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2010 China Travels: Part IV – Beijing, Guilin, & Yangshuo

// April 21st, 2011 // No Comments » // China, Chinese, Dancing, Taiwan, Travel, Uncategorized

Wow, considering I wrote Part III back in November 2010, I’d say it’s about time to finish writing about my 2010 China travels! I was doing well keeping up with it all, but then classes started in Taiwan and things got busy (read my last post if you want to know what kept me so busy in Taiwan). So now I’ll take the time to finish what I started. Where I left the story last, it was Halloween and I had just landed in Beijing.

Beijing

I spent 4 days in Beijing, and while I was originally not planning on making a stop there, one thing changed my mind: The Cangelosi Cards. One of my favorite jazz bands of all time, it just so happened that the Cards were in town that weekend and were getting ready to play two shows back to back in Beijing. Since the last time I saw them was in Virginia Beach back in 2007, I decided I couldn’t miss it.

Tianjin Eye

The first day in Beijing, I joined in the Rocky Horror Picture Show party being put on by Beijing Swing, which was a riot to say the least! The next day was the Cards’ first show, and as soon as I entered the venue I ran into Tamar, the singer, who instantly recognized me. I couldn’t believe it, but she remembered seeing me the last time in VA Beach, because at that time we had talked about how I had just started learning Chinese. Here I am 3 years later and we meet in Beijing! The rest of the night was incredible, dancing away to their music till late in the morning.

The following day we did it again, and this time even better! The Cards gave an epic performance, and some of the dancers performed some routines live to the music. It was two of the best nights of dancing in a row that I’d had in a long time! The next day I headed to Tianjin to visit for a day and met with some professors at Tianjin University who showed me around the city. At the time I was considering working with them come spring of 2011 (though I ended up working in Beijing where I am now). I found Tianjin to be an extremely beautiful city, one very different from others I’ve visited, and it seemed a lot less crowded. It seemed like a city I could enjoy living in for a while.

Guilin

Guilin

I left Beijing in the morning, but my flight to Guilin was booked from Shanghai, so I spent one more night in Shanghai surprising all my dancer friends when I showed up. I flew into Guilin airport on November 5th and took a bus to the middle of the city where I went to Guanxi Normal University to meet with my buddy Robert’s girlfriend who was letting me spend the night while he was out of town. Robert and his brother run a school there, the Chinese Language Institute, and showed me around. I have to say I am very impressed with the program they have set up, and if I had the time I would considering studying there myself. I explored a tiny bit then crashed and prepared to visit Yangshuo in the morning.

Yangshuo

On the Li River

In the morning I went down to Yangshuo along with some of the CLI students, accompanying them on a field trip. We rode motor boats down the Li River marveling at the Karsts, then hiked through the small town of Xiping on our way to Yangshuo. We arrived in the evening, dropped our bags, and headed to a grand theater built on a lake where we saw Zhang Yimou’s famous show “Impression” (刘三姐). It was quite a fantastic sight to see, as most of the performance was done on small boats on the water. The choreography was breathtakingly complex and timed to a perfection that can only be achieved in China.

Climbing the Wineglass

The next day we rented bikes and rode around all over town seeing the many beautiful sites Yangshuo had to offer, including a famous mud cave where half the students stripped to their bathing suits and jumped in the mud. I opted to chill in the hot springs myself instead of freezing mud! Later that day, the students all went back to Guilin, but I decided to stay for one more day so I could do some rock climbing. I found a small climbing store, “Black Rock Climbing,” and booked a day with a couple Norwegian girls also looking to climb. In the morning, our guide, Weihua, brought us out to a cliff face called Wineglass and showed us the ropes. We spent the whole morning climbing, and in only a few hours we were pretty beat. It was an incredible experience though, because as you climb higher and higher you can see a remarkable view of the hundreds of karsts surrounding you. I now understand why the whole world talks about Yangshuo as a mecca for climbers.

On top of Moon Hill

Moon Hill

In the evening I headed over to Moon Hill mountain, famous for the huge hole in the middle, which was also full of climbers. I hiked past the “warning don’t go here” signs and got all the way to to top, where I caught an unforgettable sunset amongst the karsts. Later that night, I went over to The Giggling Tree hostel, a place I had heard of the very first time I visited China and had been wanting to see for years. It is a small place owned and run by a Dutch couple who bought the land and converted 17 different farm houses into a hostel. It is on the outskirts of Yangshuo in the middle of farms, and by far one of the most unique hostels in the world. It was also one of the nicest places I’ve ever stayed at in China, and quite affordable for a dorm room (only 50 RMB a night!). A night at The Giggling Tree was the perfect end to my 2010 backpacking adventures in China.

