Another day, another early morning, another performance. The kids continue to hold up amazingly well, for the fifth performance within two and a half days. This time we were headed to a bilingual elementary school in Chengdu. The cute little kids in their matching uniforms provided a different kind of audience than the college students, but no less enthusiastic.

When we arrived on our buses there were already students positioned in two lines on either side of the entrance path, clapping for us as we made our way into the school. Soon all the different classes were jogging out onto the field in formation, smiling and waving to us, with a space of honor reserved for us in the center. After watching the small Chinese children effortlessly form neat, evenly-spaced lines, we attempted to marshal our straggling crew into some kind of order as well.

We were first treated to dance, kung fu, and face-changing performances from the students and teachers. During the face-changing show, the star’s mask switches in the blink of an eye, like magic. From the audience, it’s perplexing to contemplate how it’s done. The star of this particular show could not have been more than nine or ten, so it was particularly impressive. (We also admired his fortitude in dancing around in a heavy costume, headpiece, and mask in full sun on another ninety-degree day.)

Our performance was inside in the auditorium. There was not room for all the students, so only a small number were able to attend in person — but the performance was live-streamed to all the other classrooms. As with our other shows, the first few rows were reserved for various dignitaries from the school and local government.

There is a high level of formality here that we’ve seen with each of our performances. Mr. Ervin knew there would be exchanging of gifts, so he brought along a beautiful carved wooden eagle he’d commissioned from the school shop teacher, a talented wood-worker. Beyond that we had a bit of a random grab bag — a few moose stuffed animals, a whole pile of pottery made by high school art students, a bunch of T-shirts apparently pulled out of the middle school supply closet, and a few “Durham” T-shirts that Al picked up at Rite Aid right before the trip. (This was chaperone Al, not percussion suitcase Al. The latter did not provide any gifts at all.) These were distributed to chaperones and a few students to carry in our luggage.

Things started out well at Chengdu University. The ranking dignitary and Mr. Ervin made lovely speeches and exchanged gifts. The carved eagle was duly presented. However, things went downhill at Sichuan University. They presented us with a beautiful piece of artwork on a scroll, with an accompanying speech about the significance of this form of art — and there we were, standing with some random pottery items and a few T-shirts. I think those on the stage wanted to sink through the floor — and some of us in the audience did as well.

Things got even worse at the school. Not only did they present Mr. Ervin with two large framed prints of pandas, with the usual speech about the artist and the history of the art form — but they then called all the chaperones up in front and gave each of us a panda print as well. (Lord knows how I will get it home, since it doesn’t fit in my suitcase.) Mr. Ervin did his best to rescue our stuffed animal presentation by adlibbing a speech about the local significance and noble character of the moose, but it was pretty hopeless. (At our final performance in Beijing the other day, we all just quietly left our remaining pottery and T-shirts on a table in the back of the room and sneaked away — after lugging them around for days, we certainly had no plans of lugging them back home again.)

The group pulled off another great performance, and Zoe managed to keep her electric cello operational throughout. The pop song portion of the program is incredibly high-energy, and it’s amazing that the kids can pull this off day after day. They’ll now be able to relax a bit, since the bulk of the performing is now over. There’s only one more small concert in Beijing at the end of the trip — until then, we have a few days to tour and relax.

After the concert we had a mini ping pong tournament with some of the kids from the school.  They were clearly throttling their skill level, and as soon as any opponent showed the slightest bit of skill they would ratchet up their own level accordingly.  After all the movie star treatment, it was a good ego check to find all of us getting crushed by nine-year-olds.

It was also time to say goodbye to Chengdu. Originally we were to have taken an overnight train to Xi’an, our next destination — but it was changed to a bullet train because of logistical issues. (The jury was still out on what kind of train we’ll be taking to Beijing for the final leg of the trip.) Though I was a little sad to miss out on the romance of the sleeper train, it was also pretty cool to take a train that travels 200 miles per hour.

