I was surprised to see very few foreigners and actually more Chinese tourists. I guess they were happy to see me, an ACTUAL foreigner!

The next day in Dali, we had prepared a driver to take us around to the quality destinations. We began the day with a delicious meal of a local noodle dish called 饵丝 (ersi). The driver also acted as our tour guide; as he drove he pointed out different spots explaining the historical relevance. Our first stop after bypassing some tourist traps was a chair lift to some caves in the Cangshan Mountains. The caves were somewhat interesting as Chinese always enjoy naming rock formations after things in their culture. Although, the rainbow colored lighting inside was a little cheesey. After climbing endless stairs, we reached the top of the mountain and exited the cave to a really nice view of the Erhai lake. We enjoyed some local tea, a temple and adjoining gardens after we came down the mountain.

Dali is also famous for their tie-dyed fabrics. Our guide knew a place where they produce these textiles, so we decided to take a look. The place ended up being kind of a sham. It was just this run-down place where they took us upstairs and tried to sell us completely over-priced garmets. I knew they were too expensive because I saw the exact same ones in downtown Dali the night before. Can't win 'em all I guess. We took a rest at Erhai lake ate some local bread then headed to the famous Tang Dynasty Three Pagodas. Because the tickets to get in the pagodas were rather expensive, we opted to take a few pictures outside...for free! Because I needed to do some bank business, we headed cut the tour early and headed back to the hotel.

That night as we were looking for the Ersi restaurant, we heard some nice traditional Chinese music. We weren't sure where it was coming for, so we followed our ears to a building under construction. Check out the video as I documented this pretty cool moment. It turned out that these musicians were Dali natives celebrating the completion of part of the house before the Chinese New Year. The house itself belonged to a teacher at my school! Karen of course knew everyone there and we were both welcomed and invited to dinner on the coincidental encounter. After a night of good food and too much baijiu we retreated to our hotel to rest for the 5 hour bus ride to Kunming the next day.

After spending time in the ancient cities of Lijiang and Dali in the Yunnan province, I definitely liked Lijiang better. Although both places were overrun with tourists and locals, I liked the cleanliness and peacefulness of Lijiang. Next, on to Kunming!

丽江 Lijiang Day Four - 虎跳峡

2009-01-24T20:29:00.000-08:00

From the beginning, I wanted to visit 虎跳峡 in the Yunnan Province. Not just because it's famous for being one of the worlds largest river canyon, but it has a pretty cool name: Tiger Leaping Gorge. Day four in Lijiang, I was feeling a lot better; cold pretty much gone and rested from a relaxing day in the city. Let's go on a mountain hike! The TLG (tiger leaping gorge) is a pretty big place where your could easily spend a week exploring. Karen and I only wanted to use a day, so we took a van about a quarter way down the gorge and hiked back to the mouth. That task was definitely easier said than done.

A little background on Tiger Leaping Gorge. The whole gorge is about 15 km long, located between the 5,596m Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山） and 5,396m Haba Xue Mountain (哈巴山). The narrowest point between the two mountains is about 25 meters, and it is said that a tiger was able to leap across this gap (thus the name). Throughout the gorge is abundant farmland, that today in January is still very green and plentiful. According to Wikipedia, the main crops are various grains, but after asking the locals, the main crop is soy beans. In 1993, the area was opened to tourists (mainly for hiking and sight-seeing). Now, there is an endless flow of tour busses, taxis and mostly foreign tourists traveling to the gorge.

After the 5km ride to the start of our hike, the driver pointed us to a gravel winding dangerously up the mountain. For some reason, my idea of the gorge was a leisurely hike along the river at the bottom. I guess that was the OTHER path. Living on the 7th floor of my apartment with no elevator, I felt in shape enough to attempt the climb. The beginning wasn't so beautiful, as we were basically hiking up a gravel driveway with cars passing by every 10 minutes kicking up all kinds of dust. It was interesting to see a goat farm complete with local Naxi farmer. After a few km, we his the first resting point, the Tea-Horse Trade Guest House. According to our crudely drawn map, after this point there would be a little trek to the top of the peak, then 24 switch-backs down the mountain and then we were home free. We ate a snack and drank some local Naxi tea and then we were back on the road. As we began the hike, we started to see more and more hikers coming the opposite direction. We always asked them how long until the top, the answer was usually "oh, about 10 minutes". After about an hour and a half of hiking the treacherously steep rocky path, passing mules packed with little Korean tourists, we reached the top! The was probably my first real moutain climb...and I was pretty exhausted.

Unfortunatly, this was not the end of the trail. We now had to brave the 24 switch-backs, dodge more mules, and battle the blinding 5,000 meter sun. Another two hours and we were on level ground again. This time, traversing actually through farmland. Each farm was set up with a little make-shift store selling, beverages and snacks. This was nice, as we just finished our 2 litre water bottle. We began our hike around 11am, and by the third farm was about 4:30pm. We were warned to hurry as the sun sets around 6pm. According to our map (although already untrustworthy) we only had about an hour hike left to where we began our journey. This time the map was accurate! After cutting through our last piece of farm land, we entered some more civilized land; schools, factories and stores began popping up foreshadowing the end of our day-trek. The last bus to Lijiang passed through the village around 6pm. We arrived at 5:30pm, grabbed some fast noodles and flagged down one of the last busses back to Lijiang.

After about 10kilometers distance, 5,000 meters altitude, and 200rmb poorer, we were very tired and a little sick from the crazy, winding drive home. However, I feel that this experience was not only one of the most beautiful places I had seen in China, but a true glimpse into one of the native cultures. I find it amazing how welcoming these people are as we unwittingly trespass through their 1000+ year old farm. We always tried to give a little back, if it was giving a few yuan for the tea or candy to children we saw along the way. I hope one day I can return to spend more time in this breathtaking place.

丽江Lijiang Days 2,3

2009-01-20T03:18:00.000-08:00

Day 2 - Lashi Lake
After checking in at our new hotel (for the bargain rate of 40元/night) we set off to Lashi Lake. This was a cool place because we got to ride horses! A kindly gentleman led Karen and I on a 3-hour adventure which wound it's way through the farmland around the lake. After the horse-riding we hopped in a boat piloted by the same man who led the horses. I was amazed that after climbing a small mountain and trudging through mud and tall grass, this man didn't seem the least bit tired. We caught a car back to Lijiang and I noticed that most of the buildings were decorated with intersting artwork. The driver told us that this art was done by the locals and depicts the Naxi language and charactergrams. Very cool. I was still a bit sick that day, so I came back and crashed early in the hotel that night. My butt was also kind of sore.

