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| We made a very early morning flight from Beijing, using a brand new airport terminal to fly to Liuzhou City. Our first stop was to visit the Liuzhou Rare Stone Museum. Travelling with Kimmo Mattila, myself and Crystal Wang was the highly regarded teacher and popular performer Li Pan of Liuzhou City. Li Pan has many hundreds of accordion students in the Liuzhou area. |
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| Picture above of CD front and back cover by |
Li Pan titled The Returning Swallow. |
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| Crystal Wang and Li Pan by one of the largest natural stones. The displays were amazing and strongly recommended to all visitors to the region. |
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| Kimmo Mattila and Harley Jones outside the entrance of the Liuzhou Rare Stone Museum after a most enjoyable museum tour. |
We then enjoyed a lunch of local foods cooked in local style. We arrived after lunch at the Jia He Road Primary School. The band was there to play a march for as we walked in. |
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| What a sight greeted us! Look at all the hundreds of accordionists!!! |
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| All were standing to greet us |
and clap us to the dias. |
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| Hundreds of accordionists learning accordion at school with specialist school/accordion teachers. |
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| We were welcomed to the school by the Head Mistress Tang Liuyan. |
Each class then played for us. All played from memory. |
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| From the very tiny young children only learning a few weeks. |
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| each group in different uniforms |
and with different accordions |
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| wonderfully colorful |
accordions and uniforms |
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| The most senior group stood and played and made dance movement to the music. All music was from memory. |
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| CIA Secretary General Kimmo Mattila making a speech to all the young children thanking them for the visit and also thanking the teachers and the parents and making a presentation to the school. |
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In the class, the accordion was put on the desk. |
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| while the teacher gave them solfeg and other musical education. |
We then moved to the Ban Yun Primary School. I really liked the slogan of the school. |
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| They had a video running of previous accordion activities by the school. |
Local TV was there to interview Kimmo Mattila and Crystal Wang. |
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| The young children looked really cute in their uniform and all played from memory. |
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| and were clearly enjoying their accordion education. |
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| Kimmo Mattila being greeted by the young children, who were delighted to try out their English with him and welcome him to their school. |
We then had a visit to the internationally famous Liuzhou Arts Center, a major concert hall and cultural arts venue for the region. |
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| Warrior uniforms. |
A beautiful river scene |
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| Yi Pan pointing out where she was one of the dancers for a national award winning show. |
Every room had exceptional decor and artistic qualities. |
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| Kimmo Mattila, Harley Jones and Director of the Liuzhou Arts Center, Liu Kang. |
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| We then enjoyed an evening river cruise on |
Liujiang River which goes |
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| right through Luizhou City |
to the waterfalls |
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Zhu Qing, Crystal Wang, Kimmo Mattila, Harley Jones and Yi Pan on the riverboat.
Our grateful thanks to Yi Pan and the many other teachers at the schools for a memorable and very informative day. |
