Post-China Blues—A Summary of the Jazz Band Tour in China

By Cameron R. Small

Warning: I may be a little biased about the trip, having gone on it myself as a member of the jazz band. All pictures were taken by Cameron R. Small or David Baler, used with permission from the photographers and individuals in them.

Two o’clock wake-up in the morning. Stumble around the house, making sure everything needed is packed. Trip down the stairs. Stagger outside to the car, and through half-closed eyes watch your breath drift away down the dark street.

Arrive at Medfield High School, and suddenly, your fatigue vanishes. Adrenaline starts coursing through the body. Other kids start to arrive, having their parents cart suitcases and instruments for them. Load up a bright yellow bus with too many suitcases and instruments, leave at 3:45 AM, and arrive at the airport. Clear customs. Get onto the plane. And we’re off for one of the best April vacations ever—the Medfield High School Jazz Band (MHSJB) on tour in China.

After landing in Newark, New Jersey for the connecting flight, we waited about three hours for the flight to Beijing. Fourteen hours later, and after traveling for more than 24 hours in total, the MHSJB arrived in Beijing.

Cleared customs again. Took lots of pictures of the airport, of the band gathering, running solely on adrenaline. Loaded up another bus after meeting Robert, our tour guide, and finally arrived at the Dong Fang Hotel in Beijing, where the band was greeted by Superintendent of Schools Robert Maguire. But we couldn’t sleep just yet—it was only 2:30 in the afternoon, and sleeping would ruin our sleep patterns for the rest of the trip.

Exchanged currency. Surprised by the exchange rate—about 6.23 Chinese yuan to $1 American, and from there bartering is acceptable for prices. Walked around the hotel. Showered (FINALLY!). Walked downstairs and down the street a couple blocks for our first meal in China.

We sat at tables of about ten kids each, with a Lazy Susan in the middle. We were given two bottles of soda, Coke or Sprite, green tea, and a set of chopsticks in addition to a plate. We ordered what we wanted (the only restaurant apart from the homestays where we actually ordered food ourselves) and enthused about being in China. Food came. Food spilled on the floor, tablecloth, ourselves, as we attempted to navigate the food into our mouths using chopsticks. There were, of course, the few who knew how to “properly” use chopsticks and were more successful in eating with them.

Walked back to the hotel, and fell asleep almost immediately. That was Day One of the ten-day China Tour.

Day Two. We were not (at least, I wasn’t) amused to discover that Chinese wake-up calls at a hotel are not the automated voice saying, “This is your morning wake-up call,” but instead were like an alarm clock, blaring loudly in our ears. After the waking-upping, the showering, the dressing, the make-upping, we went downstairs for breakfast. Imagine an all-you-can-eat buffet of Chinese food with American influence. There were spring rolls, steamed bread, fried rice, noodles, eggs, toast, sausage (or so they called it), all sorts of vegetables, soups, muffins, and juice. The coffee was…eh.

Went further downstairs. Met more tour guides. Headed to Tiananmen Square. Took pictures. That’s about all we got to do; it was closed for a military parade.

Posed for group picture outside of the Forbidden City. More photos, particularly the 16-ton painting of Chairman Mao. Entered the first ring of the city. Ancient Chinese architecture left us standing dumbfounded. If you want to know about how big this city is, take Medfield, multiply the size by a lot, say a few thousand, and you have the Forbidden City. It’s called “Forbidden” because it used to be solely for the Emperor of China, government officials, and select family of the Emperor. Otherwise, the city was off-limits to common people.

After the Forbidden City, we had lunch. We made our way from there to the Summer Palace, and the Long Corridor. It was absolutely breathtaking, and we were surprised to learn the Long Corridor was built and painted as a birthday present for the emperor’s mother.

At some point over the course of the day, we went to this pearl shop. Absolutely gorgeous fresh and salt water pearls for the equivalent of about $50.

An exhausted band reported back to the hotel after a Peking duck dinner and fell asleep for the night rather easily. Again, that might have just been me.

