Lunch with the Red Army + Chair ice skating

I've been to dinner and lunch plus show packages before, but i'd never experienced anything quite like this. A cultural revolution lunch and show! One of my auntie's workmates had previously been taken there by some local friends, and he wanted to share the experience with some other foreigners! Lucky thing too, becuase this place isn't exactly touristy or easy to find. It's located just outside the inner city area, and signage is very sparse.

Before i go on i gotta say i know very little about this topic and era. I know i know, shame on me. So in the following passages i can only make a lay persons observations.

The whole place, inside and outside is nicely decked out according to theme. Actually when you look at the exterior of the building and based on its obscure location, one could mistake it for another type of business! But once you enter and step into the front foyer theres no mistaking what this place is trying to recreate. All the staff are dressed up too in various outfits. Absolutely brilliant!

Unfortunately we only caught the last half hour of the lunch show, but the little we saw was still pretty facinating. When i say 'facinating', i mean it was a whole new and strange experience to me, not that i understood a word that was coming out of a single performer's mouth. Listening to normal speed mandarin is hard enough without the shrill singing tones thrown in. The few acts we saw were composed of a mix of singing and acting. What made it facinating though was the emotions, expressions and gestures of the performers. There was quite a bit of arm waving, fist clenching and shouting with gusto. Most of the crowd were middle aged or elderly and it figures. I guess many of them are reliving old times from their past. The oldies were getting into it just as much as the performers, with loud raptuous applause and hoorahs with flag waving after each performance. Unfortunately my pics are a bit bootleg quality, since 'technically' we weren't allowed to take pictures of the show.(2 videos are also attached in this blog) We couldn't resist taking one of these pics with certain product placement in the shot! Mao wouldn't be too happy if he saw the beverage list. At least i managed to get the business card of this place, so definitely gonna go back to check out the whole show next time i'm in beijing. If anyone is interested in checking this place out i can pass on the address. don't worry, they don't make you dress up or throw clenched fists in the air....

Later that afternoon we went along to houhai for a bit of iceskating or iceseating for some of us. I'd never ice skated on anything other than an indoor rink before this, so it was pretty cool. Some of the areas on the lake were pretty carved up though, and some cracks were large enough to trip anyone up. As well as skates you could also hire out these rickety old chairs that could be pushed by hand or skis. Dangerous stuff though. Even before we got on the ice we witnessed this one little kid flatten his face against a wooden poll after dad had pushed the chair too hard and released. poor kid wasn't a happy chappy with dad! You can also rent out ice-bicycles, but i've heard it's pretty lame.

Poor kid couldn't stop screaming....






It looked like these guys were taking a family portrait on the ice.




I don't know what this guy was doing. Trying to break a guiness record?