All right everyone, better get your Little Red Books out and handy because I’m off to China!!!

Uhh, say what?

Well, here’s the idea. My school’s band, choir, and orchestra (with me being a member of the latter of those three) has been invited to tour and perform in Beijing, China ahead of the 2008 Olympics (which seem to be on the news constantly these days, and not for good reasons). We were also originally going to spend a few days in Xi’an, but that canceled a week or so ago due to the recent earthquake and the declining political situation in that region. However, as it is, the trip will be an 11 day/9 night stay in Beijing (with one day lost up in an airplane or two), with a couple of concerts and a hopefully-not-too-overwhelming amount of sightseeing. But before I share my itinerary, how about a little peek at everything that I’ve gone through ahead of this trip, eh?

Though it probably goes without saying, China is a completely different part of the world. The customs are different and the food is different, and perhaps most importantly (a fact that I’ve been reminded of over and over for these past few weeks), the bacteria are different. That’s why when we’re over there, we cannot eat any food other than what is served to us during our usual mealtimes (just in case of food poisoning), we have to brush our teeth with bottled water, and that’s also why this past week I’ve had to get four shots (okay, the official word is immunizations), one of which my arm seems to be reacting to right now. So is this China trip going to be a grand adventure? Sure, but I’m not feeling quite excited about how I’ve had to prep for it so far…

Also, we’ve been doing quite a bit of stuff to get ready for this thing, along with other simultaneous preparations. In fact, here’s how this past week went for me in orchestra: On Tuesday, our Orchestra final, instead of doing the usual end-of-semester party that orchestra usually does, we ended up rehearsing. That afternoon, because most of us got picked to be in the graduation orchestra, we had a graduation orchestra rehearsal that afternoon. On Thursday, after school was already over (I only had two hours, ending at 9:50 AM), we had a four hour 2-6 PM rehearsal. Friday was the graduation to play for, and yesterday (Saturday) was our China Tour Preview concert, which involved an hour-long rehearsal and then an hour-and-a-half performance. Tomorrow (Monday) will be another 4+ hour rehearsal, going from 10 AM-2:30 PM (thankfully, lunch is being provided)! And then on Tuesday, we’re taking off.

If this seems quite brisk and last-minute, you’re catching my drift somewhat.

However, surprising as it may feel, as of this post I’m less than 48 hours away from the beginning of this tour. So now that we just got our finally-updated itinerary (now no longer including our original plans for Xi’an), here’s what our schedule looks like:

Tuesday, June 3-Wednesday, June 4
We’ll be departing on Tuesday in the afternoon, however, since this tour is involving about 200 people, we’re being required to arrive four and a half hours prior to departure, plus we’ve got a twelve-hour flight! (Sudoku, anyone? Or perhaps a good long card game…) We’re being divided into two airlines, which strangely enough are on opposite sides of SFO’s International Terminal. Half of the group are on Cathay Pacific, which is a connecting flight via Hong Kong, and the other half is on Air China for a direct flight to Beijing. I’m on the Air China group, and while I’m certainly appreciative of the direct flight, Skoker says that Cathay is the better airline. I don’t really care, so long as we don’t fall into the Pacific Ocean, I’m fine.
I’ll be on Air China Flight 986, which leaves San Francisco at 2:50 PM (which means that I’ll be arriving at the airport at the early time of 10:20 AM). The flight will arrive at Beijing on Wednesday at 6:00 PM local time. Noting that Beijing is 15 hours ahead of San Francisco, it’ll be a 12 hour flight.
Once we arrive and get our stuff together, we’ll have dinner and then check into our hotel. We’ll be at a five-star hotel in the Chang Ping District of Beijing.

Thursday, June 5
Thursday will start our jet-lagged selves easily with mostly a day of sightseeing. After a 7 AM breakfast, we’ll see Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Then after lunch, we’ll visit the Pearl Shop for a shopping opportunity, and then see the construction sites for the Olympics. After dinner, we’ll get to see a “Legend of Kung Fu” show, and then bedtime.

Friday, June 6
Friday will be the day of our first concert, or for me, the main reason I’m on the tour. However, before we get there, we start the day by visiting the Beijing Shangli Foreign Language School, where we get a Chinese Calligraphy lesson. After lunch, we’ll go to the Central Conservatory of Music (a junior/senior high school) for an hour-and-a-half rehearsal. We’ll then have an early dinner (how does 4:30 PM strike you?), and then return to the school for a 7 PM concert, in which our group will be performing, followed by a short performance by their school. After the concert, we’ll head back to the hotel.

