Our group was originally 16, meeting up in Beijing, going on to Zi'an by fast train (300kph). We split up after Zi'an, leaving 7 to fly (5 hours) to Zhangjiajie then Shanghai by plane (2 hours) and out. The formal component was only 11 days and physically and nutritionally demanding, meaning plenty of big meals and plenty of buses to carry us around more locally. It was great fun running into mother and daughter Sonia and Mailee (NZ) in Shanghai after losing them earlier. And this was a great, amusing group: Canada, Aust, NZ, Indonesia, India, Brazil, England and more. And several muso-relateds who were such fun to chat with: Mailee, once a jazz student, now a NZ indie session bassist and sports broadcast staffer; Julie living in Boston and seeing a raft of the best jazz players (one gig she spoke of was drums with 4 basses, Ron Carter, Victor Wooten, Steve Bailey, Justin Chancellor!!!) at Berklee and regularly seeking out jazz venues when she travels; Virginia of London who works in marketing and management of musical acts including Placebo and whose company had first brought Nirvana to the UK (!!!). Lots of chatting in this group for a tragic like me. Also with Heinz and Maria who met at ANU while she did her PhD and he worked as a post-doc. Close to home!
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