Working in China

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My friend Violetta arranged for a couple of concerts and some "masterclasses" at Universities in both Shenyang and Dalian. Shenyang is the capital city of Liaoning--the province just north of North Korea, and Dalian, "the most livable city in China", is 4 hours south on the sea. Arriving at the University, I was a little taken back to see my photo with my name and resume in Chinese plastered on the front marquee of the theater--the very first thing you see as you enter through the gates. It sure upped the ante on my end. Just for your information, my name in Chinese is "Li Cha Gao Dun".

Two great things about being with Violetta. 1) Violetta can translate the most mundane sentence into what seems to be poetry (so I was told by an observer). The classes in Shenyang were 6 hours a day (we usually ran to 7 much to the chagrin of our sponsor who was Miss Punctual on the dot for everything). And the concert went well and was very well accepted. I frankly don't know how Violetta held up. I don't know another singer who would have a voice to sing after that many hours of traslation. ........2) And most importantly, Violetta knows good food. She ordered one fine meal after another, much to my relief from my point-the-finger method. One of the finest was a meal of nothing but mushrooms--I think there were 11 different kinds. (I've always admired themed dinners--eg. a different scotch in every course). And then there was the dinner at the dumpling palace that had been there since the Qing dynasty--16 varieties of dumplings (even our sponsors had never had several of them). And the seafood in Dalian was superb--even some creatures I've never knew existed.

The two cities could not have been more different. Shenyang is not praticularly attractive, though in preparation for the Olympics, many newly planted trees and flowers appeared in the week we were there. Walking the sidewalks of Shenyang is only lightly less dangerous than jaywalking in Times Square. Between the potholes, the bikes, the carts, and the cars that drive on the sidewalks, there is no time to window shop. Dalian, on the other hand, is in many places just spectacular. We arrived at just the right time--the cherries, the peaches, and the lilacs were just arriving, and there were huge swathes of forsythia along the hills. We were told that the people of DaLian are so proud of their city, that they are very careful to not litter. There are parts that are quite poor where this is not true, but for the most part it had the cleanest streets I'd ever seen in a large city.

Photos to follow.

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