Frudakis

Guangzhou

This is a warning not to litter at a local park, rather than a radical change in global policy!

Guangzhou

We spent yesterday travelling here from Beijing.
I'm always struck by how effortlessly the orchestra seem to switch
locations. 120+ musicians and support staff plus hundreds of tons of
cargo can leave a city one day and almost miraculously be set up and
ready to perform the next.
Guangzhou is nothing like the briskly modern Beijing. It's a little
shabby, a little "old China". It's 2am and I can't sleep so I'm
taking a walk around the town. There are still people out-and-about;
sitting in restaurants or strolling by the river.
The atmosphere evokes in me memories of certain Greek cities in the
mid-eighties or perhaps Yugoslavia shortly after the wall came down.
We're about two hours north of Hong Kong and the hope here is that
this proximately will play big part in this city's future
developement. There's little evidence of this yet, at least from what
I've seen, but sitting here in a local retsurant, enjoying my noodles,
I feel like I'm getting a glimpse of 20th century China. Of a place
that will perhaps soon cease to exist.

Pictures from an excursion

This is as close as you can get to "The Bird's Nest"
Ditto, the National Swimming Center (The "Watercube")

Older, more established structures are far more welcoming!

The Great Wall

Badaling, China
I'm Standing on the wall and it is fantastic!.
You hear about it all your life; the myths, (only man made object
visible from space) and the legends (it took centuries and the lives
of thousands to complete). All the photos I've ever seen really don't
do its scale justice. From where I stand it seems to go on forever
and when you think you've seen as much as you can see, there in the
distance is another tower peaking (sic) above the mountain tops. It's really quite
wonderful to finally stand here..

The Bird's Nest

Beijing
Just spent some time around the Olympic stadium.
It's less than two months to the opening ceremony and my sense is
that the Chinese are following the 2004 Greek Olympic hosting schedule
(still plastering and painting as the torch arrives!) rather than the
(2000) Aussie timeline (everything done six months ahead).
There's really a phenomenal anount of fevered construction taking
place here. You know it'll all get done, 'cause if it doesn't...!
Anyway I'll post some pictures later as I'm wrting this on my phone
and it doesn't sent photos or video.
Next stop the Great Wall

Beijing

The Orchestra played its first concert in Beijing at the same venue as in 1973; The Palace of Nationalities. This is a careworn 1000-seater that, at least backstage, has not had much updating since the orchestra was last here.

The military issue grey walls and dim lighting backstage give it an eerie almost ghost-like dimension.

The Orchestra arrived mid-morning, rehearsed for two and a half ours from noon, ate luch and then played. The concert was attended mostly by dignateries with the only people not arriving by limo were the musicians!

The concert went well; Overture to Egmont, Yellow River Concerto; Lang Lang, Beethoven 6th and an Berstein's Overture to Candide as an encore.