The Giggling Tree

I headed back to Guilin and hopped on my 20 hour train back to Shanghai, and while everything started nicely, things took an unfortunate turn for the worse. About 10 hours in, I got horribly sick…vomiting sick. Throwing up on a Chinese train for 10 hours has got to be one of the worst physical challenges I’ve endured in my life…and things only got worse. When I arrived in Shanghai, I at least had a day to recover at Bruce and Julia’s before boarding my flight for Taipei in the morning. In the morning, with nearly no strength left in my body, I managed to make it to the airport, only to find my flight had been delayed 3 hours. We boarded the plane, and waited another 2 hours before even taking off. By the time I landed in Xiamen, my connection to Taipei had left, and I was stuck for the night, sick, weak, and frustrated. Luckily I still had one extra day on my visa, and the airport put me up in a nice hotel. All in all it took an entire 24 hours until I got back on a plane for Taipei. When I landed, I was extremely relieved to find JC and Mindy waiting on me in the airport, and my Taiwan adventure began.

While it was a rough last 2 days traveling from Shanghai to Taipei, the previous month was full of incredible experiences and moments I will cherish forever. I had danced for 9 days in Shanghai and visited Hangzhou, Huangshan, Nanjing, Beijing, Guilin, and Yangshuo. I experienced so much in such little time I had to write about it in 4 parts, and didn’t finish it until now, 4 months afterwards! When I look back at the time I spent, I realize how lucky I am to have been able to see so many amazing places in this world, and it makes me very thankful to have had these experiences.

天使之歌 (Songs from the Angels)

// December 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // Chinese, Taiwan

Last Monday night, December 13, I had the remarkable and completely unexpected privilege of performing with the National Taiwan Normal University Symphony Orchestra in Taipei’s famous National Concert Hall (國家音樂廳). By far, it was one of the most amazing performances I’ve ever experienced. The NTNU symphony is a remarkably accomplished and talented group of undergraduate musicians, and had I known just how incredible they were before auditioning, I may not have even asked! Even in the very back, I still felt like I didn’t belong amongst such talented students! Their ability to react instantly to what the conductor asks and bring the music alive was just as impressive as their remarkable precision and tightness as an ensemble. This all goes without even mentioning the concert hall, which is by far the most beautiful and breathtaking performance hall I have ever played in to date. In addition, Maestro Lawrence Golan, conductor and tenured full professor at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, guest conducted the performance, yet another honor to work with such an accomplished and world-renowned conductor. I still cannot believe that within just one month of living in Taipei I have been lucky enough to experience such an unforgettable privilege!

The whole thing began just a few weeks after arriving in Taipei. I discovered the ensemble online and decided to ask the conductor, Maestro Apo Ching-Hsin Hsu, if I could come audition for the orchestra. I did not even have a violin, but Apo had one I could borrow. We met on November 25 and within just a few minutes of checking out the violin she agreed to let me play. It was a daunting task because we only had about 2 weeks to prepare for the concert, so she put me in the back of the 2nd violins and handed me some music.

Over the next two weeks, I joined the orchestra in rehearsals preparing for the concert. At the first rehearsal, Apo actually made me introduce myself in Chinese, so I got up and in rather broken Chinese told my story, that I was studying Chinese at NTU, have played the violin for a long time, etc.  At first, I kind of got the vibe from other students that they were wondering just what business I had in this orchestra, and given how talented the group is and how hard each student has had to work to get there, I could understand. But after a few rehearsals and a bit of chatting in between with some of the students, I found the group to be a fun and welcoming bunch just like every other person I have met in Taiwan.  In particular, I have found Apo to be the kind of conductor that I wish every musician could have the opportunity to work with, bringing a sense of humor and warmth to the group that sets an atmosphere for making amazing music. She embodies the spirit of the music in the room, making rehearsals as much a joy as they are work.