Day 3 - Muhu Palace
I was hoping to recover from my cold, so we got started around 11am on day three. Due to my illness we planned a relaxing day enjoying Lijiang and seeing the Ming dynasty palace the town was built around. After a nice long walk trying to ignore the shopkeepers enticing us to buy their goods, we had a nice Naxi-style lunch. Just around the corner was the gate to the Muhu Palace. Besides the Forbidden Palace in Beijing, Muhu was one of the largest I had been to in China. It seemed to go on forever with many different palace buildings, gardens and apartments. We were also lucky to tag along with a Singaporean couple who had paid for a tour guide. It's always nice to get a history once in a while. The tour ended with a tasting of local teas. I found the Pu Er tea very interesting. Supposedly this is one of the more famous teas of the region. Dinner, and a little more shopping rounded out day 3 in Lijiang. Oh, and I got to hold a hawk.

丽江 Lijiang Day One

2009-01-18T00:39:00.000-08:00

Day 1
After taking a 50 minute bus from the airport, we arrived in downtown Lijiang around 12pm. On the way to our reserved hotel we were approached by a young lady offering to help us with our luggage and stay at her hotel for a discounted price. The one suitcase we packed was a little heavy and impossible to use the wheel on the ancient cobblestones, so we agreed to let her help us. After checking in and resting a bit, we decided to go explore the town a little bit. It's amazing how much the people of Lijiang (and government probably) have preserved this beautiful little town. It's famous for being home to over 20 Chinese minorities, however the Naxi people are the main inhabitants of the region. The winding streets seem to go on forever with countless shops selling mainly yak products (bone combs, leather goods, preserved meat etc.), jade, woven goods, tea, and all kinds of small trinkets. I didn't want to buy much then, just some cheap sunglasses (the sun is amazingly bright ALL the time!). After wandering for a few hours we were hungry. In a place like this, it's not diffucult to find food, but difficult to decide what type of food. We settled on a Naxi style restaurant which specialized in what else...Yak! The food was delicious and gave us enough energy to head up the mountain to see a temple. The temple was very relaxing, especially after the hike up the mountain. We were met by a monk who asked to read my fortune. I felt in need for some spiritual enlightenment, so I spun the zodiac wheel and landed on the chicken...yum. He then ushered me to the English-speaking head monk inside the temple. After close examination of my face and hands he offered a glimpse to my future and gave me a small gift. 10rmb well spent. By then, night had fallen and the Lijiang seemed to wake up. The bar streets were pumping dance music and the locals were dressed in local garb inviting everyone to dance the night away. Unfortunately, with the mixture of travel weariness and altitude displacement, I wasn't quite ready to jump in to that. Maybe another night!

Chinese New Year Trip

2009-01-17T02:55:00.000-08:00

Well, it's that time of the year again: Chinese New Year! (or Spring Festival depending on who you talk to.) This year, according to the lunar cycle, the new year falls on January 26th. Traditionally, the Chinese celebrate the day before to a week after new year's day. This time in Chinese custom is specifically devoted to family togetherness and optimism for the upcoming year. Another interesting aspect of each Chinese year is the zodiac. Each year is characterized by an animal (an interesting story here. This upcoming year is the year of the ox...yum.

As a teacher in China, I am very lucky to have more holiday time. The final exam for all saxophone students fell on January 9th. School will not begin until Febuary 21st, so I have a nice chunk of time for traveling. It just so happens that my girlfriend is from the Yunnan province, so I thought what better place to visit. According to her, the places in Yunnan to visit, are: Lijiang, Dali, Kunming and Ruili. With a little research in my guidebooks and internet sites, I agreed a began making travel arrangements. Our trip will begin January 16th to Lijiang, travel to the aforementioned cities and maybe end up in Hong Kong to do a little shopping.

The flight to Lijiang from Chengdu, was quick and very pretty (check out the above video). Upon arriving to the airport, I really needed to use the bathroom. After a short trot to the nearest facility, I found my heart racing and breath short. I knew that Lijiang was a mountain city, but didn't realize that the thin air would affect me so drastically. Now, after two days here, I have grown more accustomed to the altitude difference (it's about 8,000 feet above sea level!) Although, I have been fighting a cold, it's been a pretty amazing experience. Please stay tuned to many blogs to come. I plan to post pictures, videos and stories as they come up here in Yunnan. Wish me luck!

Also check my Flickr site for more pictures.

Taiwanese Food Fest!

2009-01-05T20:46:00.000-08:00

My good buddy and colleague Philip Fernandez called me the other day inviting me to join him to a Taiwan-style food festival. At first I thought this a little strange: 1, because we live in Chengdu where the Sichuan food is viewed as the #1 cuisine in the world. 2, The cold and humid January weather seemed a little uninviting for an outdoor food festival. It just so happens that it's finals week at my school. This means that my lessons are cut down a bit to make room for their exams. Let's go to the Taiwan Food Festival!!!

I wasn't really sure what kind of food to expect to see (due to the fact that I haven't visited Taiwan yet). So, me, Karen (fellow SCCM teacher), Josh (resident Shangri-La Hotel pianist) and Philip grabbed a taxi to Wanda Plaza. Luckily the weather wasn't too bad as it had been raining off and on the past week. We made our way to the plaza and sure enough, a huge, stinky, outdoor food carnival. I say stinky because the smell of squid, fermented tofu and smoked meat was overwhelming as we entered.

Philip was pretty excited about this day because he spent about five years living in Taiwan; he was glad to show us all of the disgusting things he could eat. And there were PLENTY of disgusting foods. Naturally, they had all the typical squid, dried fish and meats. But if you're into really gross foods, you could dine upon all types of insects including centipede, grubs, larvas, katydids etc. etc. etc... Those things I had already seen in Beijing last year, but the shocking one to me were the little fried songbirds that you eat in one bite.

