ON the Great Wall of China!!!

The band did it!

They actually marched to and played ON the Great Wall today!
Unbelievable.

Their performance venue was actually ON the Wall.
I am sure today was one of the most awe-inspiring days ever in the young lives of these PLHS band members.

Simple words in a post cannot do justice to the experience they had. For the details you will have to wait and hear directly from the students themselves upon their return at the end of this week. I am putting up a couple of snap shots of the kids climbing the wall but for performance pictures and many, many, many more pictures at/on the wall , you will have to see those during our post meeting gathering in April. I must leave something for you to look forward to besides the safe return of the kids :)

Here is how the day unfolded...

First stop was a jade market where they saw everything from small jewelry items and figurines up to a several million dollar carving of horses and everything in between.

Next we traveled to the Wall and the band marched from the buses to a small "holding area" where they cadenced while waiting to march up the Wall to the performance spot. It was sunny but breezy in the mountains so a bit chilly for our awesome color guard girls. While in the holding area, they received quite a bit of attention and drew curious onlookers and tourists. The "staging area" was a little more private in the sense that people were not right up next to the band while they played. People climbing the Wall above them while they were playing could look down on them and I am sure their large sound reached ears quite high up on this particular section of the Wall. I overheard one student ask another at one point... "do you think we can be seen from space?" I told them, if not seen, definitely heard!

Due to tight scheduling and local restrictions, as you can see, the kids did their climbing and photo ops in uniform much to the chagrin of some of them. I told a few students, the next time you drop by the Great Wall, be sure to dress a little more casually. I think it's actually rather cool they were so dressed up for the climb. They were definitely warmer in the wool uniforms!







After the climbing, it was on to lunch (more Chinese food, surprise surprise).

We then stopped at the Silk Street market before heading to a traditional Peking Duck dinner. This was to be our "dress up" night but due to several factors, this became a casual dinner and we will all dress up for a dinner in Shanghai. After a flurry of packing this evening, the kids are now ready for a very early a.m. flight to Shanghai tomorrow.

I should be able to post again soon from our new hotel and I have several more pictures to continue sharing... more Wall and some fun duck dinner shots. The kids were all still buzzing about the Wall experience at dinner tonight and were in exceptionally high spirits as they shared dishes which included whole fish heads and many other things they had no idea what they were but several were game to try anyway.

Good night from Beijing.
Until Shanghai...