China: Beijing, Day 4

We started our last day in Beijing by checking out of the hotel immediately after breakfast. We packed all our suitcases into the bus and headed out for the day. We visited the Beijing Music Conservatory, a pre-conservatory high school with intense training on traditional Chinese instruments. The students planned and performed a concert just for us. Oh my, they were absolutely fantastic! Watching them perform made me feel like an amateur. They were so into the music and played beautifully. I was very impressed by the level of performance of the students and also fascinated by the look and sound of the instruments, most of which I'd never seen before. I recognized some of the sounds from Chinese music I had heard before, but it was interesting to see them being played and isolated one by one. After the concert, they made us lunch, so we were able to eat and interact with the students. I learned that they had looked us up on the internet before we came and were really impressed with our brass section. I guess Americans are really good with breath control and powerful sounds. I felt a little intimidated as a string player because their training is so much more intense and I believe the Chinese are better, in general. But, I'm not discouraged. :) Our next stop after lunch was to the Silk Market, where we got to practice our bargaining skills. I bought a ton of souvenirs for my family for very little money. They post prices that are way too high and when you ask how much, they'll give you a really high price, which you have to bring down. All you have to do is say no and walk away and they'll bring out a calculator so you can type in the price you want to pay. Then they'll bring their price down, but not enough and then you bring your price up a little and keep going back and forth until deciding on a price, which will end up being way lower than they originally asked. But, be careful you don't ask too low because you might offend them and be asked to leave. I wanted a flute-like instrument and a friend told me in front of the merchant that he bought the same thing for a lot cheaper from a street vendor, so when I gave her a lower price, she told us to go. It was almost funny. Before we got kicked out, I got to try one of the instruments we had heard at the concert that morning. Wow, I seriously doubted my ability as a musician. It sounded like a dying cat. I think I'll just focus on my own instruments. After our fun shopping adventure, all the groups except ours left for the airport to fly to our next destination, Yantai. Once again, we had the very last flight. To kill time, we walked around what is called the "Art Zone", an older area that used to be a factory, but was closed down due to cutting back on emissions to try and improve the air quality. I was over it as soon as we got there. I made the mistake of not using the bathroom before we got there. Most of the time during our trip, we were fortunate enough to have access to "Western" toilets. But, every once in a while, we had to deal with squatty potties, where you have to bring your own toilet paper and hand sanitizer. (My first encounter was at the conservatory earlier in the day.) Anyway, as soon as we got to the Art Zone, we found the only public bathroom smelled so bad, we couldn't even walk inside. I was a little worried since we had two hours before we had to leave for dinner. We walked around and found a small cafe that had a bathroom we could use. It was a really hot day, so we ordered milkshakes in order to use the facilities. You have no idea how happy I was to see that tiny bathroom with a real toilet, toilet paper, water and soap and paper towels! So worth the price of my $5 peanut milkshake. At that moment, I learned to truly appreciate what I have. A few of us sat around the table with our cold drinks and chatted for a while underneath the cool fans until it was time to go. We ate another yummy dinner buffet at a different hotel made specifically for us before heading to the airport. Once we got there, we discovered our 10:15pm flight was delayed. We couldn't even check in right away because there was nowhere to put our luggage, so we just sat in front of the counter until they let us in. Our plane arrived with the previous passengers almost an hour after we were supposed to leave. So, we didn't actually depart until 11:45pm, 90 minutes after our scheduled departure. As soon as we landed, we could feel the huge difference in the air quality. We could breathe again! Beijing's air actually gave me a sore throat and stuffy nose and Yantai's air cleared it up. After grabbing our luggage and taking the long bus ride to the hotel, once again, we arrived at our hotel at 2:30am. But, when we arrived, there was an audible "aww!" from the whole bus as we read the sign out front that said, "Warm welcome to San Diego Youth Symphony of the USA." Little did we know the incredible hospitality with which we would be greeted in Yantai, San Diego's sister city, the ones who were hosting us. Beijing was great, but we were excited to start our adventure in Yantai!