44 Hours in Shanghai

On Sunday, we all flew via China Eastern Airlines from Beijing to Shanghai for a concert in a sports stadium -- an 8,000-seat venue sort of like Fifth Third Arena, next door to what looked like Paul Brown Stadium. For most of us, this whole experience has been surreal, starting with a "press conference" in each city announcing the orchestra's arrival, then seeing thousands of people streaming into these enormous venues, sitting politely and intently until the end, when they stand and cheer.

I can't believe I'm in Shanghai -- what a beautiful, jumbled, fantastic city!

Because so few people speak English, it's been interesting getting to know China, and doing things like shopping and ordering in restaurants and even communicating in our hotels.

Shanghai, a port town, reminds me of my hometown, San Francisco. Its character is richly diverse, because the colonial period after the first Opium War brought Americans, French and British, who all built enclaves.

Because the concerts are always during dinner time, I didn't eat a real dinner for the first three nights in China. So Sunday night, I was determined to find a decent restaurant! I found M on the Bund -- a fabulous contemporary Western restaurant owned by an Australian -- where I bumped into other players who had discovered it too. (Violinist Anna Reider, who is a vegetarian, was especially happy to find a restaurant where she was able to know what she was eating. Most everything in Beijing had been cooked in pork fat, she said.)

So on Monday morning, after having enjoyed a fabulous dinner -- that included a wonderful and inexpensive Chinese chardonnay -- I felt like exploring. A group of us decided to take a boat cruise of of the harbor, where we could see the new modern side of skyscrapers that has just sprung up in the past decade, opposite the "Bund" along the water, which dates from mid-19th century. Walking around, all of us have been distressed at the beggars and street people that include toddlers and amputees. One wonders how well these people are cared for, if at all. With shantytowns crammed between high-rises in each city, there seems to be, as violist Paul Frankenfeld noted, abject poverty underneath the glossy new veneer.

At noon, Nanjing-born conductor Pu Qi Jiang, formerly at CCM and an assistant at the CSO, arrived to take me to the old traditional part of town. It was a lovely day, and ended all too soon! I think everyone wants to come back here!

Today: We're on another plane, leaving China for Singapore! Stay tuned...