Besides the strange and the weird was a nice variety of Tawainese restaurants, Sichuan restaurants, and food companies showing their new wares. At one point a saleswoman gave me a small cup of tomato juice telling me to 'just take one' pointing at the huge wall of cans. So, I went over, took one and started to walk away. I didn't realize that I was supposed to pay about 10 rmb first. Just another example of miscommunication in China. We spent the next hour trying all kinds of interesting foods from the fragrant stinky tofu to the tasty pinepple sticky rice. There was quite the hodgepodge of people, food, culture and fun. I believe this guy pretty much sums up the my feelings that day:

There were so many fun foods that it was hard for me to choose just one for my fun food column. However, after trying this Asian delicacy at a fancy restaurant, I was surprised to find sold on a stick at the food festival. Today my Chinese Fun Food is: Sea Cucumber on a Stick! There wasn't really very much flavor, but the texture was pretty wild. It's kind of like a mix between jello and squid with some little spikes which add to the fun. YUM!

New Year Concert 12-29-2008

2009-01-03T21:25:00.001-08:00

My school, the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, broke some Chinese customs and celebrated the Western New Year's holiday with a classical concert. This year, the Chinese Lunar New Year actually comes on January 26th, but SCCM decided to show some international flare and celebrate 2009 with the rest of the world. The concert featured traditional Chinese instruements in various ensembles including the 大乐队（orchestra). Between the ensembles were some very talented soloists. I must note that I was particularly impressed with the emcee of the night. She introduced every piece with eloquence and always had a very warm smile.

The concert opened with the 扬琴（yangqin) ensemble (above video). This instrument is also known as the Chinese dulcimer. It is played with two bamboo bamboo sticks with a leather head. The sound is quite incredible in the large concert. I was amazed at the velocity that the player achieved on some of the more technical passages.
After a very talented erhu (two-stringed instrument) soloist was an ensemble featuring SCCM faculty members. As seen in the above photo, were the aforementioned yangqin and erhu (5 players) plus pipa, guzheng, dizi, zhongruan, harp and bass. I am finding that more and more, the chinese are incorporating Western instruments into the ensembles. I'm not sure if it is due to the fact that they need to fill out the orchestration or to feature gifted individuals, but I'm glad to see it. The only thing missing from this ensemble is the saxophone.

The following soloist was a pipa(ist?) from Beijing. He was spectacular. Many times have I heard this instrument in the halls of the conservatory, but never played with such technical prowess. He played two of his own compositions which not only featured the pentatonic scale, but many interesting Western scales including various minor modes and maybe even a blues. As you can see in the picture to the right, the pipa is a pretty complicated instrument. The two highest or four strings are played mainly as a quickly strummed drone by the ring and pinky fingers while the melodies are pluck by thumb, index and middle fingers. Although, he used multiple techiniques throughout the performance. He was followed by a 古筝（gu zheng) ensemble featuring 12 guzheng (all women), timpani and multiple percussion. The guzheng is in what we call the zither family and is closly related to the guqin. The only difference is that the guzheng is plucked while the guqin uses bamboo mallets. It was interesting watching the performance as the players actually moved the bridges during the piece to retune the instrument.

The concert finished up with the full Chinese orchestra as featured in my SCCM Chinese Orchestra Blog. Overall, it was a great show. I got a chance to hear more of these ever-interesting Chinese instruments and gain more appreciation for Chinese classical music.

Chinese Food Fun! Ok, this time we've got a food from the Xinjiang province of China. It's: 大盘鸡（da pan ji) Chicken stewed with root veggies, garlic, peppers, and all kinds of local whole spices. It's called 大 (big) because you can choose either a big or small portion. The big is rather big (as shown in the picture below).

价日。。。Christmas Eve

2008-12-26T20:55:00.000-08:00

This blog is dedicated to the Crown Plaza, for their hospitality this past Christmas Eve. I was not a guest at the hotel, but a guest musician for the Christmas Festivities. With my usual cohorts, Fu and Philip, we performed for three separate functions then raced to the MGM to close their show. Preceded by few drawn out rehearsals, it was a quite busy day. After the whole thing was over, it still didn't feel like Christmas. Maybe that's because I live in China. Maybe it's because they call Christmas: French Epicurian Holiday. Well, anyway, here's some pictures from this crazy day. enjoy!

The Tree Made of Rolls

<--It's us! Philip! -->

Now, to end this blog and blogs to come: some of my favorite Chinese dishes! Today, a delightful, breaded, deep-fried, pork-stuffed, eggplant dish prepared in the manner of Sichuan-style fish. It's... 鱼香茄饼（yu xiang qie bing). This is a picture from a restaurant in between my home and school. A must eat if you visit Chengdu.

圣诞快乐中国 Merry Christmas China! & 乐山大佛 Leshan Giant Buddha

2008-12-20T20:48:00.000-08:00

China's Sichuan province is famous for many things, but Le Shan's Giant Buddha may be the most spectacular. This past weekend I had a chance to visit this mountain city to play a gig. Although we did not have a chance to climb the peak to see the 500 ft. Buddha, this blog gives me a chance to show some of my pictures when I visited it in May 2005. The gig itself went off without a hitch. This gig was one of the, as termed by Josh Katz, many Lao Wai (老外) gigs that we play.

As Christmas approaches, there have been many more opportunites for shows. As it looks now, I won't enjoy the traditional relaxing time with my family. Instead I'll be caught up in the rush of playing 3-5 shows each day moving from hotel to bar to real estate gig.

I think it is interesting that a lot of the young Chinese population is beginning to celebrate Christmas. In most big chain stores, you can find the aisles packed with tinsel, fake christmas trees and all kinds of tacky ornaments. On the way to dinner with one of my students, he was asking me how I celebrate Christmas in America. I told him that most Americans families come together and celebrate their own Christmas traditions (decorate the tree, hang lights, go to church etc.) Christmas in China is basically a largely commericial holiday. It gives stores a chance to attract people with special decorations, hotels and restaurants to have special food and parties.

Merry Christmas!

The Band

The much anticipated "Relish" party.

