We went to China as part of a cultural exchange on 23 June 2008 to sing in Shanghai and Beijing, and returned on 6 July. Here is our itinerary in China. We sang:
Our concerts in Shanghai and Beijing went well, and neither of us got sick. The tourist sites alone would have been reason enough to go, but it was a special pleasure for us to sing great music in a big chorus with a fabulous orchestra in great venues.
The new Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre was the finest; the acoustics were fabulous and security was minimal. The dressing rooms were very crowded and poor lighting worried us during the first rehearsal, but the concerts went well. The second concert was attended by the mayor and other dignitaries; to impress them, it seemed, there were three encores.
The night train to Beijing was modern and comfortable. China is a huge huge country, and we crossed many many miles of flat flat farmland with a few skinny trees and one-story brick farm buildings.
The Great Hall of the People on Tian'an Men Square in Beijing is used in February by the Chinese parliament; in front of the seats are narrow desks where they can register their votes. But the rest of the year the hall is used for performances and movies. It can seat 10 thousand; we had maybe 6 thousand in our audience. Tickets were expensive, $85 USD. There is a huge lighted red star on the ceiling; the hall was full of cigarette smoke; the stage was plenty big enough for us. This was the opening concert of the China International Youth Arts Festival. Our orchestra and chorus were supplemented with members of the orchestras and choruses from Peking University, Tsinghua University, and the China Central Conservatory of Music, in addition to the Los Angeles Children's Chorus, the Silicon Valley Ai-Yue Chorus, the Taiwan University Alumni Chorus of Northern California, and Stanford Taiko. We sang "Cosmic Flames" by Long Zhou and "Ode to Joy" by Beethoven.
The new National Centre for Performing Arts, called "The Egg" and formerly known as the National Grand Theatre, is directly behind the Great Hall of the People. It is huge and contains three halls. We sang "Carmina Burana" by Orff in the opera hall in the center with the famous Jin Xing Dance Troupe two nights running.
Our tourist destinations in Shanghai were dinner on the river, the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition, the Shanghai Museum, and the Yu Gardens and Bazaar. We also visited a government tea shop and silk "factory."
Our tourist destinations in Beijing were the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, Tian'an Men Square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall. We had a catered dinner on the wall, which they said was the first time that this was allowed in China. We also visited a hutong neighborhood by rickshaw and in the hutong a private home, and a government jade "factory."
Our photographs are on Liz's Picasa site. There are photos by others on the tour on Flickr, and at the Stanford University Arts Initiative.
Here is the officlal report in the Stanford Alumni magazine.