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A cab ride to remember!

August 26, 2007 at 12:45 AM

"Just close your eyes until we get there".

With those words, (spoken before the most death-defying cab ride to a hotel in my life)my wife, two sons, my manager, publicist and I embarked upon a truly fascinating week of concerts, a lecture and masterclass in China. My wife and I were scheduled to perform two concerts in Shangahi and Souzhou, with a class at the Shanghai Conservatory wedged between the concerts.

Our journey had begun two days prior, and was interrupted by an unexpectedly re-routed flight which required an overight stay in San Francisco (compliments of the airline). Finally arriving in Shanghai, we were met by a representative from the concert organizer who ushered us to the famous mag-lev train, which wizzed us to a stop within cab-ride distance of our hotel. (I swear the cab was traveling faster than the train!!)
Our destination within sight, we couldn't wait to get some decent sleep at the hotel (after many thankful prayers for deliverance from the cab ride!)

In the morning, things looked brighter and we scoped out the concert venue which was a very beautiful art gallery. We ate (carefully) some very exotic local cuisine and hit the ground running.

The days which followed were a wonderous blur of friendly people, great music, amazing scenery, exotic culture, and an amazing shopping excursion in Souzou (after the concert).

When we returned home one week later, jet-lag combined with culture shock made the whole experience seem like a dream. Its a good thing we took pictures, or we might have thought it a figment of our imaginations.

I hope you enjoy the photos:

Are those gyoza in those baskets there?
Not sure what you call them! I remember the special Shanghai dumpling was really good! It has meat and broth inside the dumpling and is really amazing. My son remembers the baby eel soup with a grimace!Mostly though, the food was amazing.