Yangshuo and the word epic just go together. This place is like a love child between Yosemite, California and Krabi, Thailand, with spectacular limestone peaks dotting every vista in every direction. What better place than to stage a magnificent, over-the-top extravaganza? That’s precisely what the Chinese did on the Li River, employing the director and creator of the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics to create a nightly show that would provide a similar sense of sensation and epic-ness to visitors of Yangshuo.
The scale of this show matches the scale of the country itself, employing over 600 local villagers as actors to perform in a 70 minute show played out on the river and in front of an island where the theater seating has been constructed. The storyline is in Chinese, and while I am sure it was moving, we didn’t understand a thing that was going on. It didn’t matter, however, as the pageantry of actors using boats, floats and moving docks synchronized to music and dramatic lighting more than kept us entertained.
Art takes on many forms, whether it is human expression exposed on a stage or canvas, or Mother Nature etching impossibly beautiful rock formations or landscapes. Yanghuo brings both forms together, offering one of the most beautiful natural amphitheaters of limestone peaks with a peaceful river for a stage floor, combined with the large-scale imagination and might of an army of Chinese artists to create a very memorable experience.
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