Lijiang e Yangshuo, China

An Impressive China


"Red Enthusiasm"
Scene from the Enthusiasm episode of "Impression: Liu Sanjie" with dozens of fishermen in the Li River.
after the singing
Naxi women in traditional dress walk along a cobblestone street in Lijiang after their performance of singing and dancing.
serious sweaters
Naxi knight with the typical cap and vest of his people.
Naxi youth
Natives of the Lijiang area in traditional costume and lined with the snow of Yulong Mountain in the background during the show "Impression: Lijiang".
under the moonlight
One of many night scenes from "Impression: Liu Sanjie" performed over the waters of the Li River in Yangshuo.
majestic stage
One of the greatest scenes in Impression: Lijiang with the stage full of extras and Yulong Mountain in the background.
tradition and voice
An elderly Naxi woman sings in Lijiang, an ancient city in Yunnan that is now one of the most visited in the province.
nature show
Scene from "Impression: Liu Sanjie" here with the cliffs of the Yangshuo region clearly visible in the background.
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain
Visitors below the snowy peak of Shanzidou, at the top of Yulong Mountain.
In shades of blue
Liu Sanjie's bluish scene with several boatmen gathered.
In honor of the tea trail
Naxi women carry baskets "full of tea", one of the traditional scenes in "Impression: Lijiang".
equestrian life
Naxi knights in one of Lijiang's old squares.
In shades of blue II
Boatmen surround one of the structures that embellish "Impressions: Liu Sanjie".
majestic stage II
Native extras form lines on the barely perceptible terraces of the "Impressions: Lijiang" stage.
Thanksgiving time
Audience and extras watch one of the last scenes of Yangshuo's show.
In shades of blue III
Another bluish and feminine scene from "Impressions: Liu Sanjie".
shows-impressions-lijiang-yangshuo-china-monk
Half-frozen Buddhist monk on the snowy slope of Dragon Jade Mountain.
One of the most respected Asian filmmakers, Zhang Yimou dedicated himself to large outdoor productions and co-authored the media ceremonies of the Beijing OG. But Yimou is also responsible for “Impressions”, a series of no less controversial stagings with stages in emblematic places.

It wasn't 8:30 yet when we entered Jade Dragon Snow Mountain National Park.

We got into the cable car cabin. We ascend to 4600 meters of the highest mountain range in the province of Yunnan. We are a thousand meters from its supreme peak, the Shanzidou.

Even so, weather conditions quickly proved adverse to any longer exploration or contemplation.

A furious wind intensified the cold we felt in our faces and bodies and prevented us from walking straight on the footbridge installed in the snowy slope.

We suffered the good suffering to go from top to bottom.

Impressions show Lijiang, Yangshuo, China, frozen monk

Half-frozen Buddhist monk on the snowy slope of Dragon Jade Mountain.

And what is our surprise when we find two Southeast Asian Buddhist monks wrapped in their usual yellow-brown tunics, both wearing bonnets to protect their heads, but only sandals and socks on their feet.

Neither the religious, with their faith, nor anyone else could withstand much longer exposed to the wrath of the mountain.

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

Visitors below the snowy peak of Shanzidou, at the top of Yulong Mountain.

Like several other frozen visitors, we barely returned to the cable car base station, recovered sipping hot chocolate and traveled a few kilometers to an enclosure on a street named Guodahuma, next to Lijiang old town.

There, dozens of buses, minibuses, vans and other vehicles dropped passengers, mostly Chinese excited by the evasion and fun in which they saw themselves.

Impressions show Lijiang, Yangshuo, China, naxi women

Naxi women in traditional dress walk along a cobblestone street in Lijiang after their performance of singing and dancing.

We followed the human current into a kind of amphitheater that, instead of being a mere stage, had, on the opposite side of the stands, a large red wall arranged in subtle terraces.

