We arrived in Wuhan today. It's a more modern Chinese city, and one of the hottest too. Before air conditioning, people used to sleep out on the street! It's also the most landscaped city we've seen so far, with a long park following the river, and lots of flower beds and shrubs. It even has a modern shopping area, including a Walmart!
We visited the Hubei Museum, which contains artifacts in a single tomb dating back to 433 BC. They weren't discovered until l978, and contain bronzes and lacquer ware. The most impressive was a set of chimes and bells that is the heaviest musical instrument in the world, weighing 5,525 pounds! There were other instruments too, such as a se, flutes, panpipes, violins, sheng, and various percussion instruments. The original bells can produce two different tones of melody and harmony, and these bells have been played only 3 times. Replicas were created, and we listened to a short concert performed with these instruments, which was very beautiful indeed.
In the evening we heard more Chinese music - a group of seniors playing percussion, flute, cello, dulcimer, pipa, erhu, as well as some other strings. It was pleasant and they were very good as well.
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