Beijing Music Festival and the Performing Arts in China
Shanghai – Beijing – HangzhouNot content with being purely an industrial and economic superpower, China is also fast becoming a global cultural powerhouse. International festivals have appeared overnight, stunning new performing arts centres have opened across the country and the world’s leading orchestras and ensembles, conductors and soloists are all including China in their international touring schedules.
Spend a week at the 15th Beijing Music Festival, now established as China’s premier performing arts festival, combined with visits to all the major sights of this fascinating city. Whilst in Beijing you will also see Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Sydney Symphony perform with acclaimed Chinese cellist Jian Wang in the National Centre for the Performing Arts (‘Bird’s Egg’).
On the way to Beijing, stop in Shanghai for performances at the Grand Theatre and Oriental Arts Centre. On the way back, visit Hangzhou, famous for its beautiful West Lake, tea villages and temples, and home to the Hangzhou Grand Theatre.
At a glance...
• Visiting Shanghai, Beijing and Hangzhou
• A week of performances at the Beijing Music Festival
• Sydney Symphony concert with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Jian Wang in Beijing
• Concerts, opera and/or ballet in Shanghai and Hangzhou
National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing
Sydney Symphony with Ashkenazy - Credit Keith Saunders
ITINERARY
Sat 13 Oct 2012 / Australia – Shanghai
Depart Sydney on Qantas (domestic Qantas flight included for passengers flying from MEL/ADL/BNE), arriving in Shanghai late afternoon. Transfer to your hotel. Evening at leisure.
Sun 14 Oct / Shanghai
Following a welcome breakfast & briefing with Damien Beaumont, start your exploration of Shanghai with a visit to the Pearl Orient Tower which houses an Observation Tower with spectacular views of the city and the Museum of the History of Shanghai. Originally a fishing village, Shanghai is now China’s largest city and the new ‘Gateway to the Orient’, where Western customs and Chinese traditions intertwine.
After lunch, take a cruise on the Huangpu River and admire the view of the famous colonial-era buildings that make up the Bund. (BL)
Mon 15 Oct / Shanghai
Visit the 400-year old Yu Yuan garden. Built in 1559 in the Suzhou style by a high official in honour of his father, the garden has maintained its classic beauty over the centuries and is a graceful blend of traditional Chinese architecture, miniature lakes, bridges and rock formations. Continue to the French Concession, in the past designated as a home for the French traders and businesspeople resident in Shanghai. Thanks to its Art Deco architecture, tree-lined streets and thriving cafe scene, the French Concession is undergoing gentrification into a hip urban quarter.
Afternoon at leisure, before an evening performance at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre and/or the Grand Theatre and/or the Concert Hall*. (BL)
Tue 16 Oct / Shanghai
In the morning visit the Shanghai Museum. This extraordinary building is shaped like a bronze tripod and houses one of the world’s top collections of ancient and modern Chinese art and artefacts.
Afternoon at leisure, before another evening performance at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre and/or the Grand Theatre and/or the Concert Hall*. (BL)
Wed 17 Oct / Shanghai – Beijing
This morning transfer to the railway station to catch the new high-speed train to Beijing, opened in June 2011. The new line has reduced the journey time between Shanghai and Beijing from fourteen hours to just five.
Afternoon arrival in Beijing and transfer to your hotel. (BD)
Thu 18 Oct / Beijing
Start your exploration of Beijing at the geographical heart of the city – Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Covering over 40 hectares, Tiananmen Square is the largest public square in the world. It is surrounded by the Forbidden City, the Gate of Heavenly Peace, the China National Museum and the Great Hall of the People. In the middle of the square is the Monument to the People’s Heroes and the Chairman Mao Zedong Memorial Hall. Continue to the Imperial Palace. With some buildings dating back to the 15th century, the palace is an immense and magnificent complex of pavilions, courtyards, gates, ceremonial halls and imperial residences, gardens and lakes, with the Forbidden City at its heart.
Afternoon at leisure.
Tonight, attend the first of three performances of the Beijing Music Festival*. (BL)
Fri 19 Oct / Beijing
This morning discover some of the stunning new architecture in Beijing including the newly built stadiums for the 2008 Olympic Games – the ‘Water Cube’ and the ‘Bird’s Nest’ – plus the Olympic Village, the CCTV building and the National Centre for the Performing Arts, known as ‘the Egg’ (exterior views only).
Afternoon at leisure. Why not visit the 798 Art Space? Beginning in 2002, artists and cultural organisations began to divide, rent out, and re-make old state-owned factory spaces located in the Dashanzi area, to the north-east of central Beijing, gradually developing them into galleries, art centres, artists’ studios, design companies, restaurants and bars.