Impressions, Lijiang, Naxi Culture, Yi, Bai and Mosuo in Monumental Mode

We were at an altitude of 3500 meters. As horizon and natural background we saw the same Jade Dragon Snow Mountain from which we had arrived.

It took the anxious crowd an eternity to settle. He completely ignored the insistent attempts to ban employees from the premises and armed himself with photographing and filming machines.

The show did not wait for the audience's calm.

It started with an exuberant video presentation. Once finished, dozens of young extras and actors in traditional attire from which white fluffy vests stood out. They interacted with a male locution, in Mandarin, with an almost military tone.

In a carefully choreographed way, it recruited more than five hundred natives from different villages and towns, around a hundred of them, at intervals, on as many small horses.

Or, in the case of women, with huge traditional baskets full of tea on their backs.

Impressions Lijiang show, Yangshuo, China In honor of the tea trail

Naxi women carry baskets “full of tea”, one of the traditional scenes in “Impression: Lijiang”.

Through this troupe, Zhang Yimou's show exhibited the peculiarities of the lifestyles of minorities Naxi, Yi, Bai and Mosuo, one of the rare surviving matriarchal ethnic groups in China.

The extras walked along the terraces in graceful rows until they filled them completely or just rows and columns handpicked by Zhang Yimou's team.

Impressions Show Lijiang, Yangshuo, China Majestic stage

One of the greatest scenes in Impression: Lijiang with the stage full of extras and Yulong Mountain in the background.

Whichever disposition they took, the show it benefited from the sumptuousness of the snowy peaks of Yulong Mountain from behind and left the audience in awe.

Naxi youth

Natives of the Lijiang area in traditional costume and lined with the snow of Yulong Mountain in the background, during the show “Impression: Lijiang”.

But the “Impressions” of Zhang Yimou – director we know around here from films like “Red Corn”, “The Secret of Flying Daggers” and “Hero”, among others – are far from satisfying everyone.

If the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games that he co-authored had their detractors, with their regional and seasonal shows, it was no different.

Yimou's first impression: “Impression: Liu Sanjie” was hugely successful and urged him to create others. Years later, local politicians continue to accuse him of irresponsibility as did the deputy mayor of a city in Hunan province in the opinion piece “Zhang Yimou is no savior; That does not create "Impressions" blindly."

The lengthy review included the following excerpt: “Under the cover of massive collateral investments, Zhang Yimou managed to get several tourist sites in China to compete for him to install his productions there.

under the moonlight

One of many night scenes from “Impression: Liu Sanjie” performed over the waters of the Li River in Yangshuo.

This, despite the astronomical amounts required to host the shows (na: 80 to 400 million euros), tickets (na: more than 25€) and commissions by Yimou and his team.

However, the feast of light and shadow that captures the eye leaves nothing of the show behind after its exhibition season.”

This same mayor also pointed out to Yimou the fact that he was responsible for the huge debts accumulated by local governments in the increasingly numerous cases in which their “Impressions” proves to be failures or successes worn out by time and the exhausting repetition of the same formula.

Impressions Lijiang show, Yangshuo, China, In shades of blue III

Another bluish and feminine scene from “Impressions: Liu Sanjie”.

By Chinese standards, Yimou's own life seems to run counter to this denunciation.

In 2014, the director had to pay a fine of about one million euros due to unauthorized births and their “social support”, this for having fathered seven children with four different women and thus violating the Only Child Policy with which China seeks to control its population growth.

A few days later, we traveled from northern Yunnan to the east and settled in Yangshuo, a region so famous for its countless limestone cliffs scattered around the Li River, comparable to those of the Huang Shan mountain and that many of the Chinese restaurants around the world have illustrations of these scenes decorating them.

We explored it by boat and by bicycle. On one of the post-exploring nights, we also took the opportunity to peek at the first of the “Impressions".

Thanksgiving time

Audience and extras watch one of the last scenes of Yangshuo's show.

"Impression Liu Sanjie” premiered in 2004. It is based on a legend of the Zhuang people – the largest of the ethnic minority groups in China – around a woman (Liu Sanjie, the third sister of the Liu family) since an early age endowed with magnificent singing.

