A little taste of The Farm in Beijing

Thursday night the Stanford Symphony, Chamber Choir, and Taiko participated with a couple of other groups from the Bay Area and collaborating groups from Beijing in the opening performance of the China International Youth Arts Festival as a part of a series of inter-cultural events they're putting on in celebration of the Olympics. The concert turned out to be at The Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square, where China's "Congress" meets a couple of times a year. The gigantic room holds about 10,000 people. I found out later that it's apparently only very rarely open to the public. I thought it would be cool to go and see a couple of my friends performing, but I found out when I got there that this was apparently a huge event and we needed to have gotten tickets weeks in advance.
So after being turned away by some unfriendly Chinese guards, I was standing out in front of the hall, when a nice lady randomly came up and asked if I would like to go to the event. (Maybe I had a sulky look on my face?) I said yes, absolutely, and asked how much she was willing to sell tickets for. But she just goes "I give them to you for free. Welcome to Beijing." It turned out the two she gave me were worth 560 yuan - like 80 bucks - a piece! I don't know if she was part of the Olympic welcoming committee or what, but I've never been so happy to look like a foreigner in my life.


Left: The stage
Right: 10,000 Chinese people - 8,000 of whom had cell phones ring during the performance.


Left: Ceiling of the Great Hall of the People - woohoo Communism!
Right: J. Galant!