Welcome to Beijing, would you like a side of smog with that?

I have been in Beijing about one week now, and I have to say, things have been getting more exciting and delicious each day! I was thinking about just posting after I get back to Berlin, but that would be one really long blog post, and no one would actually get through it. So I'll break it up into two posts, and hopefully you'll get through this first one. I'm going to go by day, since it's the easiest way to do it. And just in case you're curious, the pictures are as follows (wish I could put them at the end, but that's not an option):

1. Inside the Forbidden City
   
2. Best laugh I've had in forever
   
3. Olympic figurines in Tiananmen Square
4. Forbidden City Concert Hall stage
5. Bugs on sticks ready for cooking

Day 1:

The first day was a day of ups and downs for me. For the trip from Munich to Beijing, I managed to score a bulkhead exit row aisle seat, thanks to two non-English speaking Asians who were kicked out of the exit row in front of me. Watched two movies, took a sleeping pill with some sparkling wine, and slept for about 4 hours. There was a little card we had to fill out for entering China, and the start of my small yet annoying troubles began. Pulled out my pen, which had apparently exploded on the plane, so I ended up with a hand full of black ink. Breakfast came, and despite my best efforts, upon opening my yogurt, it too exploded and was all over the front of my shirt. Fine. Left the plane, and saw a woman holding a sign with six names on it of opera folks, thought it was some sort of special treatment, and found out that our luggage never left Berlin. Luckily, I’ve had luggage lost before and have become excellent at packing my carry-on bags just in case I’m stuck without my big suitcase. Still, really annoying. Once we gave our info to the Lost and Found, we walked out of baggage claim, and there were signs welcoming the orchestra and some of the higher ups (director, stage manager types), there was no sign for the soloists/singers. We ended up on the bus with the orchestra, which took forever to leave, and when we arrived at the Swissôtel Beijing, we were pulled aside, told that a mistake was made, and that we were supposed to have been in an Audi that was there to pick us up, and they seemed mad that we hadn't taken the right car.

I wandered around with two other singers for a bit in the neighborhood around the hotel, got lunch by pointing at pictures on a menu (which seems to be the thing here), everything was very good and inexpensive, and came back to the hotel, where I proceeded to smash two of my fingers in the sliding bathroom door. Went downstairs bleeding and cursing, and was especially unhappy that I had to purchase bandaids, that the concierge didn’t have a couple sitting around. This bathroom door the real version of a Chinese finger trap – the place where you put your fingers to slide the door ends up underneath the wall on the other side, and you just can’t see it coming until you have two bloody fingers that you can’t bend anymore. It’s dangerous!

The concierge, besides not having bandaids, is completely useless. We asked him where to find restaurants within walking distance, and he gave us completely wrong directions on our map. I asked if there was a place he recommended, he just said that there were lots of places. We eventually got dinner after wandering around for a while, and three of us ate a ton of food for roughly $3 a person at what looked like your standard Chinese take-out place with a few tables. Ordering was very frustrating since we were given one menu about 20 pages long with pictures, and the waitress hovered over us from the beginning until we finally ordered, and then seemed annoyed that we had taken so long. I kept trying to order hot and sour soup, and every time I pointed at the picture, she pointed at the soup above it that I didn’t want. This happened about 10 times maybe, and I still have no clue why she kept doing that! She finally brought another waitress over, and I pointed at the hot and sour soup, and she didn’t have any problem with it. Each soup ended up being enough for about 6 people, so maybe she was trying to tell us to share one, but we ended up eating almost everything we ordered.  

Day 2:

We decided since this was a completely free day, that we should go to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. This is a holiday week for China (October 1 was National Day, the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China) so Beijing was and still is packed with people, and walking through the Forbidden City was slightly insane. The Chinese are very pushy, and will literally shove you and push you out of the way to get in front of you. There were a few things we just couldn't see because we couldn't push ourselves to the front of the line. The architecture is incredible to look at, and there is so much to see. When we finally decided it was time to use a bathroom, we noticed that the public restrooms had a four star rating! That doesn't include toilet paper or cleanliness, however, it did include a toilet seat, which you can't find in too many places around here. The best part of the day was seeing a little boy sitting on his father's shoulders, and the back of his pants had come undone (for families that can't afford diapers, they have children's pants that open in the back). So his butt was hanging out of his pants and it was the funniest thing I've ever seen.

Tiananmen Square is right at the south entrance of the Forbidden City, and it was still decorated for the Olympics, and also being decorated more for the holiday. Lots of gorgeous flower arrangements. In the evening, we went to a dumpling house I found online, and four of us ate 42 dumplings, three main dishes, a bottle of Coke, and tea for about $4.50 a person. Each set of six dumplings was about 90¢. Can't beat that!

Day 3:

Not too much excitement, just rehearsals for Rosenkavalier, and a rehearsal for our opening concert in the middle of the day. Didn't leave us much time for exploring.