萨克斯管独奏，合奏音乐会 - Prof. Li's Saxophone Orchestra Concert

2008-11-29T19:43:00.000-08:00

November 29th marked the return of Sichuan Conservatory of Music (四川音乐学研) saxophone professor, Li Yusheng's Saxophone Orchestra. The concert was held in the SCCM's Xinhua Concert Hall (新华音乐厅) and also featured Mr. Li's students, Master degree student, Mei Song (梅松） and high school senior Han Xiao (韩笑）。 I was also very proud of six of my students who participated in the Saxophone Orchestra.

梅松 - Feld Soprano Sonata

As a member of the 2007 SCCM Saxophone Orchestra, I was happy to see the improvement of the group. The ensemble is now made of of all students of SCCM, as opposed to the previous ensemble made up mainly of teachers and graduates. The concert opened with Han Xiao playing Bach's Cello Suite #1 in G Major on Alto Saxophone. Next, Mei Song perfomed the ever-difficult Sonata for Soprano Saxophone by Jindrich Feld. He finished the first half of the concert with Combelle's lyrical Concert Piece #1. After a long intermission, Han Xiao opened with Pierre Max Dubois's First Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra; memorized. The rest of the program belonged to the SCCM Saxophone Orchestra: Giuseppe Giordani's , sections from Carmen; Bizet and a rousing encore of the Ouverture from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.

韩笑 - Dubois Concerto Mvt. III

Overall, this was a very enjoyable concert as all of the saxophonists played at a very high level. I was especially impressed with the soloists, Congratulations!

Success!

2008-11-22T20:10:00.000-08:00

Last night, Nov. 22nd, was my faculty concert at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music. After months of preparation, in a flash it was over! The venue, Nie Er Concert Hall, was very nice. It's a smaller than SCCM's Xiao Yinyue Ting, but the sound was quite nice. I opted to put the piano at small stick rather than full due to the the low ceiling.

The Concert was a success! I was pleased to see an almost full attendance with many of my friends, colleagues and students. Thank you all for coming! Musically, I was also very pleased. Besides sweaty profusely from the spotlights, I felt very comfortable. Also, I want to send a special thank you to my wonderful pianist, Xiong Liang. 都谢谢！

Now, I am thinking about my next concert in the Spring. Who knows....saxophone w/erhu, souna, guzheng...the possibilities are endless! Once again, thank you all who attended last night. It was you who inspired my performance. Those of you who missed it, I plan to post videos as soon as they are available to me.

Come One, Come All! 不见不散！！！

2008-11-14T08:10:00.000-08:00

The Offical Concert Poster

The Offical Program

萨克斯中音萨克斯独奏 (1973) 伯哈德海顿
Solo for Alto Saxophone and Piano Bernhard Heiden (1910--2000)

圣安东尼奥—奏鸣曲（1995）约翰哈宾森
San Antonio - Sonata for Alto Saxophone John Harbison
I. 召唤 The Summons (b.1938）
II. 成排起舞 Line Dance
III. 成队起舞 Couples Dance

迈 (1978) 洛亚罗达
Mai Ryo Noda
(b.1948)

绒毛小鸟奏鸣曲（1995）塔卡施犹史马蔟
Fuzzy Bird Sonata Takashi Yoshimatsu
I.跑，小鸟 Run, Bird (b.1953)
II.唱，小鸟 Sing, Bird
III.飞，小鸟 Fly, Bird

嬉游曲（1964）罗杰布崔
Divertimento Roger Boutry
I.不太快的快板 Allegro ma non troppo (b.1932)
II.慢板 Andante
III.急板 Presto

黄龙溪 - Huang Long Xi

2008-11-11T18:26:00.000-08:00

Nimen hao! (hello all) First of all, my apologies on this delayed blog post. The end of October and beginning of November have been quite busy for me (plus my internet was down for a while). These days, I have been preparing my students for the midterm exam, playing gigs, learning Chinese and preparing for my recital on top of all that. The SCCM saxophone midterm exam was last Wednesday. Luckily, only 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students were required to play. That meant I only had to hear about seventy scales and etudes. Most of them played quite well. I was pleased to hear a good balance of Ferling, Lacour (progressive etudes) and Mule (18 etudes) Etudes. The Thursday and Friday after the exam were teacher work days and sport competitions for the students. I thought this would be a good chance to see a little more of old Chengdu. My friend, cellist and teacher, Karen Liu accompanied me to the ancient town of Huang Long Xi on the Friday.

After a breakfast of baozi and milk tea, Karen and I hopped the 12:30 8 元(about $1) bus from the Xinnanmen station to Huang Long Xi. The bus was packed as I assumed other teachers and students were taking advantage of this little holiday. In about 50 minutes, we arrived and were immediately greeted by merchants selling flower wreaths to worn on the head (a local custom to take the tourist's money I suppose). After a million '不要!'s (don't want) we continued to the main entrance. My first impression, was that Huang Long Xi looked similar to many of the ancient towns I had been to before. However, there were definitely some specialties which made it unique. For example, every shop sold these corn husks with smoked beans inside. They were terrible. We did pick up some mint candy and sesame pastry which was pretty good.

The reason Huang Long Xi was so popular was due to the temple street. Supposedly there were three temples on one street. This was something I had to see. Sure enough! Smack in the middle of town, there was a street with one big and two small temples. The big one was special because it had a Banya tree. According to the sign the tree was over 6000 years old. I would have posted pictures, but after taking many videos my camera's battery ran out. Learned my lesson. The other interesting place was an ancient Chinese courthouse complete with gallows, guillatine and pictures of when they made a movie there. Someone there said that almost 200 films have been made there!

Huang Long Xi is located at the juncture of the Jin and Luxi rivers. Although the water isn't that clean, you can still take boat rides at your own risk. The town is said to be about 1700 years old, which to American standards is pretty amazing. After a few hours of exploring the winding streets we were hungry. The whole time there we saw and smelled all kinds of interesting foods. The speciaties there were dried seafood and tofu. Because we were planning a big dinner, we chose only the seafood for lunch. They prepare the little dried seasoned shrimp, crabs and fish by deep frying them, then dusting them with more salt and spices. The flavor was pretty good, but it was kind of strange eating the whole crab, shell and all.