First, though, we had to make it through the train station. This proved to be the most stressful experience of the trip. It was mobbed with people, it was not clear where to go, there were several different security checks, and generally chaos everywhere. We were all laden with lots of luggage/instruments/etc. Our Chinese helpers had their hands full trying to get the full group of us through security and checked in on time. At one point my group went through a security check and six out of the seven of us had our luggage pulled aside to a table where security

Chinese countryside, as seen from the train

personnel were standing. However, they pretty much ignored us so we were completely unclear on what to do next. We heard from someone else that we had something in our luggage that wasn’t allowed, but were given no guidance as to what that might be. Claire had to give up her perfume in a glass bottle, but none of the rest of us had any idea. We were reduced to holding up random items for our Chinese helper to check on (nail clippers? a razor? bug spray?) but never got any answers. Eventually we just picked up our bags and left the area — I figured that if someone stopped us maybe they would have to give us some guidance on what to do next, but as it turned out no one did.

Evening arrival in Xi’an

Then we had to board the train, which proved to have no space for all our luggage. It was a massive effort for our whole large group to get large suitcases stowed away in the overhead racks, and several people ended up having to keep them in their seat with them. Sadly this was the case with Al, who was definitely too large to fit overhead. Everyone was also very nervous because our guide told us we’d have three minutes to exit the train in Xi’an before it started moving to its next stop in Beijing. Given how long it’d taken us to get ON the train, this seemed daunting. We also had been given stern instructions that basically doom would rain down on our heads if anyone lost their ticket (yeah, at least one kid lost a ticket).

Apart from all this stress, the three-hour journey went smoothly. The Chinese countryside was quite a surprise. Not far from Chengdu we got into the mountains, and the scenery outside looked more like Switzerland than what I would picture for China. There were lots of little villages of two-story houses nestled into the hills, surrounded by rivers and farmland. (Every now and then we’d come across a little group of identical skyscrapers, which reminded us where we were.) We spent lots of time in tunnels. It must have been a spectacularly difficult line to build.

Xi’an is an ancient city, with history as the intermittent capital of the Chinese empire dating back 3000 years. It’s also a beautiful modern city, with the buildings and lights making it look comparable to one of the nicer sections of Manhattan. It definitely had more of an urban feel than Chengdu, despite being smaller (10 million people vs. 16 million). I was told, however, that Chengdu is actually similar but that we were staying on the outskirts and just never got to see the real urban core. The center of Xi’an is surrounded by an old city wall, and our hotel was inside this center. Each of

Xi’an old city walls

our two buses had a Chinese tourist guide who told us about the history of the city and kept us entertained with funny stories and songs. All of our guides here have been excellent, and have really earned their salaries staying with our group during our whole 15-hour days.

There was talk of heading into the city for some kind of outing, but in the end everyone was too tired to muster the energy for it. These travel days, when you’re responsible for sixty-something kids and all their passports and equipment, take a lot out of you. The best that we chaperones could do was to meet in the lobby for a beer and toast to a successfully completed journey.

Today was somewhat similar to yesterday, except that we had to travel much further to get to another school, Sichuan University. That meant similar logistical challenges to yesterday, except that we had to bring everything we’d need for the whole day. It was also an early morning after a late night – and did I mention the heat? It’s been in the nineties and getting hotter every day. Nevertheless, these kids have managed to be where they need to be each morning, with multiple sets of clothing, instruments, music stands, music, stand lights, and all their other gear. As far as I know, no one has forgotten anything critical. It’s pretty impressive to see.

When we reached our destination, we were first greeted by the university’s Chinese dance groups, who put on a performance for us. It was a lovely set of Chinese folk dances, and the kids responded enthusiastically — clearly remembering what a nice reception they’d received from their Chinese audiences. Afterwards they asked us to perform something, and the kids were able to muster up a couple of a capella performances since they didn’t have their instruments with them. This was followed by the usual selfie session.

