Longgang, China

Well, we’ve just finished our first two weeks of rehearsal in Longgang and we’ve already had two run-throughs. Fairly smooth run-throughs at that; the cast is doing a terrific job assimilating all the material, particularly in a place as strange as this. And it is strange. There are many things which are commonplace to the Chinese that we have no understanding of. It’s a very peaceful culture at heart and yet things like driving, or lining up are like mad scenes. Driving here is absolutely insane. No one stops… ever, not for pedestrians, or even other cars or buses. If a light’s been red for a while, maybe. People have this unnerving habit of stepping right in front of a moving vehicle and if you want to change lanes you do, whether there’s someone in the next lane or not. It makes the roundabout at the Arch de Triomphe look like the Gran Prix ride at Disneyland. It’s also fairly commonplace, at least in Longgang, for people to perform the most intimate of bodily functions right on the street. I think it’s because this city rose from a fairly rural environment where it’s completely inoffensive and retained the habit despite the modern buildings and sidewalks. It could partly explain the rather unusual odor that is pervasive in this town.

The food is a real challenge, too. I’ve been told that it’s because we’re in a small and relatively out of the way place. I hope that’s true. Not to get vulgar or anything, but an actual menu item from the restaurant on the first floor of our hotel goes as follows: Stewed chicken w/Hippocampi genitals and fur seal. I am not making this up. The positive note is that if on the off chance you don’t like Hippocampi genitals you can always fall back on the stewed sparrow w/Areto, which is two items down on the same page.

That said, the hotel is very nice and the people are warm and will do anything to make you feel welcome.  I’ve befriended one of the men who serves as concierge (and bellman) at our hotel and he’s been very helpful finding me things to do and places to go. He arranged for us to play a little golf today (though we only hit balls at the driving range since it’s around 100 degrees farenheit) and has also arranged for us to go to what he promises to be a very fine Japanese restaurant this evening. Hopefully it’ll have a menu sans genitalia.