Shanghai, Day 6

Today we went back to the fabric market for fittings. Dad got three suits, a sports coat, and three shirts made. They were absolutely beautiful and were all made in only three days! With relatively few adjustments, they will be great. However, I got a women's suit made, and it fit terribly. They are going to have to make so many adjustments, so we will need to go back again tomorrow before we leave on the cruise. It is a long ways down there, so I feel badly about that.

Anyway, in the afternoon we came home and hung out at home and watched a video, ate dinner, then got ready for the "big night!" Alison and I could hardly wait. I don't think John and George were quite as excited, but we had bought tickets for a huge production of dance and music highlighting the different Chinese dynasties. It was being held at the theater which holds about 500 people, right down by the Pearl Tower. Mike picked us up and we got there about 15 minutes early. We weren't worried about getting there too early because we had reserved seats. However, when we got there, we saw no one there. Could we have come on the wrong night? Looking at the tickets again, we knew it was right and then thought everyone else must have arrived even earlier.

We had a man who was walking by take a picture as we were going into the theater. He must have moved the camera because it's terribly blurry, but it's the only one we have. Once inside, we couldn't believe our eyes! There were probably only five other people there!A few more did arrive, but by the time the production started, we had only about 20 people in the audience. We wondered if we'd somehow chosen a dud of a show, but from the first musical gong to the very end, we were totally caught up in the production--one of the best I have ever seen!

I turned off my flash and tried to take pictures to let you experience a little of our magical evening! At one point, some of the dancers came and put scarves around our heads. George, John, Alison, and I clapped and clapped after each number in order for the performers to know how much we enjoyed them. At the end they clapped for us--they truly performed as if they had really filled the auditorium. Even the guys (George and John) enjoyed the wonderful evening!

Well, tomorrow we leave for our cruise down the Yangtze River. I don't know if I will be able to download the pictures while we are on it, so I may not add to this for a few days. Until then, bye bye!