Day 3, the wake-up call still sounding like an alarm clock. Breakfast and onto the bus to visit the favorite tourist location as voted by the MHSJB—the Great Wall of China. We also all agreed that there were too many stairs to climb up the mountain to get to the wall. Unanimously, we decided if we were the Huns, or the Mongols, or any other group invading China, we would have turned back a long time before we actually got to the wall. We posed for more pictures, and even discussed throwing a Frisbee around before deciding it probably wouldn’t have been the best idea in the world.

Climbed back down the billion gajillion stairs (ok, maybe it was only a gajillion stairs). Traveled to the Beijing National Day School, where we played for the first time since we arrived in China. We played a great gig, and got a nice tour of the school. We were surprised to be allowed into the rehearsal of their Symphonic Band. We were all blown away by their mastery of the music, their instruments, and the fact that they played two very, very difficult pieces from memory.

Feeling about three inches tall, we made our way back to the hotel for our last night in Beijing.

Loaded up the bus. Traveled to the Temple of Heaven, a beautiful temple built for praying to the emperor for good harvests. Both the stairs leading up to it and the Temple itself are made of three tiered layers. The JB took pictures, and (attempted) to play hacky sack. Again, some members were more adept at it than others.

Time to leave. Loaded up the buses again. Headed to train station. Loaded onto train. Headed to Bengbu, China, of the Anhui (pronounce An-way). Arrived a few hours later in Bengbu. Loaded onto bus. Drove to Bengbu Middle School No. 6, the school Medfield is fostering a relationship and exchange program with. The moment we all were anticipating, worried about--the homestay.

We met our families at the school. I personally was terrified. I was going to be living with complete strangers I had only conversed with a few times via email. I didn’t know if the parents of my host brother spoke English, or how well my host brother himself would speak English.

I lucked out. My host parents, if not fluently, spoke enough English to communicate with me. The first thing I did when I arrived at their house (after exchanging gifts) was eat. My host mother had made a vat of dumplings for me. A bowl about four hands around (if I had four hands, all of them touching would have matched the circumference of this bowl) was placed on the table in front of me. Embarrassing myself with chopsticks, I dug in with gusto. After I was about halfway done with the bowl (sharing it with my host brother), the host mother brought ANOTHER bowl full of dumplings for me. We didn’t even start in on the second bowl; we couldn’t even finish the first.

This was a recurring theme the MHSJB found in China—food portions and the amount of food just dwarfed anything we had had before. Noon Hill Grill is known for larger portions as far as restaurants go…one of their meals looked like a petit amuse-bouche in comparison to the portions of food we were given in China.

The following morning we all reported to Bengbu Middle School No. 6. We were shown around the school and then had a welcoming ceremony. Keep in mind that this middle school is three times the size of Medfield High School—2,700 kids there, to only about 900 here—and all the students gathered outside in perfectly straight lines during the ceremony.

After the ceremony, we visited a bunch of classrooms. At first, everything went well. We spoke with a few students, looked at textbooks, that sort of thing. And then it got…intense. We walked into a classroom, and did what we had been doing. I don’t even know how it started, but a few minutes later we were being swarmed by students, taking pictures and signing autographs for them. Before we escaped the room, we probably signed a thousand autographs, at least. The next room was the same, and a third after that one.

After we signed our lives away, we went home for lunch, everyone to their respective host families. In regard to the homestay, senior tenor saxophonist Lydia Plakias said, “My favorite part was the homestay because I've never stayed at a stranger's house before. The experience really taught me that communication is not limited to just speaking but also through gestures and smiles.”

Returned from our homes to school. Met the music group at Bengbu Middle School No. 6. Afternoon of playing for each other, starting to figure out how we were going to do the concert the following day. Finish rehearsing, went home with host families.

Back to the theater we’re going to be playing at. More rehearsing. Lunch break. More rehearsing. Supplied dinner. Concert at the Bengbu Grand Theater, gave lots of autographs backstage. Home.

Final full day in Bengbu. Went sight-seeing to the Dragon Lake and a Buddhist Temple. The Dragon Lake was a walk around a ten-mile boardwalk, to the geographic line that separates North and South China. The Buddhist Temple was a beautiful building, stereotypical of ancient Chinese architecture. Inside were giant statues of Buddha.

