First Adventures in Beijing

By Bella Staav, Director of Youth Ensembles

Today, we completed two very fun (and HOT!) days of sightseeing. Yesterday, we flew into Shanghai airport very early in the morning (about 6am), ate some breakfast and headed straight to the Forbidden City in the center of Beijing. 

Forbidden City is a vast place filled with lots of history, cultural significance and people! Our group walked for about 2 hours in Forbidden City and saw visitors and tourists from all over the world. Though we were exhausted from our travel, we still managed to have a great time and take many photos:

After our visit to Forbidden City, we went to the Silk Market in Beijing, which was like a 6-story mall selling basically anything you can imagine! From silk scarves, to knock-off brand purses, fake Rolex watches, to traditional trinkets, this place was full of excited visitors bargaining for a good price to purchase things to remember their visit by. 

In the afternoon, we were finally able to check into our hotel after what felt like a long day of sightseeing and freshen up. We had about 2 hours to relax and shower before meeting in our hotel lobby for dinner. Our hotel (Traders Hotel by Shangri-La) is a beautiful place to stay that is in the heart of Beijing’s Financial District and no shower ever felt so good! After we enjoyed a traditional Chinese dinner, all of us were more than ready to go to bed and quickly turned in for the night. Day 1 of PSYO China Tour 2016 was a success!

This morning, we were all rested and ready for the day ahead. The energy of our group shifted from exhausted travelers to excited tourists as we boarded our three buses headed for the Summer Palace. In ancient times, the Summer Palace was home to the Emperor and was a constructed to replicate China’s most beautiful natural scenery from around the country. The summer palace was a nice contrast to what we saw yesterday at Forbidden City as it featured beautiful trees, green rolling hills, colorful pagodas and a huge man-made lake meant to resemble Hangzhou’s West Lake. Our group walked through the Summer Palace for an hour and half in the morning before it got too hot and crowded. We even rode in dragon boats across the lake, which is where our buses met us to take us to lunch.

Each of our meals in China so far has been a fun experience. Meals are all served family style, where various entrees are served on the table and passed around using a lazy-Susan. Some dishes are more unusual than others and some PSYO musicians are more adventurous than others.

After lunch, we visited a teahouse where we were shown a traditional tea ceremony and got to sample different kinds of teas. This was really fun because we really got to experience the sights, smells and tastes of a culture that values its traditions like tea very strongly. Plus, we were able to stay indoors and partake in this unique activity while avoiding the hottest part of the day (it was over 100 degrees today at about 2pm). After the tea ceremony, PSYO was able to peruse the tea gift shop and purchase a few souvenirs before our buses headed to the hotel.

Once we got the hotel, we had about an hour to freshen up and practice before we headed to the National Centre for the Performing Arts. At the Centre, we were given a brief tour of the “egg’s” beautiful interior before watching a performance of a traditional Chinese group. This concert was incredibly interesting because it was made up of entirely Chinese instruments. The first half of the concert was mainly chamber groups, but the second half was a full orchestra made up of Chinese instruments – erhus, pipas, hammer dulcimers, and different types of wooden flutes and reed instruments. 

The concert ended at about 10pm, which felt very late for our group since we are still recovering from jetlag. But we made it back to the hotel and are excited to go to sleep after another long day. Tomorrow is our first concert, which takes place at Forbidden City Concert Hall at 7:30pm. Can’t wait to tell you all about it!