The Impressions Light Show in Yangshuo was the absolute highlight of our trip.

It wasn’t the actual performance that was amazing (even though it was great), it was the location. The stage is actually the river itself! The audience sits stadium-style (seating abou 2,500 people – a full house every time) at the river mouth, looking at the river. In the background surrounding the area are 12 tall mountains framing the river. They put the sound and lighting equipment in such a way that it’s not intrusive, and so you honestly feel like you’re sitting in the great outdoors in a natural setting. It’s absolutely picture perfect.

The show aims to give an impression of what local life along the river is like, and a display of the ethnic minorities in the region. It’s an explosion of surround sound and breath-taking natural scenery. Incidently, it was directed by the same guy (Zhang Yimao) that coordinated the Beijing olympics opening ceremony, to give you an idea of how impressive the show was.

The story is called “Liu Sanjie” (???) and is about the legend of of a lady called (Liu Sanjie means “3rd sister in the Liu family”), who had a beautiful voice. There is a love story about her but I didn’t understand it because I couldn’t read the Chinese words. It boasts a cast 600 actors. Can you believe that?! Imagine Australia having a 600-strong cast… it would never happen because labour’s too expensive there. The cast had men, women, small children and even animals like cows and ducks, LOL!

The theatrics were so impressive, and the performance so well choreographed. I was totally astounded. I never thought I’d see a show so amazing in China.. let alone in this sleepy little town!! It was a performance I have never experienced in my life, it’s totally unparalleled. That panoranic outdoor view was just incredible. It’s IMPOSSIBLE to capture the beauty and awe of the performance in photos… you really had to be there to experience it all with your senses.

Walking in..

Stunning! And this was just the waiting area near the entrance..

Hard to tell, but we were surrounded by mountains and the lake was in front of us.
Tres gorgeous!

A lady singing whilst drifting on a bamboo raft. Her voice was… very shrill.

Video of the opening scene – told you her voice was shrill 😛

(link for China visitors)

Every fire torch was held by a person, even the ones in the far back!

Seemingly to stand on the water, these guys did such fluid movements with
these massive stretches of red fabric. Very impressive

Lots of little girls dressed in ethnic gear. So adorable!

An eerily beautiful scene

A moon that rocked when she ran along it

Video of the very hot chick dancing on the moon

(link for China visitors)

Each one is an actual person!!

Video of the 200 actors dressed in lightbulbs

(link for China visitors)

Video of more of the lightbulb actors – tres cool!

(link for China visitors)

Finale