Guilin part 1 the Li River

Guilin is located in southwest China, in Guangxi province. The city is renowned for its unique scenery of strangely shaped hills or karsts that  are lush with vegetation. The town itself is surrounded by two rivers and 4 lakes and sits in the middle of these karst hills. Guilin has a history going back over 2000 years and is now an important political, economic and cultural center for Guangxi. Guilin is the most popular tourist destination in all of china.

There are many scenic places to visit within a short distance of Guilin, one very popular destination  is the Lijiang River and the smaller villages that run down stream of Guilin. The Li River tour starts just outside of Guilin and meanders through some of the most spectacular limestone karst formations on a slow boat ride down to Yangshou. Based on how fast the river is flowing the trip could take the whole day. ME and I visited Guilin and some Li River villages over a long weekend.

We started our rafting trip down to Xingping village, which is half way between Guilin and Yangshou, were we stayed in a small village across the river from Xingping. The next day we did a morning walk up one of the karst called Snail Hill and visited a temple. June starts the rainy season and the forecast for the weekend was showers, high humidity around 80%+ and temperature in the lower 70's. Over all we were very lucky with the weather and it seemed we were able to time the showers just right.

Below are pictures of the rafts, each hold 2 to 4 people. At one time they were made out of bamboo, now there are PVC pipes with ribs in them to look like bamboo.The trip took about 2 hours to reach Xingping village.

the entry point to the rafting trip on the Li River

ME on our raft

cursing down the river

around every bend a new range of karsts appeared 

the entrance to the B&B we stayed in

the garden

view of the garden from the 2 second floor

view from our room

our guide on the left and the owner of the B&B on the right

a mud brick home in the village

way off in the distance the village we stayed in

women and child we meet on our walk

the path going between the small villages

mud barn in background with mud bricks

stone barn on path

The Philadelphia Orchestra happens to visit Shanghai

The Philadelphia Orchestra first visited China in 1973 with than music director Eugene Ormandy.  It was the first American orchestra to perform in China, at the special request of President Nixon. Since then the Philadelphia Orchestra has returned to China 6 times cultivating an extraordinary history with the Chinese. This year celebrates the 40th year anniversary visiting China and will signal a new commitment to bring classical music to the people. Besides the 6 scheduled concerts, the members of the orchestra will be doing 31 programs offering master classes, coaching sessions and workshops for young music students and local professional orchestra musicians. This will become an regular affair to create cultural bonds and hopefully drive further artistic musical innovation.

As a side note while doing research for this post I came across a story about their first visit to China. At the last minute Madame Mao insisted that Ormandy change the program from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony to the Sixth. There was a scramble to find the music which ended up being hand-copied sheets, Ormandy was furious about the change and was ready to "jump ship". It said that the US-China relations hinged on this concert. A letter of praise signed by President Nixon was sent to Eugene Ormandy after the visit thanking him for "demonstrating an admirable spirit of flexibility in adjusting his performances to the Chinese desires". It said that Madame Mao had the concerts broadcast throughout the country, including the rice paddies. Several folks have commented that when you mention to Chinese folks familiar with classical music that you are from Philadelphia they smile and talk about when and where they heard the Philadelphia Orchestra.

As you know the orchestra is "renowned for its distinctive sound, beloved for its keen ability to capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences …is known as one of the preeminent orchestras in the world".

The real story is how we happened to see The Philadelphia Orchestra Concert 2013 Fortieth Anniversary Tour of China. It all started when our friend Nancy visited us mid April in Shanghai. She is very much in the know around Philadelphia and happened to be friends with Craig the gentleman making all the arrangements for the orchestras tour. He happened to be in Shanghai the week Nancy was here and we met him for drinks on the 96 floor of the Jin Mao building. Because of their great friendship he happened to extending an invitation to ME and I to be his guests at the Shanghai concert on June 2nd. We were thrilled to be able to see the orchestra in Shanghai especially on their very important anniversary return visit.

We happened to meet Craig again during the intermission in the concert hall who happened to introduced us to Ambassador Platt, the gentlemen who accompanied President Nixon on the original tour in 1973. He happened to be sitting in the same row as us. As we were taking our seats after the intermission ME happened to strike up a conversation with the women sitting next to her who happened to be the wife of the conductor, Donald Runnicles, who was the guest conductor on the China tour. She happened to invited us back stage after the concert to meet her husband. While waiting to meet Maestro Runnicles, we were told that the son of the past President of China flew in special to see the concert and was with the mayor of Shanghai, Ambassador Platt, and the maestro doing a meet and greet. We met with Maestro Runnicles and had a lovely conversation with he and his, we were delighted with how completely charming they were.

The evening was wonderful, the music was wonderfully elevating and Maestro Runnicles was amazing, he came back for two encores and had to pull the first and second violinist off the stage to politely tell the fans that the concerts was over. It was a very special evening, one of those once and a lifetime experiences. It all happened because Nancy decided to visit us in Shanghai. 

the concert hall

the interior

electronic bill board

click on to enlarge

rousing ovation 

Craig on the left, Ambassador Platt center, Maestro Runnicles on the right

The Weber's land in Shanghai

Last week we had the Weber contingency visit us here in Shanghai. Margot has been living in Shanghai since October of last year and Meredith had just arrived after completing her junior year of college. My cousin Richard's son, Rich and his wife Liz moved to Bangkok last winter came to visit last week and Richard's daughter,  Kristin, who was making her first trip to Asia, also joined us for the week. The weather was great, I showed Kristin around Shanghai during the day while Margot showed her around at night. ME took Friday off to do some morning shopping with the girls at the South Bund Fabric Market buying silky robes and fun scarves. That evening we had drinks on the roof top deck of the House of Roosevelt overlooking the Pudong New Financial Area with views of The Bund before going to dinner. It was one of these perfect evenings, as the sun went down the lights on the buildings lit up the sky line as a full moon appeared over the new Shanghai Tower (which is to be completed in 2015). The next day, on Saturday afternoon we went to the Shanghai Beer festival where we enjoyed another wonderful night drinking beer and dancing to the live music.  

Kristin and Meredith in Yu Gardens

making friends in Shanghai

getting ready for Margot's night tour of Shanghai

lunch on the patio on the river

late afternoon skyline 

Rich & Liz

The Bund

enjoying a wonderful view

full moon rises over the night skyline

7 Weber's in Shanghai

at the beer festival

the party animals

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. 

plan of the complex for the car show

hanger size halls, 7 halls along this row

Audi exhibit, size of hall 

Chinese version of the Ford Explorer

details of the Ford Explorer and price, equals $89,900

runway with models

10 minutes of models parading with video display in background

the onlookers 

grand finale 

Margot's favorite, Audi R8

Porsche display

click to enlarge

Roll-Royce

Lamborghini 

the hall with the high performance cars was packed with people

5 to 6 people deep taking pictures

Mercedes-Benz Arena, the venue for the Yanni concert

Yanni with his very talented violin players and long time drummer in background 

the group

standing ovation