It has been a blast and such a unique experience as the only foreigner in the orchestra.  Rehearsals are all in Chinese, which while at first was a little intimidating has now become one of my favorite aspects.  I am now at a level where I can understand most things being said and speed really isn’t much of a problem.  The most interesting part of rehearsals that I discovered was just how little you need language when you have music.  If I paid attention, I almost could predict exactly what Apo was going to say because I could tell what she wanted from the orchestra. Music itself truly is a language, and while I’ve said it before, I gained a much deeper understanding of what that means through this experience.

About the Concert:

The title was “天使之歌 (Songs from the Angels),” and the lineup included:
Samuel Barber: Symphony No. 1, Op. 9
Samuel Barber: Adagio for Strings, Op. 11
Tsang-Houei Hsu: Nu-guan-zi, Op.14
Tsang-Houei Hsu: Duex Mouvements pour Orchestre a Cordes, Op. 24
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 4 in G major

The soloist for the 4th movement of Mahler and Hsu’s Nu-guan-zi was NTNU’s professor 陳允宜. The two pieces by Tsang-Houei Hsu are based on traditional Taiwanese themes and sound very “Asian” in that they use a lot of pentatonic scales and interesting percussion.  I found it quite interesting because it reminded me of how Dvorak took a lot of native themes from North America and put them into his New World Symphony.  Hsu’s music had many similar elements in that it was classically structured but filled with local melodies, only very different themes which were often more rhythmically based.  In general, the contrast of Mahler’s romantic symphony with Barber’s one-movement symphony and Hsu’s traditional Chinese themes was one of the most international concerts I’ve experienced and a suprisingly good match together.

2010 China Travels: Part III – Nanjing

// November 28th, 2010 // No Comments » // China, Chinese, Travel

I arrived in Nanjing on the night of October 28th and immediately met a young Chinese guy staying in the same dorm room who was so impressed with my Chinese that he invited me to dinner. It turned out he was meeting an old friend who he hadn’t seen in over 3 years, and although I felt I was imposing, he insisted that I join. We had hotpot, the first hotpot I’d had in over a year! Thousands of memories came flashing back over that pot, and I realized yet again how much I had missed China. The whole evening was a wonderful warm welcome to Nanjing and a great start for the city.

The next morning I visited the Johns Hopkins Nanjing Center at Nanjing University, where I am considering studying this fall. I began a tour of the school by sitting in on a couple lectures – one in English on business economics in the Enron case and the other in Chinese on modern US/China relations. Both were quite interesting, and I could tell from the Chinese one that this program was serious about language. Afterwards, I met with Liz Muller who showed me around the campus and answered questions. Walking down the hallway, we passed two American students carrying violins dressed in suits. It turned out they were heading to a dress rehearsal for a performance that night with the Nanjing University Symphony Orchestra, and they invited me to join! The show was all traditional chinese music, and it was mostly a celebration of the 20th anniversary of their music program. The 2-hour performance included mostly older men and women singing Chinese songs, and then the orchestra joined in for the last 45 minutes. Afterwards, we went up on stage and got a photo with the director (right) who reminded me of a Chinese Gene Wilder. On the metro ride back, I got a great glimpse of the study body at the Nanjing Center. All of them came from different parts oft he US and from all different backgrounds and majors, yet they were all here working hard at their Chinese while having a blast living in China. By the end of the night, I decided I would definitely be putting in an application for the Nanjing Center.

The next morning I started out by heading to the house of John Rabe, a German who saved thousands of Chinese during the Japanese invasion of Nanjing in WWII by establishing a safe zone. Unfortunately, the house was only open on weekdays, so I went on to the Ji Ming Temple, and active temple with a huge pagoda from where you can see the whole city. After passing through, I continued onto the old city wall and walked along it for a bit before going down the the lakeside park and exploring around there. I was definitely one of the most beautiful parts of Nanjing and it reminded me of NYC’s central park, this huge green space in the middle of a metropolis. Later on I visited the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum (中山陵) on Purple Mountain. Known as the Father of China, Sun Yatsen (a.k.a. Zhong Shan) is kind of like a Ben Franklin figure in Chinese history, laying down the foundation for establishing a Republic after the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Although the Communists fought and eventually beat him during the civil war in the 20s and 30s, the whole country still honors him as China’s first great modern leader. His tomb and memorial clearly shows it too – an epic temple with deep blue roof tiles at the top of hundreds of steps on a mountain. It was quite an honor to finally see the Zhongshan himself.

