A New Campus, Museums, and Shopping- Day 6

On our 6th day at TU, we woke up, ate breakfast, and boarded the bus which would take us to the other Taizhou University campus located in the city of Jiojang. The bus ride took us about an hour to get there. When we got there, we were taken on a tour. It was incredibly hot and humid and we were all incredibly sweaty by the time we reached their canteen for lunch. 

I didn't take very many photos on the campus tour because I was so hot. :/

But! Here's a picture of my lunch. I'm all about some food pics!

After our quick campus tour, we hopped back on the bus to take us to the Glass Art Museum. Unfortunately, it was closed when we got there so we decided to do a bit of souvenir shopping at the ancient street in town. Here are a few photos:

After we shopped a bit, we went to the museum that was at the end of this street. Here are a few pictures from that museum:

After that museum, we went back to the Glass Art Museum. All of the art in the museum was the work of one man. This man seemed to be quite celebrated throughout China, and the world. There were pictures of him in his youth with many Chinese government officials, including Mao, and even a picture of him with Bill Clinton. When we got there, we toured the whole museum, and when we reached the end, we met a man who was walking around. Turns out, it was the artist! It was incredible that we got to meet him, and he even took us to a room, grabbed a wine glass, and showed us how he made his art. It was an incredible experience! Not just for us, but for our Chinese co-students and teachers that went with us as well. 

Here are a few pictures from the museum and with the artist:

After that awesome experience, we got back on the bus and headed back to our Taizhou University campus, ate "Chinese burritos" and called it a night. 

A Day Dedicated to the Arts- Day 5

After an incredibly lethargic morning due to all the exercise the days before, we headed to our Traditional Chinese Music class. This class was probably my favorite from the entire trip! Our teacher discussed several favorite Chinese instruments, and then had students play them for us. Here's a few pictures:

This traditional Chinese flute is called the Xiao.

This traditional Chinese flute is called a Hulusi, and it is made from a gourd!

This Chinese instrument is called a Sheng, and it looked incredibly difficult to play. The musician had to hold it and move it around to make the sounds sound right. Apparently, it is tradition to dance while playing this instrument. The sound it makes is similar to a higher-pitched bagpipe.

This instrument is called a Pipa, and the musician played a very famous song that was mentioned to us a second time during our stay in China. The name of the song was "Ambush on All Sides." This girl actually won a medal in the National Competition. 

This instrument is called a Yanqin. The musician has little bamboo sticks with one side covered in leather, and you hit the strings to produce sound.

This instrument is called a Zheng. The musician wears fake nails on her fingers to pluck the strings. 

Our teacher played us several pieces on the traditional Chinese instrument the Erhu, or "Chinese violin." We even were given a lesson on how to play "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (which we kind of failed). Although the Erhu only has two strings, it was very difficult to produce the right sounds. 

After our Erhu lesson, we took a picture with our music teacher, his interpreter Hazel, the Dean of the Arts dept. (far right), and her husband (far left). 

Our music teacher produced a CD of his Erhu music and gave us all a copy of this and even signed it for us! It was an awesome gift.

After our music lesson, we ate lunch and then after our daily break at lunch-time, we went to the Senior Art exhibit before our afternoon class- Calligraphy. Here are a few pictures from the art exhibit:

The sculpture above is the artist's interpretation of the earthquake that happened in China.

This is a picture of one of the student's furniture/interior design project.

So many of TU's students have wonderful artistic ability, it was great walking around and seeing all of their creations. After the exhibit tour, we went to our next class- Chinese Calligraphy.

Our teacher started out by very quickly going over a powerpoint that covered the brief history of Chinese calligraphy. Then, he gave a demonstration on how to correctly mix the water with the ink and ink stick. 

Afterwards, we were given paper and materials to paint a flower scene.

Here's the Powerpoint of what our paintings were supposed to look like.

Here's my painting! I think I did a pretty good job.

Here's Lea with her painting! 

After our lesson and we painted everything, our teachers gave us so many things! It was incredible. They gave us the brushes we used to paint with, all the paints, the ink stick, the ink stick mixing bowl, a boxed set of Calligraphy brushes, and a (signed!) book of their own art. It was such a nice gift, we were so grateful.

And of course, here is our group photo!

After dinner, we were invited to a concert performed by the music students. This concert was great! Everything sounded great, and the dancing was so aesthetically pleasing, it was a great performance. Here are a few of the pictures I managed to take before my camera battery died:

The girls!

Dr. Reed, Lea, Whitney, Kayla and I

The first performance was a concert. This group sang two beautiful songs.

The girls above performed a dance where they came out of "frames" set to music. It was very entertaining. 

The girls in the background played Traditional Chinese instruments while the girl with the long sleeves danced and sang. This performance was a rival for my favorite one in the whole concert.

This girl sang solo in a more opera-style. Man, did she have some strong vocal chords!

The girls above sang and danced! This performance was also very entertaining.

Another performance was a concert given by the music students. The same students and teacher that performed for us in the morning performed for us at this concert.

Unfortunately, this was the last picture I was able to take with my camera before the battery died. This picture was the opening pose for another quite entertaining dance performance.

There were many other acts that I wasn't able to document- from more opera-style music, a pop-style performance, several more dances, and even a Les Miserables rendition at the end. 

After the concert concluded, we were invited on stage with the performers and several school officials to take pictures. All of the performers were crying- it was their last performance together as seniors at Taizhou. 

The concert concluded our 5th day at TU!