Yes, he did. At the closing ceremony last night, this fellow won a Leica Camera as the grand prize for the festival. For those of you that are not reading this from a photographic standpoint, the camera in the box under that fellow’s arm is worth at least $6,000.00. The whole affair was in Chinese, so we did not know what exactly he got. He was the grand prize winner. He was happy as all get out.
The closing ceremony was almost like the opening ceremony except there were fewer speeches. We had lots of folk dancing, ballet, some lip synched Chinese Pop Music, Mongolian Throat Singing and many raffles with prizes provided by the various sponsors.
I noticed a lot more musical performances last night. Some of the Chinese music is incredibly melodic and the people singing are quite talented. There is also the type of Chinese music that is not appealing to the western ear. Fortunately, we experienced more of the former than the latter.
I did not photograph some of the Mongolian dance, but it was extremely athletic and a very powerful story of warriors fighting and dying. It was really wonderful. At the opposite end of the dance spectrum were these lovely young ladies dancing.
They are not wearing traditional Mongolian headdresses, but they are carrying six bowls on their heads. The top most bowl is filled with a liquid and they didn’t spill a drop during their dance performance. But, all is not performance. There is some down time, too.
There is the traditional Mongolian dress with the traditional Mongolian iPhone. You can be traditional and keep up with the times, too.
And the food, of course was omnipresent. It was of a better quality than the opening ceremony and few dishes were served at both events. Well, except for the goat. If it was goat… Anyway, with the Mongolian throat music band gettin’ it on onstage, the chefs bring out the two sacrificial goats with nice red ribbons tied around their heads. We went through some ritual goat carving and served it up all around.
Well, at least it wasn't Boodog, maybe...
There was also quite a bit of Western Music in the program, but it was not integral to the entertainment as the Chinese or Mongolian music. It was used to define time boundaries of the event. In order to start the event, the fanfare was “Theme from Big Country.” If you are of a certain age, you will recognize the music associated the television show of that name, but more popularly remembered as the music of Marlboro cigarettes. The theme from “Star Wars” prefaced important announcements. Winners of the various door prizes and raffles marched to stage to the theme from “Monty Python.” At the conclusion of the event, we got in a verse of “Auld Lang Syne” which flowed seamlessly into “Bring it on Home,” a soul ballad originally recorded by Solomon Burke.
I can’t make up stuff this good.
We were supposed to go out this morning and photograph a small village about two hours away from the hotel. I have passed on that trip because I have succumbed to the Upper Respiratory crud that has hit all the occidentals on this trip. This morning the local temperature was -16F and with a forecast high of -4F put me of a mind that I really didn’t want to stress my body any more than it already is, so I am kind of hanging out at the hotel with Dave Best trying to take it easy, keep warm and rest.
I am happy to have enough Dayquil and Nyquil to get me through to Seattle on Friday, but I ran out of cough drops yesterday. Liu, our Transportation Coordinator, saved the day with a special run to the “medicine store” to pick up some Chinese cough drops. I have no idea what is in them, but they are keeping my hacking to a minimum. I hope the customs people don’t confiscate them from me in Seattle.
Tomorrow we head to Batou first thing in the morning to make sure one of our compatriots gets her plane back to Beijing. We will just chill out in Baotou for a day before we depart on Friday. We can make it from Baotou to Seattle on Friday (arriving several hours before we leave Beijing) and I cannot get from Seattle to Raleigh on Friday, so I am on a home bound flight first thing on Saturday morning. I should be home for dinner on Saturday night. There’s a great old Chuck Berry song that has a lyric, “hamburgers sizzle on an open griddle night and day,” and that sounds really pretty good right about now.
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