Chengdus & Don'ts: Impressions Lijiang

On the previous day as we were walking around the old town we found a guide for our trip to Yulong Xue Shan (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain). We did a bit of touring around a temple with frescoes. Frescoes were mural paintings which reflect different religious cultures and artistic forms of Buddhism, Lamaism, and Daoism and the Naxi Dongba religion. I have to say that the temple with frescoes we visited was a disappointment. They had been pretty much been defaced during the Cultural Revaluation, so there wasn't too much to see.

Our guide was another story. I don't think we did a very good job in that department, as we just hired a guy off the street. Everything seemed to be fine until he suggested we go to lunch at this place on the way to the Snow Mountain. It was a little hole in the wall place, we order about 4 bottles of water, some steamed rice, and 5 different dishes. Usually in a Chinese restaurant this will cost you a merely 60 rmb, but they charged us 140 rmb! I know it isn't much money in US dollars, but I really get upset when Westerners are charged Western prices. I am sure our guide got a cut for bringing us to the restaurant too!

After our lunch we headed to see Zhang Yimou's production called Impressions Lijiang. Zhang Yimou is a famous Chinese director known in the US for the movies House of Flying Daggers and Hero. If you haven't seen either of these movies and if your feeling up to subtitles these are beautiful movies filled with passion and action! Impressions Lijiang is performed in an outdoor theater with Yulong Xue Shan as the backdrop for the play. I have to say that the performance was the highlight of Lijiang for me! There were 500 actors and 300 horses in this performance and it was just perfect! If you have ever seen any of Zhang Yimou's movies than you could imagine how incredibly choreographed the show was. Unfortunately I am not entirely sure of what the show was about. I know it had to with 10 of the minority and ethnic races in and around Lijiang including Yi, Musou, Naxi, Tibetan, etc. We had a program printed in English but in true Chinese translation fashion it didn't exactly make that much sense to me. It really didn't matter to me though as too me it was an incredible work of art! Here are a few pictures and video clips of the performance.