China

"If China is a dragon, Shanghai is its head."
- Deng Xiaping

The Rochester Oratorio Society caught an overnight train from Beijing to Shanghai on Monday. After much merriment and a fitful sleep, I woke before dawn to watch the Chinese countryside. Low, brown houses, lush green fields, and white egrets stood in the early morning mist.

Members of the Rochester Oratorio Society and their families spent a morning at the Panjiayuan Market, the largest flea market in China.

I asked some of the singers and their relatives, "What did you buy?"

"I bought a teapot in the shape of a lotus flower. It's green. The feet are little fish and the lid is the seedpod. All the little things move." -Sue

The Rochester Oratorio Society passed through the Empress's Gate to the Forbidden City in white diesel buses. Carrying black concert clothes and folders, members walked through a tunnel of ancient cypress trees and rock formations. Cicadas buzzed. Dragonflies hovered over the grass. Lilies lowered their heads, giving off a heady fragrance. Dreamlike. After passing through an ancient courtyard, we stepped over a beam that protects the Hall from evil spirits.

Between exploring the Forbidden City and climbing the Great Wall of China, I've hardly had time to write. Wow! There's a sentence I'd never imagined typing. I'll try to fill you in after our performance at the Forbidden City Concert Hall tonight. In the meantime, my friends Carl and Mickey have a wonderfully detailed and funny blog about the trip you can read. (A reader put a link in another post.)

Here are more postcards from the Rochester Oratorio Society singers and family members.

"After six days in Beijing, what's the most unusual thing you've seen?"

When the Rochester Oratorio Society landed in Beijing Sunday, singers were bused to the Ruicheng Hotel in an industrial-suburban about six miles west of the Forbidden City. Initially, I was deflated to be so far from the pretty stuff. I'd imagined daily jogs through the Imperial gardens. But now that we've had a chance to look around, I'm glad to be staying in a grittier part of town.