"East Meets Western" Tour of China

 

 Well, the week before we left on our "East Meets Western" Tour of China,  was pretty frantic, to say the least. Since our friends in China couldn't have an upright bass at every venue for Suzanne, we decided to ask Charlie Chadwick to build us one and just prayed that it would be here in time for our trip. Somehow he did it and Suzanne couldn't be happier with the bass and that fact that it folds down into a flyable case, makes it even better.

 It was quite a task to get through the airport with 5 instruments and a big suitcase with just the two of us, but somehow we did and made it to China without losing anything! We were met in Shanghai by our road manager Felicia and she whisked us away to our hotel, right beside the venue. The Shanghai Oriental Theatre is one of the most beautiful theatres in all of China. The photos below do it no justice. Even our hotel was a marvel of engineering and totally POSH, especially for two Longview Cowbillies like us...

  We were very nervous to play this venue for our first show and even more so as we were going to sing one of their folk songs in their language...BUT... From the second we walked out on stage, the people were so welcoming and supported us all the way through the show. There were even requests for some of our original songs.  I wonder how they knew us and our music so well... After the show two of the hostess from the theatre came on stage and gave us both a big bouquet of flowers.  That has never happened in our careers.... The only sad thing was that we weren't able to go out and meet some of the people after the show. We truly wanted to chat with folks after and especially one lady that said such nice things on Facebook about us even before we came to China... Sorry, we missed you Yue!

 Now today, it's back to the airport and the long lineups, to fly to Baotou in the Inner Mongolian Province. We'll keep you posted what happens...

 

Thank's for checking in on us!

Craig and Suzanne

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