Summer is receding but before it's completely over I was able to catch the last outdoor symphony concert in a beautiful grove. The grove is deep with towering trees such that it can hold a few thousands of audiences and a full stage concert.

We arrived very early to avoid the traffic and to get the best seats. The grove has a 3 mile walking trails, which led to a very seclusive lake on its west side and a lovely meadow on its east side, the trail also went up to the slope of the surrounding area, where still had wild flowers, surprising and pleasant. Of course we explored every bit of the trail.

I was concerned if they would put up the same programs and performers for this outdoor concert as they did in the city Opera House, they did! The first half of the concert was the exciting Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, one of my favorites, the solo pianist, an Israeli young pianist, was very good but the orchestra was slightly lack of dynamic tension with the pianist, only slightly. The 2nd half was featured with Dvorak's beautiful Symphony No. 9 ""From the New World"", very moving, perfect! When it came to the end, the crowds simply refused to leave, so the orchestra repeated a very lyrical part of the 2nd movement as an encore, a beautiful ending.

This is Tibet, the song is called "Antelope Crossing The Ridge"

Photo source: Leo's post.

那一天羚羊过山岗, 回头望, 清晰的身影, 很苍凉, 天那么低, 草那么亮, 亚克摇摇藏红花, 想留住羚羊
那一天羚羊过山岗, 回头望, 清晰的身影, 很苍凉, 天那么低, 草那么亮, 低头远去的羚羊, 过了那山岗

Tibetan antelope is dubbed as “Fairy on the Plateau”, a rare species of wild animals exclusively existing on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China. The main cluster area for the species, Kekexili (可可西里) in Qinghai Province, is deemed to be a “Forbidden Zone for Living Creatures”. The plateau is 4000-5000m above sea level, featuring rarefied air and sparse plants and is hard for human and many sorts of animals to survive, the Tibetan antelope not only can survive the harsh condition but also is able to scamper without stop for 20-30 kilometers at 60km/h under this anoxic environment... However, the population of the wild animals have reduced by 2/3 in recently years since 1984 due to poachers' large scale illegal hunting, the local people tried so hard to fight against the poachers under extremely difficult conditions, no funding and human resources, some of them sacrificed lives to protect the animals. It's documented in this short film Kekexili 可可西里, once the film was aired it moved many people and drew enormous response from around China, which is embodied by the establishment of Tibetan antelope salvation fund directing at raising money for the protection zone. Finally in 2000, Tibetan antelope became Grade I animal under state protection and was listed as an endangered species.

Digest from Culture China

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“Gone Too Soon” is a song by Michael Jackson, he dedicated this song to Ryan White, a young victim of AIDS, whom Michael Jackson befriended prior to his (Ryan) death. Here is the beautiful original which I wanted to post but unable to. (Embedding disabled)