The small town of Yangshuo is located at the banks of Li River about 60 kilometers south of Guilin. In order to be able to experince the breathtaking scenery of limestone hills, caves and rice paddies, we chose to take the boat from Guilin to Yangshuo. Apart from the amazing landscape, the Yangshou Impression Liu Sanjie show was an absolute highlight.
The show is presenting local life. It is performed on the river by 600 locals with twelve karst hills as a backdrop.Through singing, dancing and changing lights, they tell the story of Liu Sanjie, who was the third sister in the Liu family. At a young age she had the most beautiful voice. It was said that with that voice she could raise the dead to life.
It was already dark when we arrived to see the performance, which made it difficult to see the river and the mountains. But these two pictures shows the scenery along the river during daytime. The photos from the show were taken when it was dark and without flash, so the quality is not the best.
The whole show is performed on the river as the stage. The actors are telling the love story of Liu Sanjie and A Niu, who lived sometime during the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907). She became known for her beautiful voice. People who came to her village and heard her singing were left speechless. Through singing and dancing we learn the story of Liu Sanjie, and how she withstood the landlord and made an escape from percecution. The story has a happy ending. She eventually marries A Niu.
The performance consists of changing scenes, lights and colors. Each scene is named after the colors: Red, Blue, Green, Silver etc. The Silver Impression concists of 200 ethnic minority girls dressed up in local costumes.
Red Impression
The photos above is the Red Impression. This scene shows the Li River with the fishing boats and with 600 actors singing an antiphony. To me, this was the most impressive scene.
The fishing boats depicts life on the river. Bamboo rafts are used by the fishermen fishing by using cormorants. The light in the background is the light on each of these rafts.
At the end there is this scene where a girl is dancing on the moon, floating on the river. This scene was impressive. The bride is getting ready to be picked up by A Niu. An amazing show in the darknes of the night.
The premiere of the show was on March 20, 2004. Since then it has become a very popular outdoor show with 2,500 seats. The film director Zhang Yimou has done the choreography for this show.
He was also behind the show that was performed at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Later I read that there is now a museum - a theater museum - that tells about how the show came to be. That might be well worth visiting too.
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