I finished the day by going all the way across town to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, established to commemorate the 300,000 lives that were brutally and mercilessly taken by the Japanese rape of Nanjing in WWII. The crimes committed were so atrocious and so unspeakable that even Nazi German soldiers who were posted in Nanjing and witnessed the events wrote in their journals about how disgusted they were with the inhumane acts of the Japanese! China is often spoken of as the forgotten front during WWII, and it is rarely mentioned in any western history books, even though the whole war essentially started there. As the sun began to fall, I took one last solemn look at the memorial and then headed back to the hostel.

To my surprise, I returned to a very different place than from where I had left. Through all the traveling, I had forgotten that the next day was Halloween, and the hostel was throwing a party to celebrate. All of the foreign students at Nanjing University showed up and partied until late into the night, not something I was too thrilled about considering the 5:00 am get up I had in the morning to catch my flight to Beijing!  In the end, I found the city to be charming, calm, extremely welcoming, and bursting out the seams with history. Spending a year there (if I got into the Nanjing Center) would definitely be something I would like to do.  In the morning I caught a flight to Beijing, where part IV of my trip begins.

Swing Out Shanghai & The Shanghai World Expo

// November 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // China, Chinese, Dancing, Shanghai, Shanghai, Travel, Uncategorized

Currently writing from Yangshuo, one of the most unique and beautiful little towns in all of southern China. This is the first time I’ve had a chance to write since leaving Shanghai two and a half weeks ago. I’ve now been back in China for 3 weeks, so I thought I would sit down and reflect a little my first week back since leaving in August of 2009.

I landed in Shanghai on October 13, 2010, around 1:30 pm Beijing time and proceeded to have the absolute smoothest travel experience of my life. I honestly couldn’t believe how well things went – my bad even came up just as I walked up to the baggage pick up. I got through customs with almost no wait, picked up a SIM card in the airport, called my friends Bruce and Julia who were hosting me in Shanghai, and hopped on the metro to their place. Everything seemed so familiar this time, and despite a year of living in the States, I immediately jumped back into Chinese. Bruce and Julia were a big part of that smooth transition too, because in addition to providing a very comfortable setting to get over the jet lag, they were great company and overwhelmingly helpful in every way. 5 stars to L’hotel Julia!

The very next night, I went dancing at the Melting Pot, and there is simply no better way to get over jet lag than to stay up late dancing with old friends who I haven’t seen in over a year! It was a huge reunion for me, and it began an unforgettable 9-day dancing streak. The next night (Friday) officially began “Swing Out Shanghai,” the city’s first ever international swing dancing event. Two years before in a bar in Hong Kong, the idea for the event was first hatched, and two years later it finally came to fruition.  For the next two days, it was non-stop dancing in Shanghai.  The opening dance was at C’est La Vie restaurant, followed by Saturday afternoon at Hengshan Park in the French Concession, then later that day at the Music Hall Court, then that night at the House of Blues and Jazz, and then finally the last dance at the Melting Pot Sunday night.  Friends from Beijing, Singapore, and Taiwan all came to the event which doubled our numbers and really made it a full blown lindy exchange.

As the chief DJ and music coordinator for the event, I was in charge of keeping the dance floor full, and my team of DJs really pulled through throughout the whole weekend (huge thanks to Akiko, Sam, Brian, and Chad).  The event ended, but then Monday night we were dancing again at the usual Monday night dances in Shanghai, so it sort of just kept going…and going, and going, and going, and…

…and then the Shanghai Expo performances began, called “Swing For All”featuring the Hong Kong Big Band.  It was Hong Kong week atthe Bao Steel stage, so the week was dedicated to a multitude of Hong Kong performers, which included the band and us, the dancers.  The band gave two performances on both Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.  Throughout the show, the dancers social danced down in front of the stage to the music, and a select few gave a few special choreographed performances as well.  At the very end, we did a jam to “Sing Sing Sing,” and the very last performance the crowd rushed the stage and cheered and clapped along with us.  It was by far the most fun I’ve ever had during a dance performance, and one of the most unique dance performances of my life as well.  I was so proud of all of the dancers and musicians there and so happy to share a small piece of the happiness we all experience when we are dancing with the local Chinese people.  Photos and videos of both SOS and Swing for All can be seen here.

