Here we are in our penultimate stop of this, our busiest ever tour to China! We're visiting another new city today - Tianjin, which is a short 35-minute train journey from Beijing. To give you an idea of the scale of things here, though, that journey took us around 100 miles (at very high speed) and from a city of 20 million inhabitants to another of 15 million inhabitants. The statistics are mind-blowing.Sadly, one thing that hasn't been great is the air quality - here the index is up at 160+ (to give you context, London is around 30 and the village where I live weight in at between 3-4 on an average day) so we're trying as hard as possible not to be outside. Luckily our hosts are amenable to driving us around so I think we've spent a matter of moments in the natural atmosphere. It does make you wonder how the locals stand it, but I suppose they get used to it.This evening's hall was an amazing venue - the interior beautifully clad in wood and with wonderful acoustics - and the audience as warm and friendly as ever. We were singing in the round today, which I really enjoy. It reminds me of the hall in Utrecht where I performed early on in my KS life, as well as the Philharmonie in Berlin, and I've always enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by the audience. There's something about being roughly in the middle of a space that allows the sound to blossom and the harmonics to bloom. Great fun!Tomorrow we go on a 7-hour train journey up to our final stop of the tour, Harbin, a city very close to the Russian border and famous for its ice festival in winter. The journey will allow us to get a lot of admin finalised before we head home, and to be honest Chinese trains are one of our favourite modes of transport! Smooth, fast and comfortable - what more could one want?!
Here we are in our penultimate stop of this, our busiest ever tour to China! We're visiting another new city today - Tianjin, which is a short 35-minute train journey from Beijing. To give you an idea of the scale of things here, though, that journey took us around 100 miles (at very high speed) and from a city of 20 million inhabitants to another of 15 million inhabitants. The statistics are mind-blowing.Sadly, one thing that hasn't been great is the air quality - here the index is up at 160+ (to give you context, London is around 30 and the village where I live weight in at between 3-4 on an average day) so we're trying as hard as possible not to be outside. Luckily our hosts are amenable to driving us around so I think we've spent a matter of moments in the natural atmosphere. It does make you wonder how the locals stand it, but I suppose they get used to it.This evening's hall was an amazing venue - the interior beautifully clad in wood and with wonderful acoustics - and the audience as warm and friendly as ever. We were singing in the round today, which I really enjoy. It reminds me of the hall in Utrecht where I performed early on in my KS life, as well as the Philharmonie in Berlin, and I've always enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by the audience. There's something about being roughly in the middle of a space that allows the sound to blossom and the harmonics to bloom. Great fun!Tomorrow we go on a 7-hour train journey up to our final stop of the tour, Harbin, a city very close to the Russian border and famous for its ice festival in winter. The journey will allow us to get a lot of admin finalised before we head home, and to be honest Chinese trains are one of our favourite modes of transport! Smooth, fast and comfortable - what more could one want?!
Here we are in our penultimate stop of this, our busiest ever tour to China! We're visiting another new city today - Tianjin, which is a short 35-minute train journey from Beijing. To give you an idea of the scale of things here, though, that journey took us around 100 miles (at very high speed) and from a city of 20 million inhabitants to another of 15 million inhabitants. The statistics are mind-blowing.Sadly, one thing that hasn't been great is the air quality - here the index is up at 160+ (to give you context, London is around 30 and the village where I live weight in at between 3-4 on an average day) so we're trying as hard as possible not to be outside. Luckily our hosts are amenable to driving us around so I think we've spent a matter of moments in the natural atmosphere. It does make you wonder how the locals stand it, but I suppose they get used to it.This evening's hall was an amazing venue - the interior beautifully clad in wood and with wonderful acoustics - and the audience as warm and friendly as ever. We were singing in the round today, which I really enjoy. It reminds me of the hall in Utrecht where I performed early on in my KS life, as well as the Philharmonie in Berlin, and I've always enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by the audience. There's something about being roughly in the middle of a space that allows the sound to blossom and the harmonics to bloom. Great fun!Tomorrow we go on a 7-hour train journey up to our final stop of the tour, Harbin, a city very close to the Russian border and famous for its ice festival in winter. The journey will allow us to get a lot of admin finalised before we head home, and to be honest Chinese trains are one of our favourite modes of transport! Smooth, fast and comfortable - what more could one want?!
