What today ate we at the Great Hall of the People

Today was the big day: the day of the banquet at the Great Hall of the People. With the help of our dear readers, we had decided that F would wear his wedding suit (aka the only suit he possesses that is both in China and is not two sizes too small) and A would wear a dress in an appropriate color (we will see that its color was so appropriate in fact, that it looks like she is in the Von Trapp family and wears a dress made of the Great Hall's curtains.) But before we go there, let me tell you what came first.



It was a close call if we would even be able to go at all, because A developed a cough on Friday night. We first thought it was due to the particularly bad pollution that day, but the next day a (mild) fever accompanied the cough. Since they take your temperature everywhere these days, even at the gym, we were afraid that a fever would disqualify the entire Tsinghua bus from attending.

On Sunday, the fever was even milder, but still present. Fortunately, we then remembered that Paracetamol suppresses flu. So a couple of pills later, we were in well-enough state to get dressed.

A then proceeded to get a stain on her dress, but no worries -- a quick cleaning with water and then hanging in front of the fan took care of that:



So here we are then!



Obviously, we were the stars of our institute (which is not hard, considering that two of them did apparently not own a suit, and one of them took the fact that the email only mentioned a suit and tie, but not socks, to mean that sandals were OK.)

The Great Hall itself was quite great, and reminiscent of Ceauşescu's palace, by which we mean nothing but perhaps that we have not been in many great halls yet in our lives.









There were at least 1500 foreign experts at the banquet. Unfortunately, we got to sit with our colleagues, so it felt like old times (i.e. last week). Our boss was there too. He got to sit at the main table with the minister of education and from the distance we saw him mingling with all the party people.

We were addressed by Li Keqiang who, according to Wikipedia, "is currently the First Vice-Premier of China and the 7th ranked member of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee, the People's Republic of China's de facto top power organ. As Premier Wen Jiabao's top lieutenant, Li's official portfolio includes development, price controls, finance, and macroeconomic management."

Once I figure out how to rotate our videos, I will upload some videos of the address and orchestra. Here is a video of the orchestra.



And this is the video of the address by Li Keqiang. Please turn your monitor 90 degrees clockwise to view it. I would have uploaded it to Vimeo and then rotated it, but now even THAT is blocked. I almost regret attending China's b-day party because their party preparations (clearing China and the internetz of all dissenting voices) are way annoying.



So now, let me get to the interesting part: the food.

Although really there is not much we can say about it. The dessert was on the table from the beginning (not that unusual in China), but pretty as it may look, nobody was too tempted by it.





The pasta we did not like that much either.



But to be fair, the other dishes were quite OK, especially considering that they had to cook for more than 1500 people (want to give that a try, Ellen?)

We also really liked the panda bear chopstick holders, that we have never seen before.



I think I was most impressed by the waiters. They were great all the time, but the end of their performance was phenomenal. Once the signal was given for us to leave (we have recently learned that at a banquet, once the host says that "the banquet is concluded", the polite thing to do is to get up, toast your neighbor so you can finish your glass of wine, and get the hell out), and we all made our way to the exit, they did something I have never seen before. They moved all the chairs in a pleasing and non-messy position, and then they stood behind the tables. The tables were still as messy as we left them, but it looked really neat all of a sudden!



And that was it! End of banquet at 7:15 as advertised (we started at 6).