Back to Bengbu Middle School No.6. Another concert at the Grand Theater. More autographs. Dinner, home, pack up the luggage.

Following morning, woke up and got to Bengbu Middle School No. 6. Bus to train station. High speed train to Shanghai. Arrived at Shanghai American Day School. Unloaded bus. Went for lunch. The following concert at the Shanghai American Day School was fun because we played with a few of the musicians at the school on a few tunes.

After lunch, we went to this giant market. It was self-contained, but not really. Think Newbury Street on steroids, with about ten other streets around it, connecting them in a vast maze of shops, stores, and carts of people selling stuff.

Once we finally found our way back out of the market, we went back to the hotel for a little bit. Dinner. We then went to an acrobatic show full of contortionists, acrobatic feats, knife throwing, plate spinning, jug-throwing, leaps, bounds, flips galore. Sophomore bass player David Baler (who generously allowed me the use of some of his photos) was called to the stage and helped the aforementioned knife-thrower demonstrate his skills.

After the acrobatic show, we returned briefly to the hotel. We then went to karaoke. I’m not allowed to say much of what happened. Nothing overly bad…just forbidden by band director Mr. Douglas Olsen to be spoken of.

Returned back to the hotel. Collapsed into bed for the night.

Met new tour guide who we remember as Bruce Lee. Spent the morning at the Shanghai Museum. Looked out across the Bund River and took pictures. Interesting because on one side of the river, all the architecture dates to the colonial times when areas of China were imperialized by Europeans; the other is completely modern.

Dinner. Boat ride on the Bund, watched the sun set behind the skyline. Then onto the overall, most popular concert played in China: the JZ Jazz Club.

Met with Hong Kong composer Alan Chan again (he had previously worked with us earlier in the year). Warmed up quickly. Free time. Went to the roof and looked at the stars. Came back in, played the first set. Time off. Played a second set. Loaded up the bus, back to the hotel.

And then things started going wrong. Well, not wrong per se. We’re at the airport, getting ready to leave. And there was a delay. We finally got on the plane and back to the States. But the Flight Marshall stopped the plane too far back from the terminal. So after landing with 45 minutes to clear customs and get on the connecting flight (Newark to Boston), we got to wait another half hour because apparently they couldn’t just turn the plane back on for a minute and drive it the few feet to the terminal. We got off the plane and raced from the B terminal at Newark airport to the C terminal, cleared customs, rechecked luggage, went through security checks, all that jazz (pun completely intended). They ended up holding the plane an hour and a half for us.

Finally back in Boston. Luggage claim. Bus nowhere to be found. Finally it showed up. We were supposed to be back in Medfield around 11-11:30 PM. We got back to Medfield at 1:15 AM. Woke up five hours later for school.

And that was a brief explanation of the MHSJB trip to China. Thank you for your support of the Medfield Music program.

Things the MHSJB has to say about the trip:

• Sophomore trombonist Allegra Pericles says, “Well, I had a notion of what I thought it was going to be like, but it was completely different once I got there. I truly appreciated universal gestures like comedy and hugs.”
• Sophomore bassist David Baler says, “The trip taught me so much about Chinese culture and how they are not that much different from us. It was an unforgettable experience.”
• Senior guitarist Mitchell Selib says, “That even though things might suck initially (my guitar breaking), it's an adventure in itself to adapt to new surroundings.” (On the flight over to China, the airline was not the gentlest with his guitar, and the neck snapped before we arrived.)
• Junior drummer Evan Wagenseller says his favorite tourist site was, “The Great Wall [of China] because the views were amazing and I was baffled to see how huge it really was.”
• Senior baritone saxophonist Tommy Blessing says, “The trip was the bomb.”

This article was written by Cameron Small, a Medfield High School student and member of the student newspaper, The Kingsbury Chronicle. The piece is part of Medfield Patch's weekly series, "Warrior Weekly," helping provide information about MHS to the local community.