Here we are in our penultimate stop of this, our busiest ever tour to China! We're visiting another new city today - Tianjin, which is a short 35-minute train journey from Beijing. To give you an idea of the scale of things here, though, that journey took us around 100 miles (at very high speed) and from a city of 20 million inhabitants to another of 15 million inhabitants. The statistics are mind-blowing.Sadly, one thing that hasn't been great is the air quality - here the index is up at 160+ (to give you context, London is around 30 and the village where I live weight in at between 3-4 on an average day) so we're trying as hard as possible not to be outside. Luckily our hosts are amenable to driving us around so I think we've spent a matter of moments in the natural atmosphere. It does make you wonder how the locals stand it, but I suppose they get used to it.This evening's hall was an amazing venue - the interior beautifully clad in wood and with wonderful acoustics - and the audience as warm and friendly as ever. We were singing in the round today, which I really enjoy. It reminds me of the hall in Utrecht where I performed early on in my KS life, as well as the Philharmonie in Berlin, and I've always enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by the audience. There's something about being roughly in the middle of a space that allows the sound to blossom and the harmonics to bloom. Great fun!Tomorrow we go on a 7-hour train journey up to our final stop of the tour, Harbin, a city very close to the Russian border and famous for its ice festival in winter. The journey will allow us to get a lot of admin finalised before we head home, and to be honest Chinese trains are one of our favourite modes of transport! Smooth, fast and comfortable - what more could one want?!
Here we are in our penultimate stop of this, our busiest ever tour to China! We're visiting another new city today - Tianjin, which is a short 35-minute train journey from Beijing. To give you an idea of the scale of things here, though, that journey took us around 100 miles (at very high speed) and from a city of 20 million inhabitants to another of 15 million inhabitants. The statistics are mind-blowing.Sadly, one thing that hasn't been great is the air quality - here the index is up at 160+ (to give you context, London is around 30 and the village where I live weight in at between 3-4 on an average day) so we're trying as hard as possible not to be outside. Luckily our hosts are amenable to driving us around so I think we've spent a matter of moments in the natural atmosphere. It does make you wonder how the locals stand it, but I suppose they get used to it.This evening's hall was an amazing venue - the interior beautifully clad in wood and with wonderful acoustics - and the audience as warm and friendly as ever. We were singing in the round today, which I really enjoy. It reminds me of the hall in Utrecht where I performed early on in my KS life, as well as the Philharmonie in Berlin, and I've always enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by the audience. There's something about being roughly in the middle of a space that allows the sound to blossom and the harmonics to bloom. Great fun!Tomorrow we go on a 7-hour train journey up to our final stop of the tour, Harbin, a city very close to the Russian border and famous for its ice festival in winter. The journey will allow us to get a lot of admin finalised before we head home, and to be honest Chinese trains are one of our favourite modes of transport! Smooth, fast and comfortable - what more could one want?!
Here we are in our penultimate stop of this, our busiest ever tour to China! We're visiting another new city today - Tianjin, which is a short 35-minute train journey from Beijing. To give you an idea of the scale of things here, though, that journey took us around 100 miles (at very high speed) and from a city of 20 million inhabitants to another of 15 million inhabitants. The statistics are mind-blowing.Sadly, one thing that hasn't been great is the air quality - here the index is up at 160+ (to give you context, London is around 30 and the village where I live weight in at between 3-4 on an average day) so we're trying as hard as possible not to be outside. Luckily our hosts are amenable to driving us around so I think we've spent a matter of moments in the natural atmosphere. It does make you wonder how the locals stand it, but I suppose they get used to it.This evening's hall was an amazing venue - the interior beautifully clad in wood and with wonderful acoustics - and the audience as warm and friendly as ever. We were singing in the round today, which I really enjoy. It reminds me of the hall in Utrecht where I performed early on in my KS life, as well as the Philharmonie in Berlin, and I've always enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by the audience. There's something about being roughly in the middle of a space that allows the sound to blossom and the harmonics to bloom. Great fun!Tomorrow we go on a 7-hour train journey up to our final stop of the tour, Harbin, a city very close to the Russian border and famous for its ice festival in winter. The journey will allow us to get a lot of admin finalised before we head home, and to be honest Chinese trains are one of our favourite modes of transport! Smooth, fast and comfortable - what more could one want?!
Here we are in our penultimate stop of this, our busiest ever tour to China! We're visiting another new city today - Tianjin, which is a short 35-minute train journey from Beijing. To give you an idea of the scale of things here, though, that journey took us around 100 miles (at very high speed) and from a city of 20 million inhabitants to another of 15 million inhabitants. The statistics are mind-blowing.Sadly, one thing that hasn't been great is the air quality - here the index is up at 160+ (to give you context, London is around 30 and the village where I live weight in at between 3-4 on an average day) so we're trying as hard as possible not to be outside. Luckily our hosts are amenable to driving us around so I think we've spent a matter of moments in the natural atmosphere. It does make you wonder how the locals stand it, but I suppose they get used to it.This evening's hall was an amazing venue - the interior beautifully clad in wood and with wonderful acoustics - and the audience as warm and friendly as ever. We were singing in the round today, which I really enjoy. It reminds me of the hall in Utrecht where I performed early on in my KS life, as well as the Philharmonie in Berlin, and I've always enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by the audience. There's something about being roughly in the middle of a space that allows the sound to blossom and the harmonics to bloom. Great fun!Tomorrow we go on a 7-hour train journey up to our final stop of the tour, Harbin, a city very close to the Russian border and famous for its ice festival in winter. The journey will allow us to get a lot of admin finalised before we head home, and to be honest Chinese trains are one of our favourite modes of transport! Smooth, fast and comfortable - what more could one want?!