Liu Sanjie managed, with his voice, to calm the anger and lift the spirits of the people around him. She was envied by Mo Huairen, a bandit who wanted to make her his concubine.

It's pitch-dark as we sit down by the river, this time, with the huge boulders lit up in the distance, gray but flecked with vegetable green beyond the silhouette of a marginal bamboo forest.

nature show

Scene from “Impression: Liu Sanjie” here with the cliffs of the Yangshuo region clearly visible in the background.

The faint light also reflected from the river surface is soon broken up by colored beams.

The protagonist Liu Sanjie appears singing on a small traditional boat.

It generates a wave of enthusiasm in the river work and in the lives of hundreds of boatmen in conical hats, symbolized by the waves and other movements produced when they wave long red plastic bands.

Red Enthusiasm

Scene from the episode Enthusiasm from “Impression: Liu Sanjie” with dozens of fishermen in the Li River.

As in Lijiang, the audience does not rest and talks among themselves about the plot that continues, using more than XNUMX extras from the area – most of them fishermen from five villages on the banks of the Li – their boats and utensils.

Sophisticated lighting produces the effects and sensations that delight the audience.

As the river flows, we understand how, combined with the show's eccentric location and the extras' mastery of traditional navigation, it justified the first of Yimou's greatest hits.

In shades of blue II

Boatmen surround one of the structures that embellish “Impressions: Liu Sanjie”.

The great Chinese fever of the “Impressions”, this one doesn't seem to end.

Immune to any criticism, the director and producer continues to install new shows in visually deserving or simply more affluent places in vast China.

Dali, China

The Surrealist China of Dali

Embedded in a magical lakeside setting, the ancient capital of the Bai people has remained, until some time ago, a refuge for the backpacker community of travelers. The social and economic changes of China they fomented the invasion of Chinese to discover the southwest corner of the nation.
Bingling Yes, China

The Canyon of a Thousand Buddhas

For more than a millennium and at least seven dynasties, Chinese devotees have extolled their religious belief with the legacy of sculpture in a remote strait of the Yellow River. If you disembark in the Canyon of Thousand Buddhas, you may not find all the sculptures, but you will find a stunning Buddhist shrine.
Dunhuang, China

An Oasis in the China of the Sands

Thousands of kilometers west of Beijing, the Great Wall has its western end and the China and other. An unexpected splash of vegetable green breaks up the arid expanse all around. Announces Dunhuang, formerly crucial outpost on the Silk Road, today an intriguing city at the base of Asia's largest sand dunes.
Lijiang, China

A Gray City but Little

Seen from afar, its vast houses are dreary, but Lijiang's centuries-old sidewalks and canals are more folkloric than ever. This city once shone as the grandiose capital of the Naxi people. Today, floods of Chinese visitors who fight for the quasi-theme park it have become take it by storm.
Longsheng, China

Huang Luo: the Chinese Village of the Longest Hairs

In a multi-ethnic region covered with terraced rice paddies, the women of Huang Luo have surrendered to the same hairy obsession. They let the longest hair in the world grow, years on end, to an average length of 170 to 200 cm. Oddly enough, to keep them beautiful and shiny, they only use water and rice.
Great ZimbabweZimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe, Little Bira Dance

Karanga natives of the KwaNemamwa village display traditional Bira dances to privileged visitors to the ruins of Great Zimbabwe. the most iconic place in Zimbabwe, the one who, after the decree of colonial Rhodesia's independence, inspired the name of the new and problematic nation.  
Dali, China

Chinese Style Flash Mob

The time is set and the place is known. When the music starts playing, a crowd follows the choreography harmoniously until time runs out and everyone returns to their lives.
Shows

The World on Stage

All over the world, each nation, region or town and even neighborhood has its own culture. When traveling, nothing is more rewarding than admiring, live and in loco, which makes them unique.
Huang Shan, China

