[Travel] Yanshuo, Impression of Sanjie Liu

Our travel to the Longji Rice Terrace at Longsheng is way too short, but we need to catch the van back to Guilin and catch another bus to Yangshuo (阳朔) for the night show. We bought our ticket from our hostel in Guilin, Wada hostel. The trip only takes one hour from Guilin to Yangshuo with the bus (50 CYN).

We stayed at Yangshuo En Attendant Godot Hostel, 100 CYN per night for two people in a twin bed room. After we deposit our bags at our hostel room, we go walk near the main road and wait for the van who will pick us up.

The Impression of Sanjie Liu (印象刘三姐, Yinxiang Liu Sanjie). Pick up to and return to the hostel already included with the show’s ticket, 200 CYN.

The Impression of Sanjie Liu (印象刘三姐, Yinxiang Liu Sanjie) is directed by Zhang Yimou (张艺谋), whom also created several Impression all over China. We watched The Impression of Lijiang (印象丽江) at Lijiang , Yunnan province, a few days back. There are other outdoor stage performance in other places, like Impression of West Lake (印象西湖) in Hangzhou, Impression of Hainan (印象海南岛) in Hainan island, Impression of Dahongpao (印象大红袍) at Mount Wuyi in Fujian province and Impression Putuo (印象普陀) in Zhejiang province.

The large scale open stage performance of The Impression of Sanjie Liu (印象刘三姐, Yinxiang Liu Sanjie) on Li River (漓江), in Yangshuo (阳朔) county, with the karst mountains as part of the show, giving the natural-already-there backdrop, covering the water area of 1.654 square kilometers

As usual, the Director insists on using at least 600 local people to give the impression of Zhuang (壯族), Yao (瑶族) and Miao (苗族) ethnic groups in Yangshuo (阳朔) for the 70 minutes show.

The ethnic groups featuring the life, song and dance in the story of Sanjie Liu (刘三姐), a native girl in Yangshuo (阳朔), akin to a fairy, beautiful like the moon and singing like angel. She sings the injustice of the cruel ruler at that time and flees with her lover to the river and become one with nature. They live in the memories of the people through the folk songs and dance, and a movie with the same name.

The Impression of Sanjie Liu (印象刘三姐, Yinxiang Liu Sanjie) has no plot whatsoever, but the Impression of the people and Sanjie Liu (刘三姐).

At least 12 karst hills with bright and colorful lighting

We are seated quite at the back and I have to use my tele-lens for some closeups later in the show. We’re quite happy with our seating since we get to see the ‘whole’ stage so to speak.

Children from Zhuang (壯族) ethnic group

The Zhuang (壯族) villagers in Yangshuo (阳朔), singing “Sing the Folk Song” and dancing by the lakeside and then utilizing the bamboo raft and have another fishermen ensemble with the red ribbons like ripples of the lake.

Red Impression folk song

Sanjie Liu (刘三姐) meeting with the Moon spirits, representing the blue impression and the fishermen of the Zhuang (壯族) ethnic group.

The ladies from the Yao (瑶族) ethnic group, washing their long, long hair with rice water from the river, dressed up and bundle their hair like the one we saw in Longji Rice Terrace, Longsheng.

Sanjie Liu (刘三姐) after singing and washing, dressed with the help from the ladies, wearing her wedding dress while waiting for her lover by the riverside.

Sanjie Liu (刘三姐) actress. Beautiful dress and dance.

The Zhuang (壯族) ethnic groups of 200 girls, forming the GRAND light show, Silver Impression or Wonder of the Li River Culture, like fireflies dancing over the lake.

All in all, I love the Impression shows both in Lijiang (丽江) and Yangshuo (阳朔). Would love to see the others. We went back to the west Yangshuo downtown for dinner and return to the hostel to sleep the night. Tomorrow, let’s explore the rural countryside of Yangshuo (阳朔).