Fourth Day in Beijing

Today the rest of the tour arrived. The average age has now gone up at least 15 years.

So we started off with an orientation, and introduction to our scholarly guide , June Mei, and a 2 hour (!) lecture on ancient Chinese musical instuments by a renowned Chinese archeologist.



Sitting in a stuffy room with 30 jet lagged people looking at slides of instuments we know nothing about was .... about what you would expect. I felt by the end that I might have lost my will to live. 

Luckily it was revived by a delicious lunch.

Unfortunately, this was then followed by a visit to a work shop on "Antique Street".

This was a tiny, cramped warren of rooms where they make wood block copies of Chinese paintings, in a staggeringly detailed process. Imagine crowding into the space between the artist's desks, with 30 people all asking endless questions.....

I ended up waiting outside until I was too frozen and had to come indoors. 

Though the visit was interesting, and the artwork lovely, I hope this is not an indication of how the next 14 days will go. Here are some images of the studio workshops:

Tomorrow we leave before dawn for the train station. Yippee.