To the opera

Tuesday 28th May

 

This evening we had arranged to go to the Chengdu Opera where they did similar things to the one in Xian but had a puppet act and a hand shadow act as well as the Changing Faces act which I particularly wanted to see

 

We had very good seats on the central isle four rows from the front and in front of each pair of chairs was a bench with tea cups and some crispy rice biscuits.

 

As soon as we sat down a man with a kettle of boiling water filled the cups and throughout the show any sign of anything other than a full cup were met with a refill.

 

Sometimes he came along with a kettle with a spout two feet long and filled the cups of the people sitting further into the row from beside me!! He did not spill a drop

 

We talked to a couple of Americans, he described himself a "Professor" so of course Tone asked him what he was doing. He has been in China since 1st April travelling around studying what people expect from their religion. His conclusions so far which Tone wrung out of him were, they want comfort, they ask for health, wealth and good luck, as a famous American once said "no shit Sherlock!". He is being paid for this and will write a book.

 

The show was brilliant. Amazing costumes. The puppet and shadow show were very clever and the finale was the face changing and costume changing act to which was added some fire eating for good measure.

 

Really clever and a good finish to the evening.

 

Back to the hotel and a rare G & T in the bar.

 

Sadly Tones cough is really bad so we had to abandon thoughts of a second! 

 

We think he did have a cold but what with the constant changes in temperature, the air conditioning and the pollution in some of the cities we have been in he cannot shake it off.

 

Hopefully four days in the country and in the mountains will help.

 

Off to Guilin tomorrow evening so a quiet day calls before we go to the airport