Scotty Wright: My Hero

2008-10-22T20:13:00.000-07:00

These past couple weeks, I've had a chance to spend some time with an incredible musician, teacher and person in general...Scotty Wright. A couple weeks back, I had heard news of an American jazz singer in Chengdu, playing at local 5-star hotel the Shangri-La. As the music communitiy is quite small here, it wasn't long before I met him at a jam session at local ex-pat hotspot Cafe Paname. The jazz group Bossma was backing him up as he tore it up for a full house. I was really impressed at his versatility and endless energy. It's amazing how much better you play when there's someone there who you can feed off of.

Since that gig, we got a chance to play together at the Shangri-La for an Oktoberfest celebration. They actually booked a German oom-pah band from Hong Kong, but they had some visa troubles. Enter: us! The gig was four sets of music for the outdoor section of the hotel's Irish bar: Mooney's. The place was complete with ten course buffet, pretzel trees and an endless supply of "real" German beer. The band was Scotty, myself, Ma Jun (Machine) on drums and a guitarist, whom I cannot remember his name at this moment. In the above video, we are deep in one of our many blues jams. To tell you the truth, Scotty and I were a little worried about the musical content, as we had never played with the two locals before. However, all four sets went off without a hitch. I've found that anywhere you go, if you get four random professional musicians together, they can not only make a show, but it can be a lot of fun!

After about three hours of playing, I had to fun to my night gig at the Music House. By that point I was a little tired, but definitely warmed up to play some real jazz. Scotty showed up later to jam with our two jazz singers: Chi Chi and Fei Fei (they love double names in China). He once again brought down the house with his unique vocal talents and taught us all something in the process. Beam us up Scotty! (ok that was lame)

If you have a chance, check Scotty out!

Shoe Gig

2008-10-17T01:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, I was up at 6am and off to another Chinese gig. As usual, I had no idea where or what kind of show it would be. My favorite agent, Suky was in charge. Therefore, I donned the usual black and white getup. Upon arrival to his place, he immediately got off on a bad food by telling me that my shirt wasn't white enough. This made me a little grumpy, but after a nap in the car to the venue I forgot all about that. As I awoke, I saw the giant "Lady Shoe Center of China". This is going to be a good one, I thought. There was an expo for all the shoe factories in the area, and I was there to represent one of the companies. It was an easy gig: I popped in my jazz play-a-long cd, jammed a bit, schmoozed with Chengdu's wealthiest, then it was over! I did seem to draw quite a crowd. It didn't look like any other company splurged on a laowei (foreigner) musician and with the huge sound system the rented, it was hard to ignore me. I didn't get a chance to explore the expo center, but it looked like hundreds of carbon-copy displays like the one I was lucky enough to play.
The only downside to my morning was that I left my cell phone in car. Fortunatly, however today I was able track it down. It's amazing how indespensible this little gadget is these days. I had about 20 missed calls and 15 messages. Everyone thought I had fallen off the face of the planet! Well, China....I'm Back!

Mahjong, Baijiu and a Squirt Gun

2008-10-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday marked the end of China's National Holiday. Most locals usually make the most of the last couple free days, and the Li's, Yi's and Hu's were no different. I had the pleasure of joining my student and his family (the Li's) for a day trip to Chengdu's North Lake. We were joined by family friends the Yi's, Hu's and little dog Mimi. The North Lake was actually quite beautiful. It looked pollution-free, had no boats and didn't smell like a toilet. There were many Chinese-style gates and gazebos nearby for many photo opportunities. The ground was set up like a resort, complete with mini-amusement park, midway, junk shops and family restaurants. I was happy to find a little squirt gun at one of the junk shops. Now I can discipline my cat successfully! After we explored a bit, it was lunch time. We ate at the center restaurant of the resort. The food was traditional Sichuan and the drink was baijiu. Baijiu is one of the harshest Chinese liquors. I was curious why we were drinking this at lunchtime, but after the first glass, I understood. The next activity on the slate was tea-drinking and finally....Mahjong! Ever since seeing locals playing this tile game in the street, I knew that I had to learn. Today was the day!

All of the Chinese moms took turns hovering over my shoulder, telling my which tile to play. It took a few rounds, but I was starting to get the hang of it. I would characterize Sichuan Mahjong as a cross between dominos and Rummikube. The tiles comtain three suits and are numbered from one to nine. Some of the tiles are difficult to learn because instead of a number they have the Chinese character. It really is a pretty fun game. Especially after you learn some of the associated Chinese words like: 'La' and 'mao' and my favorite: 'Peng!' After i was pretty good at the game, it was hard for the moms to stop giving me advice. Later, I noticed that they weren't always having me play the best tile as their children were also playing, giving them the upper hand. I look forward to bring Mahjong back to the states, look out world series of poker.

CHONGQING!

2008-10-01T23:44:00.000-07:00

Sunday was the beginning of China's national holiday and what better way to celebrate than get 9 days off teaching! I wanted to do some traveling during the holiday, but wasn't sure where or how. When I was pondering this question over some jaozi (dumpling), out of nowhere an agent called me with a gig in Chongqing. I had always been interested in visiting this city, as it was near Chengdu, and even LARGER! Prior to 1997, Chongqing was the capital of the Sichuan province. Thanks to the three gorges powerplant project, Chongqing merged with nearby communties Fuling and Wanxian to create a separate municipality. Now Chongqing contains more than 30 million people. It's an interesting place, situated bewteen the Yangzi and Jialing rivers, Chongqing is a mountainous city. You won't find bikes and mopeds like you would in Chengdu as most of Chongqing is located on the Yungui Plateau. The train ride to the city was about 5 1/2 hours from Chengdu. When we arrived we dined on Chonqing's specialty: Hot Pot.

The gig itself was located in the outskirts of the city. Just across the road from the huge residential development were rolling hills of lush farmlands. I thought if it wasn't for all of this pollution (or "fog" as locals called it) it might be a nice place to live. The gig was located on a outdoor stage of the showroom of a huge real estate company. I should mention that I wasn't alone in this venture. Fellow saxophonist and Connectictuan Josh Katz shared the stage with me and Dr. Aerbersold (our cd accompaniment). Over the next two days we had a total of three appearances for about 15 minutes each. The travel and accomidations were all provided, plus a salary. Consequently, we felt very fortunate for this little vacation. Between our shows, another local 'English Rock' - style band played. They were made up of a keyboardist, bassist and singer; all Chinese. Josh and I immediatly saw the opportunity to combine forces, but our manager would allow this. Managers here often see their performers as property; especially foreigners. Neverthless, we were quick to befriend this band and made plans to meet them later Monday night.