Huang Shan: The Yellow Mountains of the Floating Peaks

The granitic peaks of the floating yellow mountains of Huang Shan, from which acrobat pines sprout, appear in artistic illustrations from China without count. The real scenery, in addition to being remote, remains hidden above the clouds for over 200 days.
Marinduque, Philippines

When the Romans Invade the Philippines

Even the Eastern Empire didn't get that far. In Holy Week, thousands of centurions seize Marinduque. There, the last days of Longinus, a legionary converted to Christianity, are re-enacted.
Badaling, China

The Sino Invasion of the Great Wall of China

With the arrival of the hot days, hordes of Han visitors take over the Great Wall of China, the largest man-made structure. They go back to the era of imperial dynasties and celebrate the nation's newfound prominence.
Beijing, China

The Heart of the Great Dragon

It is the incoherent historic center of Maoist-Communist ideology and almost all Chinese aspire to visit it, but Tianamen Square will always be remembered as a macabre epitaph of the nation's aspirations.
Guilin, China

The Gateway to the Chinese Stone Kingdom

The immensity of jagged limestone hills around it is so majestic that the authorities of Beijing they print it on the back of the 20-yuan notes. Those who explore it almost always pass through Guilin. And even if this city in the province of Guangxi clashes with the exuberant nature around it, we also found its charms.
Residents walk along the trail that runs through plantations above the UP4
City
Gurué, Mozambique, Part 1

Through the Mozambican Lands of Tea

The Portuguese founded Gurué in the 1930th century and, from XNUMX onwards, flooded it with camellia sinensis the foothills of the Namuli Mountains. Later, they renamed it Vila Junqueiro, in honor of its main promoter. With the independence of Mozambique and the civil war, the town regressed. It continues to stand out for the lush green imposing mountains and teak landscapes.
Host Wezi points out something in the distance
Beaches
Cobue; Nkwichi Lodge, Mozambique

The Hidden Mozambique of the Creaking Sands

During a tour from the bottom to the top of Lake Malawi, we find ourselves on the island of Likoma, an hour by boat from Nkwichi Lodge, the solitary base of this inland coast of Mozambique. On the Mozambican side, the lake is known as Niassa. Whatever its name, there we discover some of the most stunning and unspoilt scenery in south-east Africa.
Serengeti, Great Savannah Migration, Tanzania, wildebeest on river
safari
Serengeti NP, Tanzania

The Great Migration of the Endless Savanna

In these prairies that the Masai people say syringet (run forever), millions of wildebeests and other herbivores chase the rains. For predators, their arrival and that of the monsoon are the same salvation.
Aurora lights up the Pisang Valley, Nepal.
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 3rd- Upper Banana, Nepal

An Unexpected Snowy Aurora

At the first glimmers of light, the sight of the white mantle that had covered the village during the night dazzles us. With one of the toughest walks on the Annapurna Circuit ahead of us, we postponed the match as much as possible. Annoyed, we left Upper Pisang towards Escort when the last snow faded.
Sheets of Bahia, Eternal Diamonds, Brazil
Architecture & Design
Sheets of Bahia, Brazil

Lençóis da Bahia: not Even Diamonds Are Forever

In the XNUMXth century, Lençóis became the world's largest supplier of diamonds. But the gem trade did not last as expected. Today, the colonial architecture that he inherited is his most precious possession.
Era Susi towed by dog, Oulanka, Finland
Aventura
PN Oulanka, Finland

A Slightly Lonesome Wolf

Jukka “Era-Susi” Nordman has created one of the largest packs of sled dogs in the world. He became one of Finland's most iconic characters but remains faithful to his nickname: Wilderness Wolf.
Burning prayers, Ohitaki Festival, fushimi temple, kyoto, japan
Ceremonies and Festivities
Kyoto, Japan