Then it was our group’s turn to perform, in a similar outdoor venue to yesterday. They had timed our concert for noon outside the student cafeteria, so there was quite a crowd. The kids managed another great, high-energy performance despite the oppressive heat. The chaperones mostly just huddled in the shade on the edge of the square.

For lunch we went to a restaurant and had the usual lazy-Susan feast of a huge number of local specialties. We continue to be unable to make a dent in the food, even the adult table where most people are actually eating. Many of the kids seem to be subsisting entirely on white rice supplemented with ice cream purchased during outings.

This afternoon was a treat. We knew only that we were headed to “Huanglongxi Ancient Town”. On the way the bus stopped and picked up several young women. It turned out that they were English students at the university, and had been recruited to shepherd our various groups around. “Naomi” and “Catherine” joined our group and we set out to explore the town. (All the guides here use English names, that they chose in English class, just like we do in our foreign language classes.) It was absolutely beautiful, with traditional Chinese architecture, amazing landscaping, a winding stream crisscrossed by bridges and stepping stones, and picturesque shops.

Selfie with Old Time Photo guy

I should say here that shopping in China has been far more pleasant than shopping in some other foreign locations we’ve been. While haggling is customary, the sales people are non-aggressive and mostly friendly (though very few speak English). Maybe it’s because foreign tourism here is still fairly unusual and these locations mostly cater to Chinese tourists, but we don’t feel like we’re walking around with big dollar signs on our foreheads. When people in the shops or in the roads smile and wave to us, they aren’t trying to sell us anything — they are

Weirdly, you could bottle-feed the fish here.

just delighted at the novelty of seeing a bunch of Westerners filing through their streets. This particular place had a kind of Chinese version of “old time photo”, where you could dress up in traditional Chinese costume and get your picture taken. A young man in full Chinese dress approached us in the crowd and asked (through our guides) to take our picture, and we immediately thought he was going to ask for money — but instead he just beamed at us, pulled out his cell phone, and posed for selfie with the girls before thanking us and going back in to work. (Anytime we stopped to take a group photo with our chaperone group, all the locals around us would pull out their cameras as well. We do wonder what they do with all these random photos.)

Anyway, it was a really pleasant place to shop, with stores selling tourist souvenirs interspersed with shops selling Chinese produce, spices, and snacks. Zoe and I usually are not too enthusiastic about shopping stops, but this was one of my favorite places we visited. Naomi bought us some traditional candy from the region (which was something like — and also totally unlike — cotton candy. She described it as “very sweet”, which showed how different the concept of “sweet” is to US vs. Chinese citizens.) Abbey played rock-paper-scissors against a food truck employee to win a free food sample. We saw elderly people playing majong along the back streets. With the asking price of the items I purchased being $3 (a fan) and $2 (some tea from the region), I didn’t feel the need to haggle. Zoe bought a ring that initially looked to be more expensive, but even she didn’t haggle — all you had to do was ask what the price was, and then got quoted a value about a third of what was posted. Having Naomi and Catherine with us was a win-win — they helped us talk with locals and shopkeepers while we gave them a chance to practice their English. (We later saw several of our English student helpers come to support us at the concert that night.)

Eventually it was time to head back to the university. We were excited about our early dinner, which was three kinds of dumplings. The kids had the opportunity to learn to form the dumplings (“just like Crazy Rich Asians!”) and we were relieved not to have to undertake another huge feast just a few hours after the last one. Zoe was so nervous that she just paced around for most of the dinner hour. She’s accustomed to blending into the crowd as a flute/cello player — but on this trip, there are only two cellos and she’s playing an electric one, which is a key part in a lot of the rock pieces, since the band doesn’t have a bass.