We had some fun with a group of bored kids who were brave enough to approach us. The oldest was obviously learning a little English, but fell back into Chinese as Josh demonstrated his knowledge. It was nice to have a little distractions as we had some free time bewteen our shows.

Monday evening, we got a chance to explore downtown Chongqing. Compared to Chengdu, i felt it was much more modern and aesthetically pleasing. We began at a food temple. This was similar to other one I had been in Shanghai and Nanjing, but was still a lot of fun. The temple was built on the side of the plateau near adjacent to the Chang Jiang (Yangzi River). Inside, the place was bustling with all kinds of street food, trinkets and people everywhere. We met up with our agent's friend, then headed to dinner.

Tuesday's performances went like clockwork. After the morning gig, we had a few hours break, so we decided to go to the local amusement park. Although it had similarities to American fun parks: rides, midway, junk food etc, there were some aspects which made me feel a little unsafe. First, cars were allowed to drive through the main streets. This was a bad idea for one: Chinese drivers feel that pedestrians don't exist, two: they're never happy waiting in line. The next danger was a go-kart track located next to a camel riding ring, next to an ATV track, and the fences did not look very sturdy. The park was truly amusing thanks to the "Golden Reception Hall" complete with Western chapel in the center of the park. This seemed like the place to go when getting hitched in Chongqing. Thanks to the cars, tons of people, pollution, 90 degree heat and general uncleanliness of the place after an hour or so, I felt like this:

We played one more performance before grabbing the 5:50 train back to Chengdu. Unfortunately, I had lost my return ticket we had to get to the train station early to buy a new one. It only took a few minutes to find a scalper and bought the same a ticket for the same train at the same cost! A meal of low quality beef noodles and we were off back to Chengdu. During the 5 hours back, I couldn't help to think about how in 10 years or so, Chongqing could be up there with Beijing and Shanghai. After all, 30 million people is nothing to sneeze at.

Busy Weekend - Sat. & Sun.

2008-10-01T21:50:00.000-07:00

Here's some highlights from my gigs last Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday
Our gig was in Chengdu this time, only about 2o min. from my home. The venue was a place called the 'Parrot Club'.

I got the chance to play with talented musicians (from L to R) Suky; agent, Kavain; bass, Philip; tpt, vocals, flute, Josh; sax and Me on keys.

After our 15 min. performance, the program continued with a sauntering accordianist. this seemed pretty normal for a Chinese performance, until I noticed he was followed by a group of small children. They eventually sat on chairs on the stage and he commenced to tell stories and play folk songs to them. There was also a model greeting guests.

Sunday
We traveled to SW Chengdu for yet another real estate gig.

It was the usual group: Philip, Fu and myself with the addition of guitarist/mandolinist Alex.

This was an all day gig, so between performances we got a chance to explore a bit. We ate lunch at this mutton soup restaurant...hao chi!

Later, Philip and I explored the local meat and produce market. This was one of the better ones I've been to in China. Everything looked pretty fresh. You could buy anything you need: veggies, slabs of meat, assorted tofu, pickled...anything, roots, noodles, dumplings and more.

Busy Weekend - Friday

2008-09-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

I've only been back in China for a little over two weeks and it seems like all of my free time is spent with gig-related activities. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining! Usually a couple shows more than covers my rent and utilities for the month. Since Friday, I played four gigs; 3 on sax and one on keys. Each brought it's own surprises, frustrations and tasty tidbits of insight into Chinese culture.

The madness began Friday afternoon at the a high-rise on Renmin South Road. As I headed up to the 18th floor, I double checked my gear: sax, neckstrap, reeds, play-a-long cd...ok, I'm set. I was greeted by a woman who looked Asian, by spoke English without an accent. This was helpful, as my chinese is not up to snuff when dealing with business matters. She told me that the gig would be one of the strolling saxophonist type. Zai jian Jamey. Fortunately, only about 20 people showed up. The event was the opening of a French architect's Chengdu branch. I played about 10 min. as people came in, waited out the program, then played one more tune after. Easy! Ok...got the money, on the the next show.

It was the second anniversary of local ex-pat hotspot "The Bookworm" (coffee house/library/bar). Philip had arranged the whole night: three sets, four musicians, one ipod. Keyboardist Fu, the ipod and myself played all the sets while Philip was in and out dealing with his other nightly haunts. Our featured vocalist was Aussie and Bookworm mini-celeb, Lauren. We opened the show with Philip, Fu and myself. After a few tunes, Phil left Fu and I to fend for ourselves. No problem. By the second set, a good crowd, mostly made up of Brits, had developed. This set would be Fu, myself and Lauren. She had five tracks and i had six, all on the ipod for easy control. As we got up on the stage, the already slighty intoxicated audience began chanting 'lau-ren, lau-ren'. This seemed to give her some courage as I put on the first tune. Everything seemed good as she started singing. Then she stopped...but the singing didn't. It turned out she put the wrong track on the ipod; WITH the vocals. She was a pro though, on to Nelly Furtado's 'Like a Bird' and the audience had forgotten the little mishap. The next 45 minutes went smoothly enough as I played a few jazz tunes with Fu. Lauren finished off the set with 'Son of a Preacher Man' and 'Imagine'. I just wished we could have had a rehearsal. Philip got back from his rounds at about 11pm, just in time for the last set. By this time the party was in full swing. After a rousing 'Happy Birthday' song and thanks yous from Peter the owner, people began dancing and carousing rather fiercly. Philip had planned for this and programmed uptempo dance numbers for the last set. We played for about another hour. As the audience was quite inebriated they really seemed to enjoy us. At once point a couple Chinese girls got up on stage and became the band dancers. This was definitely the most fun of the whole evening. I finally got out of there around 1am. It was a pretty busy day with teaching 5 students in the morning and the gig in the afternoon. A good warm-up for the weekend; Real Estate gigs on Saturday and Sunday. Blog to come. Now i must sleep.