A Combustible Faith

During the Shinto celebration of Ohitaki, prayers inscribed on tablets by the Japanese faithful are gathered at the Fushimi temple. There, while being consumed by huge bonfires, her belief is renewed.
Mdina, Malta, Silent City, architecture
Cities
Mdina, Malta

The Silent and Remarkable City of Malta

Mdina was Malta's capital until 1530. Even after the Knights Hospitaller demoted it, it was attacked and fortified accordingly. Today, it's the coastal and overlooking Valletta that drives the island's destinies. Mdina has the tranquility of its monumentality.
Fogón de Lola, great food, Costa Rica, Guápiles
Lunch time
Fogón de Lola Costa Rica

The Costa Rica Flavour of El Fogón de Lola

As the name suggests, the Fogón de Lola de Guapiles serves dishes prepared on the stove and in the oven, according to Costa Rican family tradition. In particular, Tia Lola's.
Eswatini, Ezulwini Valley, Mantenga Cultural Village
Culture
Ezulwini Valley, Eswatini

Around the Royal and Heavenly Valley of Eswatini

Stretching for almost 30km, the Ezulwini Valley is the heart and soul of old Swaziland. Lobamba is located there, the traditional capital and seat of the monarchy, a short distance from the de facto capital, Mbabane. Green and panoramic, deeply historical and cultural, the valley still remains the tourist heart of the kingdom of eSwatini.
Swimming, Western Australia, Aussie Style, Sun rising in the eyes
Sport
Busselton, Australia

2000 meters in Aussie Style

In 1853, Busselton was equipped with one of the longest pontoons in the world. World. When the structure collapsed, the residents decided to turn the problem around. Since 1996 they have been doing it every year. Swimming.
Gyantse, Kumbum temple
Traveling
Lhasa a Gyantse, Tibet

Gyantse, through the Heights of Tibet

The final target is the Tibetan Everest Base Camp. On this first route, starting from Lhasa, we pass by the sacred lake of Yamdrok (4.441m) and the glacier of the Karo gorge (5.020m). In Gyantse, we surrender to the Tibetan-Buddhist splendor of the old citadel.
shadow of success
Ethnic
Champoton, Mexico

Rodeo Under Sombreros

Champoton, in Campeche, hosts a fair honored by the Virgén de La Concepción. O rodeo Mexican under local sombreros reveals the elegance and skill of the region's cowboys.
Sunset, Avenue of Baobabs, Madagascar
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio

days like so many others

Alcatraz Island, California, United States
History
Alcatraz, San Francisco, USA

Back to the Rock

Forty years after his sentence ended, the former Alcatraz prison receives more visitors than ever. A few minutes of his seclusion explain why The Rock's imagination made the worst criminals shiver.
Lake Sorvatsvagn, Vágar, Faroe Islands
Islands
Vágar, Faroe Islands

The Lake that hovers over the North Atlantic

By geological whim, Sorvagsvatn is much more than the largest lake in the Faroe Islands. Cliffs with between thirty to one hundred and forty meters limit the southern end of its bed. From certain perspectives, it gives the idea of ​​being suspended over the ocean.
ala juumajarvi lake, oulanka national park, finland
Winter White
Kuusamo ao PN Oulanka, Finland

Under the Arctic's Icy Spell

We are at 66º North and at the gates of Lapland. In these parts, the white landscape belongs to everyone and to no one like the snow-covered trees, the atrocious cold and the endless night.
Cove, Big Sur, California, United States
Literature
Big Sur, USA

The Coast of All Refuges

Over 150km, the Californian coast is subjected to a vastness of mountains, ocean and fog. In this epic setting, hundreds of tormented souls follow in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and Henri Miller.
Praslin Island, Cocos from the Sea, Seychelles, Eden Cove
Nature

Praslin, Seychelles

 

The Eden of the Enigmatic Coco-de-Mer

For centuries, Arab and European sailors believed that the largest seed in the world, which they found on the coasts of the Indian Ocean in the shape of a woman's voluptuous hips, came from a mythical tree at the bottom of the oceans. The sensual island that always generated them left us ecstatic.
Girl plays with leaves on the shore of the Great Lake at Catherine Palace
Autumn
Saint Petersburg, Russia