By the time we arrived at the auditorium at 6:15 for the 7pm show, it was already 3/4 full. The crowds continued to stream in, filling the back, sides, and aisles. (Several people commented on the apparent lack of a fire code.) It was another excellent show, despite a series of malfunctions in the cello section. Both the brand new cellos went badly out of tune mid-concert, to the point that Zoe and Jorgen

Full house 15 minutes before performance time!

had to stop playing. Zoe tried to switch to the electric, but the amp malfunctioned so she was only able to get no sound at all, or a deafening level. So the cellos spent much of the concert faking it. Ironically, Zoe felt better after this — she figured that things had gone pretty much as wrong as possible and she had survived the experience.

Afterward there was an absolute mob scene in the courtyard outside the auditorium. Girls were literally squealing and jumping up and down as the musicians emerged. Playing concerts back in Durham is going to be a real drag after getting accustomed to this treatment.

This is supposedly the largest building in the world, as seen from our bus window.

Today it was time to get down to business. We would be spending the whole day at Chengdu University and the orchestra would do its first two performances. Unsurprisingly, it is not that easy to get sixty-something kids packed up with instruments, music, stands, lighting, clothing, and other miscellaneous gear. It is a constant logistical battle getting the band and all its accoutrements from place to place and making sure that everything is where it needs to be.

Tom and Al, during happier times

There are also multiple suitcases full of percussion equipment that the chaperones are responsible for. Poor Tom has been lugging around a large bag with some kind of drum in it (and no rollers) for the entire trip. We have nicknamed it “Al” for “albatross”. Al needs to be brought to every performance in case a drum set is not provided — but so far, it always has been provided, so Al just gets set aside and then has to be lugged back to the hotel again. I think Tom and Al’s relationship has become somewhat strained. Al shows his resentment by becoming heavier and more unwieldy with each passing day. (As I write this from a train, Al — who did not fit into the luggage rack or the overhead shelf — is crouched malevolently between me and the seat in front of me, slowly cutting off the circulation to my legs.)

The first performance — outside in front of the large student cafeteria — was slated for noon to maximize the crowd. So for the morning, our hosts had some other fun activities planned.

We first went to a classroom where we learned a little Chinese, practiced moving Skittles with chopsticks, and learned about Chinese opera (which involves the “face changing” series of masks like the show we saw the other day) and the symbolism of each color. We then had a chance to paint our own masks as a souvenir (though lord knows how we will get them home). Next we were given a tour of several of the buildings, including the music and art library and the art museum.
Then it was showtime. The concert program has two parts and the outdoor concerts feature only the latter — American and Chinese pop songs. Several of the singers in the band have performed the impressive feat of learning to sing (and in one case, rap) songs in Chinese, despite no knowledge of the language. In between songs, the Chinese language students (who came on the trip in addition to the orchestra) speak to the crowd to try to recruit them for the evening’s performance. Once the band started playing, they quickly attracted a substantial audience.

This picture of UNH was on the wall of the cafeteria.

There were audible gasps and then cheers when the students began to speak and then sing in Chinese. The kids did an excellent job and it was so gratifying to see the crowd’s appreciation for this effort.

After each performance, Mr. Ervin reserves time for the kids to mingle with the crowd. So many people in the audience want to connect and take selfies with the band members, as well as becoming friends on “WeChat” (a sort of Chinese version of facebook). Everyone has to be dragged away when the allotted time has passed.The evening’s program, in addition to the rock set, also features an original silent movie. The afternoon was largely taken up with rehearsal time, to get the lighting and sound right as well as all the intricate timing required to pull something like this off. Zoe and the other cello player were supposed to be loaned cellos to use here, since bringing them on the plane was not workable. They hadn’t yet appeared, so Zoe was playing the electric cello that she uses for the rock set. Her fellow cello, Jorgen, eventually got his cello at the rehearsal — and found that the university had gone out and purchased one brand new. (Later, after the first night’s concert was over, someone would discover that a cello had been purchased for Zoe as well.)

Standing room only

Excitement and nervousness were high when showtime approached. After everyone had gotten into concert dress, had dinner, and arrived at the concert hall, it was already half full — 45 minutes before the show was even slated to start. By the time 7pm arrived, the seats were all filled and an overflow crowd was lining the aisles and the back. As the kids came in to fill the stage, the auditorium erupted with claps and cheers. It was so funny watching the various shell-shocked expressions as they filed into the room.

