Great Wall. Not-so-great wine.

Yesterday was the last day of our first “week” of rehearsals here in Longgang. So far we have learned six production numbers (including the 9-minute long “tap ballet”) and pretty much blocked, if not sung through, over half the show. For five days’ work, that ain’t too shabby. In fact, it’s pretty impressive, and we were in much need of a day off. So instead of going to the noodle house during our lunch break, people headed past the restaurants and the man dressed in camo hawking live turtles hanging on a rope, past the man selling grapes who, after I snapped a picture of him with his cart, made some comment in Chinese that made just about everyone around me look in my direction (damn language barrier!)…we walked by the fountain where people were resting in the shade of the giant dragon statues, past the hundreds of colorful umbrellas and indifferent locals, and finally to the supermarket. In particular, to the second floor where we wine aisle was located.

For starting at 18 RMB (about $2.50) you can get a bottle of Great Wall or Great Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon (1998 vintage, thank God, ‘cause I heard that was a great year for the Jiaodong Peninsula!). The “heavy wind bouquet” and “lingering after-taste” that it boasts about on the back label perhaps are a little misconstrued, given that it tastes more like a “bouquet” of leather shoes with a lovely after-taste of…oh, what is it…blood? Yeah, not a big fan, but from the escalating noise level in our hotel rooms, it was apparently doing the trick. Besides, the bottles of wine merely headed the oncoming festivities.

Whereas the urge to “go out” was palpable after having eaten at the same two restaurants and rehearsed in the same low-ceilinged, windowless room for a week, the actual expression “go out” is quite relative when staying in Longgang, China. The reality was, in fact, that going out meant going down or going up…in the hotel. Unless we wanted to venture over to one of the two bordellos we pass on the way to rehearsals, or perhaps to the market where we felt like circus freaks being gawked at by locals, it was pretty much “which floor would you like to go to tonight?” For a Chinese meal, try floors #1 or #2. For “Western Style Food” try floor #18. For a foot, full body, or “other” massage, floor #7 is for you. Floors #3 and #4 are the “international night club,” one of our first stops of the night, though we seemed to be the only “international” people there. We did enjoy the crooning of one local Chinese man who sat alone at a table drinking and occasionally got up to sing a karaoke song; alone, in a chair, on stage, beneath the Christmas decorations and stage lights that looked as if they weren’t even plugged in.

Then there was floor #6. Thus we were introduced to the seemingly fashionable pastime of private karaoke parties in China. We all pitched in for a private karaoke room (the last one available that night) that we would have until 4am in the morning. Private waiter service, fruit plates, plush red couches, flat screen televisions with music videos from the 80’s, glass tables, lights of every color except white, gigantic stereo speakers that outclassed any surround-sound system I’ve experienced in a room no bigger than my parents’ living room…oh, and twenty-some twenty-somethings bouncing around like it was 1999 (do people use that expression anymore?) wielding wireless microphones with enough echo and reverb on them to make my dad sound like a rock star and, naturally, singing inaccurate lyrics to songs no younger than 15 years old (think New Kids on the Block, Love Shack…). If our first ‘night off’ was any indication of the ensuing year of feeling a tad isolated in a land of unfamiliarity, I think we’ll make it through. As long as we’ve got some “classic” 80s songs to fall back on.