Tonight, join the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy, with cellist Jian Wang, in the National Centre for the Performing Arts (programme to be advised). (B)
Sat 20 Oct / Beijing
Morning visit to the Summer Palace. Located 10 km north-west of Beijing, the Summer Palace was the summer retreat of the imperial family during the Qing Dynasty. It is renowned for its architectural grandeur and stunning natural beauty. The large man-made Kunming Lake makes up three-quarters of the total area of 290 hectares. Overlooking it on Longevity Hill is a complex of imperial residences rebuilt by the Dowager Empress Cixi in the late 19th century.
Afternoon at leisure, before a second performance of the Beijing Music Festival*. (BL)
Sun 21 Oct / Beijing
This morning visit the Temple of Heaven. Built between 1406 and 1420 as the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Temple of Heaven covers 273 hectares and is a superb example of imperial Chinese architecture; the main structure was built without a single nail or peg. Like the city itself, the temple grounds are laid out according to a sacred geometry based on the requirements of imperial ritual.
After lunch explore a slice of ‘old Beijing’ with a visit to one of the hutong areas of the city. Hutongs are ancient alleyways lined with ‘siheyuan’ (traditional courtyard residences), which are linked to form delightful historic neighbourhoods dotted with communal squares. (BL)
Mon 22 Oct / Beijing
Full day tour to the Great Wall of China at Badaling, 80 km from Beijing. The Great Walls of China are a series of fortifications – walls, beacon towers and watchtowers – erected and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 17th century AD across shifting borders. They stretch over some 7,000 km. In one 10-year period alone, 3,000,000 labourers and 300,000 soldiers worked on the Walls. They are a poignant reminder of the power, territorial aspirations and follies of China’s ancient rulers.
Enjoy lunch at the extraordinary Commune by the Wall – a boutique hotel and 12 private contemporary residences designed by 12 leading Asian architects. (BL)
Tue 23 Oct / Beijing
Day at leisure to enjoy the wonderful shopping opportunities that abound or simply take in the pulse of this exciting city.
Tonight, attend a third and final performance of the Beijing Music Festival*. (B)
Wed 24 Oct / Beijing – Hangzhou
Transfer to the airport for a late morning two-hour flight to Hangzhou. One of the six ancient capitals of China, Hangzhou’s centrepiece is the picturesque scenery of the West Lake, praised by emperors and immortalised by countless poets and artists. Late afternoon cruise on the West Lake. (BD)
Thu 25 Oct / Hangzhou
This morning visit the Longjing Tea Village, where some of China’s most famous tea – a favourite of emperors throughout the dynasties – is grown and processed. Continue to the Six Harmonies Pagoda, a masterpiece of Chinese architecture.
Free time for lunch in the Xintiandi area and afternoon at leisure.
Tonight attend a performance at the Hangzhou Grand Theatre, designed by Canadian architect Carlos Ott and opened in 2004*. (B)
Fri 26 Oct / Hangzhou
Day at leisure to soak up the tranquil atmosphere of the West Lake, or go shopping in Qing He Fang Street, one of the most famous historic streets in Hangzhou with a concentration of preserved buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Tonight attend an outdoor performance ‘Impression West Lake’ – a feast of light, music, dance and theatrics staged entirely upon the lake. Directed by Zhang Yimou, who was in charge of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, ‘Impression West Lake’ is the most beautiful metropolitan theatre with natural mountains and water as its backdrop. Then join Damien Beaumont and fellow music lovers for a special farewell dinner. (BD)
Sat 27 Oct / Depart Hangzhou
After a morning at leisure, transfer from Hangzhou to Shanghai Pudong Airport (3 hours approx.) for your overnight flight to Sydney on Qantas. (B)
Sun 28 Oct / Arrive Australia
Morning arrival in Sydney. Passengers from MEL/ADL/BNE to take a connecting Qantas flight in Sydney (included in tour cost), for an early afternoon arrival.
* The Beijing Music Festival and concert venues in Shanghai and Hangzhou will announce their programmes mid-2012. From the final programmes, Damien Beaumont and Renaissance Tours will make a selection of included performances, featuring symphonic concerts, recitals, opera and ballet.
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The Beijing Music Festival was founded in 1998 and is recognised as a landmark cultural event in China that attracts artists and audiences from all over the world. This annual festival brings the best of Western classical music – including opera, symphonic, solo concert, chamber music and classical jazz – into the heart of the Chinese capital. Performances span musical eras, from tributes to Chopin and Handel to contemporary commissions. Performances and masterclasses take place in grand city venues, such as the Poly Theatre, Beijing Concert Hall and Forbidden City Concert Hall. Highlights from the festival's first decade have included the 2005's visit by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, as well as the Chinese premières of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony and Wagner's Ring Cycle. The festival has seen perform world-renowned artists such as tenors Jose Carreras and Kathleen Battle, pianists Martha Argerich, Fou Ts'ong, and Melvyn Tan, violinists Isaac Stern, Sarah Chang and Augustin Dumay, conductor Valery Gergiev and composer and conductor Krizysztof Penderecki. |