SCCM Chinese Orchestra Concert

2008-09-24T04:16:00.000-07:00

Last night the Sichuan Conservatory of Music opened it's concert season. The featured group was the SCCM Chinese Orchestra. This is an eclectic group of made up of primarily traditional Chinese instruments mixed with the a few Western instruments to fill out the sound. Students and teachers alike performed together. Before the concert began, the audience was instructed to stand and applaud as the tenured faculty and government officials entered. The only problem was that these guests were were not very punctual. The concert was scheduled to begin at 8pm. It was not until close to 8:45 that the these special guests arrived. Prior to their arrival there were numerous times that people mistook a latecomer for one of these VIPs. Needless to say, we practiced madly applauding many times before they actually arrived.

Finally, the concert began. Before each piece, a woman came out to preface the work and introduce the conductor and featured soloist. There were four different maestros and four faculty soloists throughout the night. There was a particular uproar after the intermission as a female conductor was intruduced. I learned that this is quite rare in China.

I had never heard a group like this before. To help you picture the instrumentation: There was a large section of about 30 Erhu players located normally where violins and cellos are placed in a Western orchestra. In the center, there were 3 Guzheng and 3 Guqin behind them. Behind the Erhu on stage left was a section of Ruan (Da and Zhong varieties. Stage right contained Chinese-style cellos and basses. The first riser held a section of 16 Pipa. On the next riser was the wind section comprised of about ten Dizi of different sizes, 3 shen and 2 Dashen. The next riser held the Chinese oboe, Suona, tenor saxophone and baritone saxophone (my student!). The final riser was reserved for the percussion section: Daigu in the center, a set of timpani, Bangu, Biangu, Bianzhong (cloud gong), suspended cymbals, high hat hat a grand piano.

The sound of the orchestra was unique to say the least. I was surprised how much sound was produced. Even though there was no brass section, this group was quite loud! Even though many of the instruments have a nasal quality (i.e. suona, dizi, erhu) the balance and blend was extraorinary.

Seven works from local composers were featured in the concert. As mentioned earlier, four of these featured soloists. I was most impressed with the Shen player. This instrument has a very unique sound; almost like that of a miniature organ! The Zhong Ruan soloist was also very interesting. This 4-string instrument is similar to the mixture between a guitar and a banjo. The other soloist played dizi, and erhu. I wish I could post videos of the whole concert, but the files are too big!

Gig at Deyang

2008-09-21T02:54:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, here in China, I'm lucky enough to land a gig or two. Usuall y, I don't know anything about where the gig is, or what's going to hap pen...and it was no different today. My friend Philip has been performing for many years in China; he booked this one. W e met around 6:45am, then met up with a bus in North Chengdu. This is pretty ordinary for gigs i n China. Usually, all of the performers are provided a bus if the show is a little out of the way. Today we traveled to a city north of Chengdu named Deyang (duh-yang). Today, the bus was filled with a variety of people: swing dancers, magicians, a couple cages of bird, an opera singer, a couple managers, and of course us, the band. Bedsides Philip and myself, Chad Sinclair (guitarist) and Fu (keyboardist) made up the group. The drive was about an hour from Chengdu to Deyang. As we drove through downtown Deyang, I noticed a line of artillery guns in front a new building. I had just about forgotten about them, then about an hour later we were all startled as they were fired for about five minutes straight. Philip assured me that this is common for the grand opening of many buisnesses in China. Why can't they just hire a marching band or something? The gig itself was at a huge 5 star hotel. Like most China gigs, we weren't exactly sure what or who we were playing for, but it was most likely a real estate company. We had about an hour and a half before the first set, so as Philip did the necessary setup, the rest of us got a chance to explore a little bit. As you can see, it they spared no expense. In the first set we play all instrumental numbers. After a break, Philip sang Cotton Fields and Wu Suo Wei. As we started the second set, the place cleared out as they announced that the buffet was open. That was okay with us, as we don't usually rehearse before these gigs(although we did rock it). Philip's driver took us back to the city in his little red Suzuki. I don't think I'll ever smell the same.

End of Week One

2008-09-20T03:41:00.000-07:00

Already a week come and gone. A lot has happened! Due to the fact that I arrived two weeks into the semester, my students were eager to begin lessons. Last Sunday during a meeting with professor of saxophone Li Yusheng, he told me that I would be teaching two more students than last year. This is due to his acceptance of 26 new saxophone students at the conservatory. Now the total is more than 100! My current studio is now 15 students, 2 first year, 4 second year, 2 third year and 7 fourth year seniors. On top of that I will also coach a saxophone quartet made up of 4 of the seniors.

Sunday night I contacted all of my returning students. It's very easy in China because all of the students have cell phones. One mass text message to all of them instructing them to stop by my office on Monday did the job. My three new students were contacted by the modern music office. I was looking forward to see my kids again!

On Monday, like clockwork, my students lined up outside my 14th floor office to meet with me. We scheduled lessons for this past week and talked about repertoire for the semester (and seniors for the the final exam). Next week will be a little crazy because the Chinese provencial gorvernment will come to observe teachers and the facillities. This means that not only to my students have to be extra punctual, but lessons will be double in length...yay. Intermitantly throughout Monday afternoon, I met my new students. Two were freshman: Zhou Yuan Xing and Feng He Fong. Feng spoke relatively good english, but Zhou was a little shy. I was surprised that my Chinese was good enough to schedule a lesson time and ask if he had prepared any music. My third new student, Liu Tao, is replacing Wang Shan Shan who graduated last year. As a side note, Wang is now residing in her hometown, Qingdao, where she is working for the local orchestra and playing in a saxophone quartet.

During the week lessons went well! Surprisingly most of my students HAD practiced over the summer, and some had already completed the pieces I gave them. Looks like this semester will be a good one. My goal for the following semester is to hold a recital feature my studio. It's disappointing to me that this school does not do this kind of thing on a regular basis. It seems like if you are majoring in music performance you should actually PERFORM! This is a trend I hope to start.

In other news, I am in the process of preparing for a recital aiming for November. Before I left last year, I had been working with pianist Xiong Lian. She is a fine musician and I am very excited to collaborate with this year. My tentative progam includes works from: Yoshimatsu, Harbison, Boutry, Noda and Heiden.

