the world through my eyes…

After wandering around the city I decided to go on an excursion to the Sichuan Opera last night. Climbing onto the mini bus, I was greeted by a GAP Adventures Tour group (that has been to the same places as I’ve been, and were even on the same flight to Chengdu as I was!) to which there were a few Canadians on board.

Driving through what looked like teahouse row, we arrived at our destination and made our way down the dark path to the entrance. The teahouse was beautiful, with of course, several shops located conveniently for the tourists to empty their pocketbooks! Sitting down in the middle section of the theatre, we sipped our complimentary jasmine tea (Which wasn’t as strong as the tea I had at the Mosque in Xi’an) and waited for the show to begin.

Sichuan Opera is fantastic! They have a variety of acts which include musical solos, operatic singing (kind of high pitched, not like the Opera I’ve been too), a comedic play, shadow puppets, puppets and changing faces.

The guy doing the shadow puppets was incredible. He did everything from doves, to rabbits, a cat, dog, a turtle and then a wolf eating the rabbit.. lol. He was so talented it was scary. Do you think he just woke up one day and said… “I know! I’ll make shadow puppets for a living!”? Other highlights were the comedic act, and of course the changing faces. I’m not 100% sure how its done, but it’s amazing, you don’t want to take your eyes off them.

Basically they’re standing in front of you and as the huge fan comes over their face, their mask changes to a completely different one in colour and expression. It’s fantastic to watch. One of the performers not only changed his face, but his robe as well, all with the wave of a fan. He went from blue to green, to gold, to red… truly fascinating.

Ok, so I have taken a ton of photographs here in China. So far everywhere I’ve gone the internet has been super slow and I haven’t had the patience to wait. However, the internet here at Holly’s Hostel is fantastic, so….. I’ve pretty much uploaded all my photos onto my flickr account!

Can’t remember the addy? Here you go… www.flickr.com/photos/flip_flop_princess

I’ve taken an obscene amount of photos so far and I still have over a week left! Heaven help me… haha

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