The view from my hotel room.

Bamboo scaffolding is still universally used for construction projects. I am told it’s stronger, pound for pound, than steel.

Guest Conductor Charles Barker leads the first rehearsal of Swan Lake with the Shanghai Philharmonic.

Guest Conductor Gary Sheldon rehearses the mixed-repertory program with the Wan Fang Youth Symphony.

The winding street next to our hotel contained a busy market in pets and insects, particularly crickets. Cricket fights have been a popular betting event in China since the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). These guys look like heavyweights.

On to Beijing and rehearsals with the Symphony Orchestra of the Chinese National Opera and Dance Drama Company. Charles gives some encouraging words and a pat on the shoulder to the harpist, who has a big solo in the Second Act of Swan Lake.

My comrade-in-arms, the Music Librarian of the Beijing orchestra, a very helpful gentleman named Chung.

A performance of Peking Opera at the Guild Hall Theater: lots of vivid colors, gongs, cymbals, singing and acrobatics. Who cares what the story was—it was delirious sensory overload.

Conductor Gary Sheldon was determined to get “Rolexes” for himself and his wife at the Yashow Market. It took a half-hour of bargaining, but Gary is a patient man and came away with a good deal. The watches even worked—after he took them to the repair shop in the background.

The dancers’ tour of the Forbidden City in Beijing turned into a love-fest between them and Chinese children, who flocked around to get their pictures taken with these tall westerners.

On my last day in Beijing I went for a walk in Bei Hai Park, a beautiful area along the shores of a lake northwest of the Forbidden City. This little girl looks like she’s ready to be one of the butterflies in Act II of Nutcracker.

There was a lovely little tea house by the lake, and I savored a serene half-hour sipping tea and watching people and rickshaws go by—one of my fondest memories of the trip.