In my every day life, I've pretty much settled in to my new apartment. Yes, I will make a blog about this complete with pics and video....SOON! Most nights I'm whisked off to restaurants with my students or friends catching up. It really is great to be back! Not too much has changed. There are still skyscrapers popping up everywhere, farmers selling produce in the streets, taxi-drivers driving like maniacs and too many people. The only difference is, this time it feels a little more like home.

Autumn Moon Festival

2008-09-15T02:36:00.001-07:00

Happy Autumn Moon Festival! Like a lot of Chinese holidays, this one coincides with the lunar calendar. Pictured above is a traditional moon festival gift...moon cakes! They're delicious little cakes filled with meat, vegetables or fruit. This traditional holiday is very important signifying the end of the summer harvest. The Chinese celebrate by eating mooncakes, lighting various lanterns, planting autumn trees and having parties in the streets. Last year I didn't know about this holiday until it was over, so i made it a point to go out to the river this year. It was crazy! In this video you can see a little of what was happening. I walked a couple blocks to a bridge on the Jin River. There, around 9:30pm the festival was in full swing. You can see little flower boats in the river with candles lit. Later in the night there were hundred of these in all different shapes and sizes. I really liked the miniature hot-air balloons. You can buy these for about 20rmb ($3) People were constantly setting these off and whole sky was dotted with these floating lanterns. I thought it was funny that these balloons were made out of tissue paper. Subsequently, many caught a spark and burnt up before they left the ground! At one point, I was standing by the river taking a video. Paying no attention to was was happening around me some people started yelling at me in Chinese. As I turned to see what all the commotion was about, one of these little balloons almost ran into my head! I guess this just adds to the fun of it all.
In the crowded streets you could buy home made cotton candy, pieces of sugar cane, popcorn, little light up devil horns and of course the lanterns. There were dancers, people singing and general good times. Besides the crowds of Chendgu-folk, there were also tons of animals. Everyone brought their pet dog or cat to join in the festivities. People seemed extra friendly...even to me a foreigner! If you're ever around China, or Asia towards the middle September be sure to check out this holiday.

Moon Festival at Anshun Bridge

Next....My Very Chinese Apartment

Back in Chengdu

2008-09-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

On Friday, September 12th 9:30 I arrived in the Chengdu, international ariport. It was an easy trip; only about eighteen hours travel time. The eleven hour flight from Vancouver BC to Beijing was especially nice because the flight was so underbooked that I had the whole middle row of five seats to myself! Saxophone teachers Guo Yang, Lin Yi and my student Li Peiyu were waiting for me at the terminal. It was really great to see them again. Especially Li Peiyu, as he had travelled to Athens, GA this summer to audition at UGA. As we exited the airport, my senses were overwhelmed and memories began to return. It' great to be back!

I hadn't yet found an apartment in Chengdu, so I was planning to either find a hotel or bunk with Peiyu's family. The first hotel we tried was very small and inexpensive (about $16 a night). Unfortunately I was turned down due to some new law requiring foreigners to stay in 3 star hotels or higher...I didn't buy it. However, as we went to three other similar hotels, all turned me down to the same reason. Luckily the conservatory had an affiliated 3 star hotel, the Philharmonic. It was only a little more pricey, but the rooms were much nicer and I was too tired to go anywhere else (it was around 11:30pm by then). After i got a room, I settled in, bought a SIM recharge card, and contacted some students to take me around to find an apartment the next day. It must have been around 12:30pm before I actually laid down. What a day!

Next part...
Finding an Apartment in Chengdu

China, here I come.

2008-09-08T21:21:00.000-07:00

Upon much ado, I am finally going back to Chengdu, China. I will leave Thursday, August 11th 9:15am and will arrive in Chengdu Friday, August 12th 9:30pm. Once again, I will be teaching at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music for the school year (until July). I'm looking forward to another exciting year. Six of my students from last year will be 4th year seniors. This will be a great challenge for me as they will have to prepare a thesis and final jury. I am also looking forward to meeting my new students and studying Chinese. When I arrive in Chengdu, I will meet Guo Yang at the airport. He is the saxophone teacher at SCCM's affiliated high school. His students are always outstanding and he is a very good friend of mine. It will be good to see him again! There's a rumor that my students want to take me to hot pot Friday night. I guess that will be about 6:30am Oregon time, hot pot for breakfast sounds interesting.

Wish me luck on my flight! Check back on my blog more often as more blogs and pictures are coming.

Michigan State University DMA Audition

2008-08-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

Last week I traveled to Michigan to visit my family and audition at Michigan State University. I arrived on Sunday night and the audition was on Monday morning. The university was about 2 hour drive from my grandfather's home (Coloma, MI). Due to an accident on I-69, and bad directions from Googlemaps I arrived to the College of Music 15 minutes late. The 5 professors from the woodwind faculty were waiting, so I didn't get a chance to warm-up. It also just so happened to be the first day school, so it was quite busy.

I was lucky to have my audition in the College of Music auditorium (seats about 700). The acoustics were quite nice, which helped my reeds sound better. For the audition I had prepared five works, but only ended up playing excerpts from three. I started with the Tomasi Concerto for Saxophone first movement. It went well, but I felt my fingers were a bit sluggish in parts. Some of the technique did not come out as clearly as I wanted, but the cadenza went well. Following Tomasi, Dr. Lulloff asked me to play Klonos (Piet Swerts). By this time, I was getting warmed up, which was good because Klonos is quite a technical monster. It went better than Tomasi and I was relieved when he asked me to finish with Mai (Ryo Noda). I felt the most comfortable with this work. It went quite well, including the quarter tones which I was worried about.

Following Mai, Dr. Lulloff asked me to step out as they would discuss my audition. About 15 minutes later he came out and informed me that I had played well. For the next hour he led me around the Music School, introducing me to his students, faculty and administration. I spent the rest of the day with my grandfather touring E. Lansing and the MSU campus. I hope I get a chance to spend some more time here!

My first Blog!

2008-07-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, So, this is my first blog. Welcome! I plan to use this site to keep my friends and family updated on my life in China. In September 2008, I will travel back to Chengdu, China to teach saxophone at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music. This will be my second year teaching at the SCCM. I apologize for this blog being one year late...but better late than never. I will do my best to update my blogs regularly, feel free to comment! Cheers!