Chinese Opera

My friend invited me to go see Chinese Opera! The performers were some of her former students, so I got to meet them and go backstage into the makeup and dressing rooms! It was such an amazing experience.

Layers of makeup

The ayi's (translates as 'older aunt') helping out

Costumes

Was talking to her minutes before going on stage

Scenes from The Journey to the West (a very famous story here)


A lot of the acts were famous scenes from The Journey to the West. Thankfully my friend was there to help me to explain some of the cultural/historical meanings behind the stories.

The Monkey

In Chinese Opera its very common and traditional for a guy to play the woman role... in this performance the guy played an older 'mocking' grandma who was pretending to not like the new daughter in law.

Some of the best acting I've ever seen.

This scene was a story about a monk

The ending of the performance included lots of performers, stunts, fire, props, and singing!

Tiger Leaping Gorge

While down south we hiked Tiger Leaping Gorge!

This lady and her family built the trail we hiked

The story goes... that there was a man hunting a tiger and ended up chasing it to the edge of this cliff... Then the legend goes that the tiger made this jump!

Apart of the hike back was having to climb up this bridge... I'll admit it was a little old and a little scary to climb up

This was the bathroom