Goodbye to Beijing

After a marvelous time in China we are finally headed home. Here, Ellen and Aying say goodbye..

At the end

Here are Ellen and Kristin with the whole class. Prof. Qi is at the left end.

Stamitz Concerto

Here, Ellen encourages a young first-year student to produce a big sound.

Orchestral excerpts

Here, Ellen is demonstrating some techniques for use in Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony.

One more master class

    On Friday, we went to Renmin University so that Ellen could teach a couple of hours of Master classes to students of Prof. Qi, a gig arranged by Wing Ho in the days we were away from Beijing. See http://english.ruc.edu.cn/en/

Gifts

We exchanged a few more gifts. I think this makes us all family. After this, it was shop till you drop, as the ladies identified desirables while Zheng bargained for prices. I would like to say it cost half the price, but the truth is that they bought twice as much!

Sweaters

Zheng's mom also got these amazing sweaters for the ladies. Good for Beijing, because it is cold.

Kristin got ...

... this stunning dark green velvet gown, perfect for performance! Ayung is simply incredible!

A beautiful, dark blue ...

... suit, that fits perfectly!

Me, too

I also got a jacket, AND...

More clothes

In the ten days or so that we were away from Beijing, Zheng's mom made us all more clothes. Here Ellen is wearing a silk jacket and pants she made. Amazing!

Back to Beijing

On Wednesday we said good-bye to our friends in Kunming, and returned to Beijing where it has turned really cold. Here is someone I saw in the airport.

In a shop

This shop specializes in art created by the minority peoples. The shop is called Good Folks Meet. Below is Mari with a Miao woman who does the most amazing cross-stitch work.

Wow

A gateway in the area of the Bai people, one of four aboriginal groups in Yunnan.

Another view

Here is another view of the Thai shrine from across an amazingly still lake.

The Thai people

Here is a spectacular Thai structure. It is evidently a working shrine, as people on the other side were burning incense in front of it.

The Miao people

    The lovely young woman lives in the Miao village. There is a church located there, for the Miaos are primarily Christian. Visiting this church was a very moving experience.

    The Miaos were evangelized by a British missionary named Samuel Pollard (1864-1915), whose story is highly interesting. See http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Pollard

Sent from my iPhone

The Minority Villages

Tuesday, we visited the Minority Villages, a sort of "six flags over China" without the rides. There are 24 minority groups represented in Yunnan, where Kunming is located. The 36 minority groups in China provide 300 million of its 1.2 billion people, so they are very significant.

Another view

    For another view of our trip, take a look at Kristin's blog at 

songsoftravelditlow.blogspot.com

Coaching 4

Four of the previous group played a movement from a Mozart string quartet. Altogether, a very enjoyable day.