The Peace Prize and a last China visit

On 22 June we left Bergen for our third K-Jell China tour in three years, with Tronna on bass. After the missing luggage of 2010 we were careful about the instruments, but this time both we and our bags reached Beijing together. The relief did not last long: heavy rain kept Kang Mao from reaching our hotel, and the next day brought worries about the first concert.

Kang Mao told us the clubs were under pressure. At 13 Club we learned that the concert had not been advertised as usual, and we wondered whether we would get to play at all. We decided to go ahead. In conversations on the trip, people asked us about Norway and the Peace Prize. I tried to explain that the Nobel Committee made that decision, not a band travelling with its guitars.

The tour carried on through Xinxiang, Zhengzhou, Hefei, Nanjing and Shanghai before the final show at 2 Kolegas in Beijing on 1 July. There were still concerts, friends and experiences worth coming for. But we came home with less money and the feeling that this would be our last China trip for a long time. That is how I remember the end of this part of the journey.