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Tiananmen Square - The Forbidden City - Pearl Factory - Park - Concert | |||||
| Previous Day (The Summer Palace, First Concert) | |||||
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Saturday, June 21. After the long hike through Tianan'men Square and the Forbidden City, we visited a pearl factory. We had the usual Chinese lunch and dinner. We also visited a really neat park. | |||||
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| After
lunch, we visited Longtan Park, near the Forbidden City. There was very cool stuff
at the park! | |||||
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Today
was a day on which many Wedding photographs were taken at the park. | |||||
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The
concert situation was confusing - things kept getting rescheduled, even down
to the last minute. We finally got to perform at 7:30, and our hosts knew we had
a 45-minute program. However, some middle-level Commissar decided that we should
be done by 8, and at that time, after much backstage shouting (while PYA was performing)
he ordered the Stage Crew to remove us from the stage. Which they began to do.
PYA had enormous support from the audience - it consisted of PYA parents and hundreds
of student musicians from all over the world - but the incident was ugly, and
the Orchestra was very upset (and outraged, and hurt), and the tour guides were
in tears - for them this was a huge embarrassment, for their people and their
land. So the day did not end so spectacularly. The performance was spectacular,
and very much appreciated. | |||||
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The
"yellow shirts" start removing stands. (This is really two photographs,
but they fit very nicely together to create a panorama). | |||||
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