Day 4:

This was the most exciting day for me, the day of the opening concert in the Forbidden City. We started with a rehearsal in the concert hall, which is small, but lovely. When we got there, workers were arranging hundreds of yellow and red roses in front of the stage, which looked beautiful. I sang my aria (Adele's second aria from Fledermaus) twice with the orchestra, and felt ready for the evening. We had a big late lunch at a restaurant a friend had recommended to me called Ajisen Ramen, and the food was great. Then we were told that there was a reception before the concert that we had to attend, so I ended up eating more food there even though I was already stuffed.

The concert was amazing. I sang my aria in the middle of the second half. When I went backstage, I asked the stage manager if singers were going out for a second bow after their arias, and was told no. Well, I sang, I nailed the high D at the end, and the crowd erupted in bravos and whistles. When I exited the stage, they kept on clapping, and I got to take a second bow! I felt so good!!! They loved the Rigoletto Quartet too, which was the first of three planned encores.

After the show, we were invited to a very exclusive members-only club called LAN. We were taken into one of the private rooms behind a curtain and given a seven course Chinese meal. The most interesting part was a piece of soft bamboo that had the most delicate flavor and texture, over some mustard greens. I wasn't even hungry, but managed to eat most of everything, including a couple glasses of champagne (of course) and numerous refills of a very good red wine. The next morning I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach all night. I think it was just sore from eating too much all day!

Day 5:

On the fifth day was the first performance of Rosenkavalier, and Sophie didn't get sick, so no performing for me. During the day we visited the Yashow Market, where you can go to a silk store and have traditional Chinese (or normal) clothing custom made for you. I decided to order a thigh-length jacket with 3/4 length sleeves out of a gorgeous off-white silk with a delicate silver and light pink flower pattern. It'll be ready to pick up on Tuesday. I also bought a few souvenirs and gifts, after spending what seemed like forever bargaining the price down. The funniest part was that when I was buying my second group of items, I ran out of money, so the girl at the shop told me to give her 80 Yuan then, and bring her the other 70 on Sunday when I told her I was coming back for my jacket fitting. Not sure if she actually expected me to come back, but she's kidding herself if she thinks it's going to happen. She was probably overcharging me anyway, even after all the bargaining. 

Day 6:

This was another rehearsal day, this time for Tannhäuser. Not too much excitement there. I'm covering Hirt (the shepherd boy), so I didn't have to stay too long at either rehearsal. We had a lot of fun in between rehearsals, though. Went to Wangfujing Street, a major shopping street, with chopstick shops, tea shops, and live bugs on sticks that they'll fry for you right there. Talk about fresh. Scorpions are a specialty. I decided to pass. One of the large tea shops we went into gave us samples of as many teas as we liked, I never realized how different jasmine teas could be from one another, and the more expensive, the stronger the flavor. I bought some tea and a beautiful tea mug for myself with a little removable insert for the loose tea leaves. Around the corner from Wangfujing is the Night Market, an aisle of wacky foods on sticks mostly, from live bugs to seahorses and starfish. Some smells I never hope to smell again. And all this talk of food leads me to the best part of the day: Peking Duck. Three of us shared a duck for lunch, and it was incredible. The skin is crispy and melts in your mouth. The duck meat is soft and succulent, and not greasy or stringy. Nothing like any duck I've ever tasted before. You are given thin pancakes, and you dip the duck and skin in a sweet dark sauce, wrap it in the pancake with some spring onion, and eat it. It was probably one of the best meals I've had in my life, and all for about $15 a person. I think we're getting another Peking duck meal provided for us after the final concert on the 9th, so I will just dream about it until then.

Day 7 (today!):

The second and final Rosenkavalier performance is tonight, I didn't get a call that Ofelia Sala is sick, so I'm assuming she'll sing Sophie and I'll be off the hook. I had my jacket fitting this morning, it is going to be gorgeous. I can't wait to see it once the piping, buttons, and lining are put in. I'll be sure to post a picture! It's so neat having something made for me, and it will be a wonderful reminder of this trip (until I get so fat from all the dumplings that I can't fit into it anymore). And speaking of dumplings, I had dim sum this afternoon, and had the most light, fluffy, delicious pork buns ever (among other dim sum goodies). Everything was so fresh and light, and I didn't leave feeling like I had a huge lump in my stomach. So good! After dim sum, we did a little walking trip around some hutongs (the little alleyways where people actually live, and kids get haircuts on the side of the road in the drizzle). It wasn't overly exciting, but it was nice to see some "real" Beijing, not just touring attractions. And it was great to be away from all the tourists and crowds of people. There was one street with a bunch of shops and boutiques which we will probably go back to when we have more time, because there was a massage place where you could get a 45-minute shoulder massage for about $5. The full body 60-minute massage was about $8. Makes the $7 for 11-minute Chinese massages in NY look pretty expensive.

OK, did you make it to the end of this? Congratulations! See you next time! I'll post again when I get back to Berlin about the rest of the trip. Tomorrow we're going to check out the Summer Palace and some other sights, and on the 8th we're off to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. Can't wait!