This would be the first time (apart from pieces at the rehearsal) that the parents had seen this performance as well. It is an original movie called “Under One Sky”, composed of nature scenes from the US and China, choreographed to an original score that Mr. Ervin wrote based on American and Chinese classical music. There are a lot of intricate musical transitions that have to be precisely synchronized with the film, groups singing parts in Chinese, and speaking parts for the Chinese language students. It was a huge undertaking, and the result was phenomenal. Everything went off flawlessly. The pop song set was an even bigger success, and the energy and enthusiasm really made it feel like we were at a rock concert. With the royal treatment these kids are getting, soon they’ll be demanding Evian water and bowls of only blue M&Ms.

Feeling better after a good night’s sleep, we all managed to be up and at ’em by 7:30 the next morning. (It helped that the first item on the agenda was the Chengdu Giant Panda Research & Breeding Center.) Our hotel puts out quite a spread for breakfast, including fruit, vegetables, rice, noodles, and various pastries. They even had a sort of coffee! With the schedule we’re keeping on this trip, coffee is going to be a necessity. There was also an area that made all us Americans immediately think “omelette station”, but of course it wasn’t. It seemed like some kind of custom stir-fry station but there were some mysterious complexities so no one has been brave enough to try it yet.

As with Jinli Street, the panda preserve proved to be an extremely popular destination. The narrow pathways that ran along the panda enclosures were wall-to-wall people. (To be fair, since we are a group of around 75 people, we are definitely part of the problem.) On the positive side, there’s not much cuter

An impromptu performance. Mr. Ervin has been carrying around the guitar, and has told Zoe to start bringing the electric cello.

than a giant panda. We saw them sleeping, eating, climbing, and hanging out in trees. There was an indoor area where you could look through some glass to see young pandas, but it was so crowded that we eventually gave up attempting to make our way to the window. The center also had a red panda area. These are much smaller and look a little like a raccoon.

Today we began to feel the minor-celebrity status that we’d been told about prior to the trip. Members of our group were frequently approached by various Chinese people who wanted to take photos of us, or selfies with us. They were always smiling and friendly, and happy to have a chance to interact with us. It was lovely to be given such a warm welcome. (This extended to our group photos as well. Whenever we got all the kids together to pose for a group shot, they were invariably joined by random locals who excitedly handed their phones to their friends and jumped into the edges of the crowd.  You can see some of them in the photo at the bottom.) Some of the kids just loved the interaction, and will be coming home with phones full of their own international selfies.

After the pandas we were brought back to Chengdu University, our hosts for this leg of the trip, for lunch in their cafeteria. They set up a nice buffet for us, with lots of small bowls of different types of food that we could take as we pleased. This time they were even somewhat labeled, so we had a general idea of what we were eating. We found the university food very good and the variety available to be quite striking. I think they may have toned down the spices for us, because most of the food was fairly mild.

The base area of Mount Qincheng

Our afternoon adventure was Mount Quincheng, a unique and beautiful hiking experience. You can hike up the mountain along stairways and paved paths, which are lined with beautiful plants, shrines, and intricate pagodas. Along the path are seven elaborate and ancient Taoist temples.

We only had a few hours to spend here, so Mr. Ervin created a “fast group” who would go as quickly as possible to try to make it to the top. Zoe naturally joined the fast group, and I signed on as well. Unfortunately I proved to not really be fast group material. The endless flights of steps were an awkward height — too shallow to take one at a time, but very tiring to take double. At least, it was very tiring for me. Many other members of the fast group did not seem to have this problem.

The fast group takes off

Soon the fast group had splintered into an “actually fast” group, and a “wannabe fast” group. Zoe was in the former and I was in the latter. After a while the others I was with seemed to be reverting back to the slow group, so I went on ahead to try to catch up with the others at the top.

