At last a morning without pressure from the alarm clock as we are free to do as we please until later on this evening. We decide to take a longer stroll down West Street in daylight to explore the artisan stalls and shops along its length. Despite the early time in the morning, the grill stalls with their tempting comestibles are already setting up. There is a distinct lack of custom though, maybe most people are still in bed. Due to the lack of other punters we seem to be prime targets for all the hawkers and merchants around. My companion has been commenting all the while that I am an easy target for these people, and I must be more careful as she believes that even saying hello encourages their hard sell technique. That said, it is not me who makes any purchases until late in the morning when I buy a carved wooden frog which emits a frog noise when a wooden stick is rubbed along its back. In the meantime my fellow traveller has acquired some pictures, a blouse, a blanket and some Chinese ink for painting. I level things up a little with a purchase of some osmanthus tea, in a pleasant porcelain pot.
We make an impromptu lunch stop now at a restaurant close to the gateway at the top end of the street. There are a lot more people around now. One dish we order is a selection of river fish crisply fried. Rather like whitebait in essence, but this being China the fish are a a myriad of shapes and sizes, some with flat heads like catfish and others almost as large as a small sardine. Back to the hotel now and a good sort out of the cases and repack ready to be off to Chongqing early in the morning. Before that however there is the small matter of tonight’s show, The Impressions of San Jie Liu which was the main reason we stayed down in Yangshuo for a second night.
We get ready for the show and leave by taxi, a five minute ride. Again it is not what we expected, among the various shops and stalls there is an entrance like going into a park area. There are crowds waiting at the ticket office milling about, some like us with a guide. A long walk along a wide tree lined avenue being carried along with all the other punters Maggie stops and shows us a group of traditional buildings, a large drum tower and a gate in which there are seats where people used to congregate. We carry on walking, it is dusk now. As we get to the theatre we are confronted with a large lagoon surrounded by twelve limestone karst pinnacles. The whole arena must be three miles front to back and a mile from side to side, at least that is the impression we get. The tiered seating creates a greate view and forms an natural amphitheater. There are three thousand seats and all are taken. It is a popular show and three are two performances tonight. Once seated Maggie leaves us and promises to return at the end. The anticipation builds as the seats fill. Some people are noisy, there are children running about. There are popcorn sellers adorned in native costume. As the natural light fades, and the “house lights” dim, the performance starts with the mountains in the distance being illuminated to gasps of wonder from the audience. The effect is similar to traditional calligraphic paintings and is quite astounding. The performers now appear and begin to depict there traditional way of life; farming with buffalo, fishing with cormorants and a wedding ceremony. The couple are from the Drum and Yao minority peoples. The Yao women only cut their hair once in their lifetime around eighteen to twenty. A woman in a red and gold costume now floats across the lagoon on a golden lit boat all the while singing. It is moving to see the performers lake and mountains in combination. The next section makes the audience gasp again, as the lights go up and the beat of the drums reveals men on rafts, with their coolie hats, stretch red fabric across the lake which they tug up and down to simulate waves. Next on the right hand side a village is illuminated out of nowhere. We see the comings and goings of village life with many people and water buffalo, which then walk along a pontoon towards us. It is again like a scene from a painting. A group of young girls in black and gold costumes now sing folk songs. These local folk songs became nationally famous in the 1950’s so are recognised by many in the crowd. The fishermen on boats paddle across the water. Another group carrying cormorants walk across in front of us and join their floating comrades. There is then a wedding ceremony with a young lady singing to a man on a boat. The girl is Yao the boy Drum. The boy helps here onto his boat, she is dressed in red with silver medallions hanging from her head. They sail off towards the mountains in the distance. The finale is a long line of performers dressed in blue with the body covered in fairy lights, which are first illuminated silver, then yellow. All the time they sing folk songs. Their lights flash on and off in time with the music which builds to a crescendo. The show now ends and Maggie appears to walk us back to the taxi. We mingle and march back to the road with the rest of the audience. We both enjoyed the show. It did not last to long and was not the least bit tacky. The director of the show is a well known Chinese director, most famous for his art house films. He created this show some time ago for a closing ceremony for a conference that was held in Guilin, and it was so popular they local government decided to create a permanent home for it. The director has also been responsible for some outright turkeys such as The Great Wall with Matt Damon which seems to be universally hated by people we have spoken to here.