Golden Days Before the Storm

Aside from the political and military events precipitated by Russia, from mid-September onwards, autumn takes over the country. In previous years, when visiting Saint Petersburg, we witnessed how the cultural and northern capital was covered in a resplendent yellow-orange. A dazzling light that hardly matches the political and military gloom that had spread in the meantime.
Howler Monkey, PN Tortuguero, Costa Rica
Natural Parks
Tortuguero NP, Costa Rica

Tortuguero: From the Flooded Jungle to the Caribbean Sea

After two days of impasse due to torrential rain, we set out to discover the Tortuguero National Park. Channel after channel, we marvel at the natural richness and exuberance of this Costa Rican fluvial marine ecosystem.
M:S Viking Tor Ferry-Wrapped Passenger, Aurlandfjord, Norway
UNESCO World Heritage
Flam a Balestrand, Norway

Where the Mountains Give In to the Fjords

The final station of the Flam Railway marks the end of the dizzying railway descent from the highlands of Hallingskarvet to the plains of Flam. In this town too small for its fame, we leave the train and sail down the Aurland fjord towards the prodigious Balestrand.
Couple visiting Mikhaylovskoe, village where writer Alexander Pushkin had a home
Characters
Saint Petersburg e Mikhaylovkoe, Russia

The Writer Who Succumbed to His Own Plot

Alexander Pushkin is hailed by many as the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. But Pushkin also dictated an almost tragicomic epilogue to his prolific life.
Machangulo, Mozambique, sunset
Beaches
Machangulo, Mozambique

The Golden Peninsula of Machangulo

At a certain point, an ocean inlet divides the long sandy strip full of hyperbolic dunes that delimits Maputo Bay. Machangulo, as the lower section is called, is home to one of the most magnificent coastlines in Mozambique.
Armenia Cradle Christianity, Mount Aratat
Religion
Armenia

The Cradle of the Official Christianity

Just 268 years after Jesus' death, a nation will have become the first to accept the Christian faith by royal decree. This nation still preserves its own Apostolic Church and some of the oldest Christian temples in the world. Traveling through the Caucasus, we visit them in the footsteps of Gregory the Illuminator, the patriarch who inspires Armenia's spiritual life.
On Rails
On Rails

Train Travel: The World Best on Rails

No way to travel is as repetitive and enriching as going on rails. Climb aboard these disparate carriages and trains and enjoy the best scenery in the world on Rails.
aggie gray, Samoa, South Pacific, Marlon Brando Fale
Society
Apia, Western Samoa

The Host of the South Pacific

She sold burguês to GI's in World War II and opened a hotel that hosted Marlon Brando and Gary Cooper. Aggie Gray passed away in 2. Her legacy lives on in the South Pacific.
Casario, uptown, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar
Daily life
Fianarantsoa, Madagascar

The Malagasy City of Good Education

Fianarantsoa was founded in 1831 by Ranavalona Iª, a queen of the then predominant Merina ethnic group. Ranavalona Iª was seen by European contemporaries as isolationist, tyrant and cruel. The monarch's reputation aside, when we enter it, its old southern capital remains as the academic, intellectual and religious center of Madagascar.
Esteros del Iberá, Pantanal Argentina, Alligator
Wildlife
Iberá Wetlands, Argentina

The Pantanal of the Pampas

On the world map, south of the famous brazilian wetland, a little-known flooded region appears, but almost as vast and rich in biodiversity. the Guarani expression Y bera defines it as “shining waters”. The adjective fits more than its strong luminance.
The Sounds, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Fiordland, New Zealand

The Fjords of the Antipodes

A geological quirk made the Fiordland region the rawest and most imposing in New Zealand. Year after year, many thousands of visitors worship the sub-domain slashed between Te Anau and Milford Sound.