Unfortunately I never quite made it, because I realized that I didn’t actually know what time we were supposed to be back, or where we were meeting. (The start of our hike was a little chaotic, with the fast group zooming off up the mountain before the plan was clear.). Usually surrounded by crowds of kids, the one time I actually needed to consult with someone there was no one to be found. I was assuming that if the departure time was nearing I would meet up with the fast group on their way back down, but I started to panic a bit when I found a map that showed a different path down the mountain. At that point I figured caution dictated a quick descent so I didn’t get left behind on the mountain.
As it turned out, I had plenty of time and could have made it — and ironically, those behind me did. Also, a lot of people were in fact pretty late getting back. Zoe’s group made it to a place that they all feel was the top, but Zoe has consulted the map and privately feels that they didn’t actually get there either. It turns out there are a lot of branching paths and twists and turns, and maps are scarce so navigation is not as easy as you’d

Zoe gets pulled in for a selfie

think.

Eventually everyone did reappear and we headed back to the hotel for dinner. It was another enormous feast. All the tables here have an enormous lazy susan in the center that covers most of the table (to the point where you really have to watch where you put your plate and glass, lest it be launched off the table when someone moves the turntable). More and more dishes are continually brought out, until the whole thing is covered with dishes stacked a couple of layers deep. There is no way we could even make a dent in it, but we do our best. There is a constant flow of information as people try things and make attempts to guess what they are. We are encountering lots of unfamiliar ingredients, so we’re not very good at this — maybe our expertise will grow in the coming week.

Luncheon feast

At least in the sense that we haven’t gone to bed yet.  We’ve kind of lost track of how many hours we’ve been awake now.  But we’re having so much fun no one seems to mind.  The kids have been troopers.

We all arose staggering from our too-short naps to meet for lunch at the hotel.  We had a few stragglers who slept through their alarms (Zoe and her friend Evie, for example), but everyone eventually made it down.  The hotel gave us a huge feast — far more food than we could eat, despite how delicious it was.  It’s a bit tough here for the vegetarians in the group, as

Painting lesson

well as those who don’t like any spicy food — but we’re all mostly trying to be adventurous and have gotten used to having very little idea what we’re actually eating.

After lunch our hosts brought us to a Chinese cultural center, and they put on a wonderful program for us.  We were given Chinese clothing to wear, and divided into groups to rotate through a few different activities.  My group started with Chinese calligraphy, where we made lovely flower paintings with calligraphy brushes.  (The stems were made by blowing the paint across the canvas to create unique, delicate branches.)

In the second session, we saw a musical performance on the guqin, an ancient Chinese string instrument.  It had a distinctive and lovely sound.  The kids who were brave enough to volunteer were able to get a mini-lesson.

In our third lesson we heard about the shrine to Confucius and how to properly pay tribute to it.  We heard a little about the history of Confucism and some of the art on display.  When we were done some adorable little kids circulated through the crowd, offering skittles and taking photos with the kids.

Was our day over?  Not yet!  We headed over to Wuhou Temple and Jinli Street, a Buddhist temple surrounded by a warren of ancient marketplace streets.  The buildings are all traditional in style, and the area has apparently been a center of trade since BC times.  It was extremely picturesque, and lined with all manner of interesting shops and markets.

Unfortunately, seemingly the entire population of Chengdu thought so too, since it was so crowded you could barely navigate.  Keeping our “family group” (five kids and two adults) together was an ongoing source of anxiety.  (Though it turned out that the only one who got separated from the group was me — fortunately very close to the restaurant where we were meeting.)

We wanted to go check out the temple, but we’d arrived too late in the day, so we had to content ourselves with peering through gaps in the gate.  It was soon time to meet for dinner at a traditional Sichuan “hot pot” restaurant.  We sat at large tables with pots of different kinds of bubbling oils set into them.  Each of us got our own little can of oil, and a small bowl to pour it into.  We could then add various things to our bowl, like garlic, scallions, ginger, and peanuts.

