SPECTACLE

Every night in Yangshuo there are numerous lights that light up nearby peaks, the banks of the river and some of the most interesting architecture. However the town’s best light show is one you have to pay for. The director of the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics (and the movie “Hero”) had put together a lightshow involving almost a thousand actors and the use of six mountains as backdrops. Needless to say we decided to shell out a few hundred yuan to go and see this spectacle.

The lights of Yangshuo

The experience was so incredibly Chinese. We booked our tickets through the hotel, which involved two tour desk employees and the day manager trying to figure out what we were saying in our broken Mandarin and responding to us in broken English. Eventually we got the tickets and were picked up by another person (no English) who drove us in a minivan (full of other people) to the show. There we were handed off to another person who along with a second guide corralled about fifteen people together. We all had to line up and follow our guide’s “hello Kitty”-stuffed-doll-on-a-telescoping-stick through the teeming masses of people who were following other guides’ telescoping sticks into a holding area. There we were given our tickets and found our way to our seats. Altogether there must have been four or five thousand  people in the huge, open air theatre.

The real Chinese theatre experience

A Note: Chinese theatre goers are incredibly rude by Western standards. They answer their phones and talk (loudly) for as long as they feel like it during performances. They use flash photography. They get up and move to positions that benefit their picture taking. They yell and wave to their friends. They get close to the stage so that they can be in the pictures alongside cast members who are performing. In general they do things that would get you kicked out of a western theatre. In China, this is normal. Not a cause for comment or stress. It definitely made for an entertaining evening, as audience watching was as fun as watching the show at times.

The show was an incredible spectacle. Torches, bamboo boats, LED light suits, mountains being lit up as backdrops, hundreds of cast members on floating stages, wild costumes, traditional Chinese folk music, hundreds of children singing at once... the list goes on. There were definitely some moments that were very cheesy and there were some things that we wanted to suggest to the director (like “more pyrotechnics”) but overall, it was extremely interesting and a seriously GRAND  performance. Our favourite part was when fifty or so young women dancers all pretended to take off their clothes (they were wearing nude bodysuits) because of the reaction of the crowd. Many people in China do not have adequate access to optometrist services so the nearsighted men (and women?) in the crowd were wildly entertained.

"Impressions" lightshow

LED light suits and traditional fold music... a match I wouldn't have predicted.

Our visit to Yangshuo ended with and early morning busride back to Guilin, an amazing race type navigation of the streets of Guilin, the boarding of a shuttle bus to the airport, two airplane rides and a “black taxi” (non-licensed taxi arranged by one of the Chinese teachers for us) back to our apartment. The week was wonderful, relaxing, stimulating and food for thought. I am sure we are going to be thinking about this trip for a long, long time.