So then it was Thursday, and once again we danced at the weekly Thursday night dances (day #8 of dancing if you’ve been counting).  And then it was Friday, and a few Shanghai dancer friends and I decided to visit the Shanghai World Expo.  After all, we all had our VIP “performer” passes that were still good, so we figured we should make use of them and try and get into as many country pavilions as we could.  In order, we went into USA, Peru, Columbia, Brazil, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, Germany, and finally Spain.  The whole thing was quite arbitrary – we just started walking and asking who would let us in as VIP (only Chile denied us…freakin stiff Chilean door guard).  Over all, I was so glad we did not have to wait to get into any of the pavilion, because none of them were worth more than 30 minutes.  Some were better than others (Germany, Canada, Spain), but in general there wasn’t much to see or do that was truly amazing.  It was kind of like a lousier version of Epcot without rides.  The most fun we had was when Akiko and I crashed the Argentina pavilion by totally faking some Argentine Tango (see video below).  Right in the middle there was a large open space, so when they started playing tango music we started doing really smooth swing, and kind of pulled off a tango-esque feel.  By the end, hundreds of Chinese had circled us, snapping photos right and left.  They all seemed to think we were part of the show (in fact one of the actual Argentina workers asked us afterwards what style of tango it was because had never seen it before!).  We finished the night by crashing an outdoor concert at the Australian pavilion as well where we danced right up in front of the stage.

After it all, I headed back to Bruce and Julia’s then caught a train to Hangzhou first thing Saturday morning and began my 3-week trip backpacking through China, which I am just now finishing up.  It has been quite an adventure, and there will be a massive amount of writing, photos, and videos to come soon.  I leave for Shanghai tonight and then fly to Taipei Thursday to begin my studies there for the winter.  Still, it is only just now hitting me how significant the whole first week of dancing in Shanghai was historically.  It was the first of its kind, and hopefully the beginning of much more to come.  Maybe fifty years from now people will look back at the origins of swing dancing in China and write about us!  Heck, we even made the LOCAL NEWS!

Fast Summer, Warrior Dash, Song Writing, & China

// October 7th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // China, Chinese, Shanghai, Travel

Tomorrow is my last day in Montana, and it is insane to sit here and realize just how much time has past since I first started working out here. I came here the last week of May for training, and now it’s the first week of October. So much has happened in between – road trip to Montreal, Hot Mess in Philly, family road trip to Tennessee, Southern Belle Swing Bash in Atlanta, trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, and two-week trip to DC to hang out with friends one last time before leaving for Asia. It’s been one amazing summer – one full of incredible landscapes (Niagara Falls, Montana, and Yellowstone), incredible dancing, crazy amounts of traveling, and a great time off-loading in Hummers. Now there’s just one more thing to do before flying to Asia…

WARRIOR DASH! That’s right – getting ready to spend this weekend in Quarryville, PN, racing in the most ridiculous race I’ve ever seen. It’s basically a big tailgate with a 5k obstacle course in the middle. I’ve been training all summer as I usually do, but I’m hoping it will pay off at the race. I even made a training video over the past weekend which you can view at my videos page or on Facebook. I fly out Friday and the race starts Saturday morning – so excited!

On a completely different note, song writing has been a rather recent hobby of mine. With every new life experience I encounter, I find myself reflecting upon them through music, and constantly come up with instrumentals that express certain feelings. I’ve come up with several full songs, but am always struggling to find matching lyrics for them. I was recently inspired, however, by fellow lindy hopper and singer-song writer Carsie Blanton (visit her website or her myspace). I briefly met Carsie at Hot Mess in Philadelphia this past July, but only as a dancer, and I had no idea how talented she is as a musician. However, I recently listened to her performance at Mountain Stage on NPR and was totally blown away by her fantastically witty lyrics and soft, gentle, and pure voice. Such a refreshing combination of poetry and music really inspired me to continue exploring songs I have written over the years. So thanks Carsie for really helping me with a fresh, new, inspiring sound, and hopefully someday I will finish these tunes and write them down as works of art.

Next Tuesday, October 12, I fly to Shanghai, China, where I will once again begin another adventure in Asia. This time, since I’ve graduated, I have more freedom to do whatever comes across my plate, so I’m pretty excited to see what I can find. I’m hoping to do some traveling in mainland China first (Nanjin, Three Gorges Dam, Xian, Guilin, Yangshuo) and then I’ll be at National Taiwan University for the winter studying mandarin. After that, who knows. I will be looking for work opportunities the whole time I am there, so if something comes up I will probably take it. Plans are pretty flexible for now. Next time I post something, I’ll probably be in China!