Saturday, June 7
Saturday will be our earliest day on the tour, with a 5:30 AM wake-up call and breakfast starting at 6 AM. After breakfast, we’ll have an hour to shop at the Jade Carving Workshop before we had to the Great Wall. Our performance there will begin around 10:30 AM, concluding by Noon. We’ll then have an hour and a half to explore the Great Wall before a very late lunch (almost eight hours after our very early breakfast). The rest of the day is free time at the hotel (which I’m always glad to have available), aside from dinner in the evening.

Sunday, June 8
Sunday is another one of those fairly empty days (it’s starting to become obvious that losing Xi’an created a whole bunch of extra time in the schedule, isn’t it?) with only a few things on the agenda. We start with a late 7:30 AM breakfast, then we visit the Silk Factory for a shopping opportunity, and then we get to tour the Chinese Hutongs, which will happen through some kind of two-person tour bicycle thing I guess. I don’t remember exactly how that tour is going to work, but there’s going to be something weird special about it which I’ll just have to tell you about when I get back. We’re then apparently having lunch with some local families (supposedly hand-picked to ensure that the food has a clean bill of health), and then we have a whopping two and a half hours to shop at the Silk Market. Then we have an early dinner (5:30 PM), and then back to the hotel by 7 PM for the rest of the night to ourselves.

Monday, June 9
After breakfast, Monday will start out with a Taiji lesson. After that gets us all fatigued relaxed, we’ll go on a tour of the Tea House and then have lunch. After lunch, we’ll have a long bus ride to Peking University, where we’ll have a rehearsal, then dinner (another early one on the house). The concert will begin at 7:30 PM, beginning with a concert by the Chinese Conservatory of Music, followed by our group. We’ll return to the hotel following the concert.

Tuesday, June 10
Tuesday is another one of those slower days, during which we’ll visit the Summer Palace in the morning and the Temple of Heaven in the afternoon. As part of dinner, we’ll get to learn how to make dumplings, and then we have another early 7 PM return to the hotel.

Wednesday, June 11
After breakfast, we’ll be spending Wednesday in Tianjin, which is a pretty long bus ride away from Beijing. Once we arrive, we’ll have some time to tour Tianjin’s Cultural Street before lunch. After lunch, we’ll arrive at Tianjin Xinhua High School, where (and this strikes me as strange), just our choir will be performing, followed by the group from Xinhua High. We’ll then have some time to visit the campus and exchange with the local students before heading to dinner, and then the long bus ride back to Beijing.

Thursday, June 12
Thursday will mark our last full day in China, and will have our latest wake-up call of the tour, with breakfast not starting until 8 AM. We’ll visit the Beijing Zoo in the morning, and then after lunch, the Lama Temple. We’ll then have a “Farewell Dinner” before an early return to the hotel. Those on the Cathay flight will have to start packing, but since I’m on the Air China flight, I’ll get to have another free night.

Friday, June 13
Our last day of the tour will be our longest day, and since it’s Friday the 13th, who knows what could happen. All I know is that between flying back and regaining the 15 hours that I lost a week and a half prior, I’ll be stuck in Friday the 13th for a full 39 hours, AND spending 12 of those 39 hours more than 30,000 feet in the air, where anything could happen. Superstitious folks, beware!
The Cathay group’s wake up call will be 4 AM, in which they’ll quickly eat breakfast and arrive at Beijing airport by 5:30 in order to catch their 8 AM flight. They’ll again have a connecting flight in Hong Kong, but this time with a four and a half hour layover.
However, I’m not in the Cathay group, so I’ll actually address my own itinerary that day. For the Air China group, our wake-up call won’t be until 8 AM, with breakfast starting at 8:30. We’ll then have an hour for free time and packing, and we’ll check out at 11 AM in order to arrive at Beijing Airport at 1 PM. We’ll be flying back on another direct flight, Air China Flight 985, departing Beijing at 4 PM and arriving San Francisco at 12:40 PM (3 and a half hours before we left, yet it’s still an almost 12 hour flight). Then it will be back home to face everything that I’ll have missed over ten days, not to mention a whole bunch of jet lag.

To be honest, as you may have noticed by the edge of sarcasm throughout this post, I’m feeling quite a bit nervous and overwhelmed about this trip. My swollen left arm (from that reaction to that shot that I had) isn’t making me feel much better about this, and for all I know, I’m not even sure about how the food will be over there. While I’m not necessarily a picky eater, I’m also somewhat hesitant in certain departments. We’re supposed to have a roast duck during one of the dinners, which is not exactly something that I’m quacking up for.

However, the trip is now less than two days away; about 36 hours from the time I’m writing this sentence, I’ll be on my way to San Francisco Airport to begin this journey. So anyway, wish me luck, and hope that I’ll come out of the other end of this trip in one piece!

Tags: Beijing, China, itinerary, music, Olympics, orchestra, tour, trip