By Alex Stoddard
A fabulous day in Beijing.
There was unfortunately no singing or music in general involved, so you can skip this post if needed. It was a day of cultivating and enjoying relationships, experiencing a new culture, seeing some of the grandest sites in the entire world, and living life.
We packed a lot into one day, but how often are you really in Beijing 🙂
We climbed into our chariot-for-the-day (a modern, very comfortable mini bus) and met our guide Jerry and his driver Tom. Yes, Tom and Jerry were showing us around. I’m sure that’s quite the schtick for them, but it worked. And they were terrific. As a side note, it is absolutely amazing that there are not more car accidents and fender benders. There were many moments where we thought for sure the car in the adjacent lane was certainly going to careen into our back side. But alas they didn’t and the drivers kept calmly driving while the Americans calmly swallowed their stomachs.
We made the 10-15 minute drive over to the Forbidden City, passing through Tiananmen Square. I won’t detail the history of these places because other sources are much better. To get to the side entrance of the Forbidden City we winded through the small, narrow streets of the Hutong area. I learned that the Hutong is the are of the city that was kept in its original format of small buildings, compact roads, and not very accessible to cars. This is where you feel most like you are in Old China or at least what came to my mind when I though of traditional Beijing.
It was a breezy, cool day, but a magnificent one nonetheless. I felt like we were walking through the set of the Last Emperor as we passed through each courtyard of the palace. It was so much bigger than I imagined. We kept walking through and through and through and kept coming to a new courtyard inside a new courtyard with a new temple or pagoda awaiting. The architecture and general scenery were amazing and surreal. That was my word of the day: surreal. It all felt like a movie.
We boarded our chariot again and traveled north towards the nearby mountains (though within the city you would never guess there are mountains anywhere remotely close). We stopped at an equivalent of a roadside eatery and we ate a traditional Chinese-style restaurant—meaning they put all the food in separate dishes onto a lazy-suzanne and scooped whatever we wanted onto our plates. I may not be the best judge of the food considering my up-and-down health, but the sweet and sour chicken did stand out to me. The experience was great nonetheless.
We continued onward to the highlight of the day—and perhaps week—the Great Wall of China. Wow. Just wow. I posted pictures on Facebook.com/classicalsinger because words hardly do it justice. For whatever reason, the Wall is iconic. I think back now, less than 24 hours after being there, and I pinch myself to make sure it was real. The mix of the afternoon breeze and warming spring sun combined for perfect conditions to climb the wall. And it definitely was a climb. The first few hundred adrenaline-filled steps were easy. Then you realize it’s a journey, not a sprint, to the top of the section of the wall, especially the portion that is about 60% inclined.
After a 30-40 minute hike up the narrow stair cases and crowded terraces, I made it. Only five of our group made it all the way to the top and we were grateful we did. It was a beautiful view and iconic surroundings.
We braced ourselves for the dreaded Beijing traffic, but it never got too bad for us on this Sunday afternoon. We drove past the Olympic village and various sites from the Beijing Games, including the famous Bird’s Nest, on the way to a traditional Tea House where we sampled various herbal and fruit teas. They suckered us Americans into purchased many teas and other accessories, but it was a lot fun. This was in China Town. That’s not a typo, it was China Town, in China. It’s where the various ethnicities of China come to get a taste of their home town. And smack dab in the middle of China Town in China is good old McDonalds. 🙂 Oh the ironies.
After a day of many laughs, much site seeing, and plenty of walking, we finished off with dinner at a non-traditional Chinese restaurant called, “Burger and Bar”. The food was nothing to write home about, but the company was outstanding.
Speaking of which, now is a great time to detail the names of the Americans who accompanied us on this adventure. They are dear friends now as going through experiences such as these tend bind people together emotionally and spiritually. We come from different walks of life sharing a core of music, but now share this trip as well. These friends and colleagues include:
Brad Hougham, Ithaca College
Caroline Smith, DePauw University
Christine Anderson, Temple University
Daniel Johnson, Viterbo University
Daniel Teadt, Carnegie Mellon University
David Paul, The Juilliard School
Dean Southern, Cleveland Institute of Music
Jean del Santo, University of Minnesota
Joseph Evans, University of Houston
Karen Holvik, New England Conservatory of Music
Katherine Drago, Longy School of Music at Bard College
Mark Stoddard, Classical Singer
Robert Brandt, Brigham Young University
And I would be remiss to not point out our Chinese partners Mo Li and Bo Li, and our incomparable translator Wanzhe. They did an absolutely amazing job of coordinating things on the Beijing side.
I ended the day on a mini adventure of my own. On my second day here I stumbled my way on a tailor store and ordered me a Chinese tailored suit. I had to pick up the suit by 9 p.m. on Sunday. So after we returned back to the hotel and dropped everyone off I went by myself out again, found the subway, figured out where to go, and eventually made my way back to Tiananmen Square to the Quixian area. I found the tailor store again, tried on and picked up my new suit, bought more souvenirs, and topped the day off with an ice cream cone from McDonalds. Happiness all in one sentence 🙂
A truly surreal day. Not just by the exotic surroundings, but by great people. The older I get (and I’m really not too old), the more I come to value relationships. Things are nice. Money can certainly help. But family, friends, colleagues, co-workers, the people we interact daily with, our relationships with those people are what bring the ultimate source of happiness and fulfillment to our lives.
I’ve learned that about the people I’m with here in China, and I’ve learned it with the people I miss at home.
Did I mention that I climbed the Great Wall of China today!?!?!
Surreal.
Here are links to all the Blog posts from China:
Day 1 – www.auditionsplus.com/blog/?p=2976
Day 2 – www.auditionsplus.com/blog/?p=2986
Day 3 – www.auditionsplus.com/blog/?p=2991
Day 4 – www.auditionsplus.com/blog/?p=2997
Written by Alex Stoddard, General Manager of Classical Singer and Auditions Plus. Email Alex at alex@classicalsinger.com and follow him at twitter.com/alstod.