For the next couple of hours the staff was constantly coming by, dropping innumerable different types of meats and vegetables into the oils.  The idea was for us to grab pieces out, then dunk them into our personal oil bowl before eating them.  This was another opportunity for adventurous eating, and another tough night for the vegetarians.  There were only a couple of things that most people weren’t brave enough to try.  None of the waitstaff at any place we’ve been speak any English, so you just have to take your chances and hope for the best.

The restaurant put on a show of traditional Chinese dances while we were eating, including the famous “face painting” show that many of us saw in Durham last year.

After we were done, apparently not having eaten enough strange food that night, a group of the boys set off to go back to a shop they’d seen selling brains.  I never heard what kind of brains they were or how they tasted, as my group opted to hit the incongruous Dairy Queen instead.

By the time we got back to the hotel, most of us had no problem at all falling asleep, despite the fact that it was around 10am EST.  I guess that’s one benefit of extreme sleep deprivation.  We’ll be up by 7 tomorrow, so there’s no chance of falling back into bad sleep time habits.

Almost like being at the beach

Turns out it takes quite a while to get to China. Our flight didn’t leave until 5:10pm, but we had to get to the Boston airport (via school buses that did not really have capacity for us and all our luggage) very early so the bus driver could be back before school dismissal. So we spent several hours sitting around Logan (though not as much as you’d think, given the logistics involved in getting 70+ people, along with various musical instruments, checked in and through security). Apparently at least three kids forgot an instrument somewhere along the journey, but luckily someone behind them always noticed.

Card games at Logan…

The flight to Beijing was pretty uneventful, except for the excitement that we were flying near to the North Pole (though it was too dark to see anything). Going through 12 hours of time changes made for some oddness, like when we had “lunch” around 7pm Durham time followed by “dinner” around 7pm Beijing time. Also there was the entertaining “seat chat” feature, where you could send messages to

…and in Beijing.

people in other seats on the plane. (“Hey, 27D, whatcha doing later?”)

Unfortunately our luck ran out a bit in Beijing, with a series of delays to our flight to Chengdu. So we also got to spend several hours sitting around the Beijing airport. This was made somewhat less appealing by the fact that the Chinese cash we’d arranged for in advance had not yet been delivered, almost nowhere took credit cards, and our ATM cards wouldn’t work in the machine. Fortunately the airline eventually provided water and crackers, and later, an airplane meal, to prevent starvation.

After several hours they got more creative. Playing instruments…

Doing the limbo…

Whatever the hell this is.

Mmm, dinner!

All that remained was an hour-long bus ride to our hotel near the university. Chengdu is a huge and very new city. There are large clusters of high rises everywhere (each building in a cluster identical, but all clusters different from each other). Apparently it has been built up dramatically even since the trip that came two years ago, and lots of building is still going on. Our hotel is very nice, and somehow Catherine and I lucked out with the best room (on the top floor, so we are considering it penthouse). It’s huge and has amenities like a crazy electronic Mahjong table. (We didn’t actually know it was a Mahjong table until I started pressing buttons out of curiosity, and dice started spinning and the table innards rotated and tiles suddenly rose up underneath all our stuff, which was a bit alarming.)

There was also some poster-signing. Our efforts were dwarfed by the huge banner brought to greet us the airport by Chengdu University (photo at top).

Others have not been quite so lucky. Apparently the fact that we have a bathroom door made of wood is quite a luxury. Some of the kids told us they just have glass screening the shower and toilet — and a mirror opposite, so that your bathroom activities can be observed by anyone in the room. Another set of chaperones doesn’t have a wall at all. Someone else just shook his head at the description of chairs, desk, and mahjong tables and told us he must have been put in the servants’ quarters.

By the time we got checked in — a rather laborious process that involved filling out information for each person’s passport individually — it was 10:00 in the morning. We went up for a quick nap before lunch, then out to continue with the rest of our day.

Our deluxe suite. Wait till you see the electronic mahjong table.