Shanghaied Bob: Yanni and the car show

Several weeks ago I was lucky enough to go to two big events in the same week. On Thursday Margot and I were given tickets to The 15th Annual Shanghai International Automobile Exhibition. It was huge! Held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center this exhibition complex boasts 17 hanger size halls with 2.1 million square feet of floor space. All of the top automakers were there. China, now the biggest auto market in the world, showcased their automakers who were featuring their latest models. There were many auto companies I never heard off. It was a big event with lots of concept cars on display and the unveiling or debuting of the latest models. And speaking of models what is an auto show without models. Many of the major brands had stage like backdrops where every hour or so fashion models would walk these stages to attract the audience to their end of the hall. They were very popularly.

The other event was the Yanni concert, ME and I went to on Friday night. ME has been a fan for many years. Most of you remember his breakout concert/album Yanni live at the Acropolis done in 1993. In 1997 he did a similar concert in the Forbidden City in Beijing being the first western artist to perform there. This year he performed again in China at the annual February Spring Festival Gala with a viewing audience of 700 million people, he was the first ever invited foreign artist to perform on the show. To say the least the Chinese love his music. His concert was advertised in all of the Shanghai western magazines. ME really wanted to see him live and the concert hall is just 1-1/2 miles down the river from our apartment. It was a wonderful concert. What was most impressive was his musicians, several having been with him from the start of his career, plus he had several new young musicians who were extremely talented. Many of his songs had solos featuring these very talented musicians. He came back for 4 standing ovations, the audience loved him. The pictures are not that good but hopefully you can get the general idea.