Impression Lijiang Jokul - <<印象-麗江>>

[tomcat]

I had the great fortune to be able to catch Zhang Yimou's production of "Impression Lijiang Jokul" <<印象-麗江>> during my recent Yunnan trip last week. The magnificant outdoor production was held on a really huge man-made stage at the foot of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, 3,100m above sea level, near Lijiang city in Yunnan province. About 500 amateur performers from 10 ethnic minority groups selected from some 16 towns and villages around Lijiang took part in the US$31-million production.

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With the magnificant Jade Dragon Snow Mountain as the backdrop, the stage was so huge that it could hold hundreds of performers (and horses) at a time and even allowed for a waterfall from the top to the bottom as could be seen at the left side of the photo above. Even an ultra-wide angle lens could not capture the full extent of the stage.

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[tomcat]

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[clicknick]

Wow cool. Did you go free and easy, or as part of a tour? How much is the tickets to see this show? I may be going Lijiang too.

[John Tan]

wow! Very nice! How is the weather over there?

[Outlook]

壮观。Nice pics !

[archlover]

*fainted*
its like a dream...
I WANNA GO THEREEEEEEEEEE >__<

[ComB]

Hi bro,i love ur pics......thinking of my last year trip to India-Jakri Himalaya...

[compro_1975]

nice, how did u make you colour so outstanding??? the clouds are

mind to share tips with us?

[betazone]

Like the series, to nitpick maybe some of the clouds are overex.

[ace99]

envy you lo!

[FilterFunk]

wow. i am in awe.
your photos gives me the impression that i am there at the place itself.

[westwest1]

The lighting is excellent....

[300N]

no horse run , excellent work

[maxmax]

nice picture brother

[tomcat]

Originally Posted by clicknick Wow cool. Did you go free and easy, or as part of a tour? How much is the tickets to see this show? I may be going Lijiang too.

We actually went to Yunnan on a group tour. It happened that the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain was on the itinerary for this tour and the China tour guide recommended that we take the opportunity to catch the show while we were within the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Scenic Area that day. It would have been very difficult to catch this show if we had joined another tour agency's program as we had found that most tour agencies do not have Jade Dragon Snow mountain on their itineraries nowadays. That was why I said we were very fortunate to be able to catch this show on this trip.

The cost of a ticket is 190 RMB and it's free sitting. It came with a free sun visor which you could see many people were using in my photos. There is only one show a day, 6 days a week from Mon to Sat and the show starts at 1.30pm unlike most other shows which are usually held at night. I don't know whether the price of the ticket include the entry fee for the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Scenic Area or not though. So it may actually cost more if you are going on a free-and-easy basis especially if you have to factor in the transportation cost to get there from Lijiang city as well. But it really worth it and for us, it turned out to be the highlight of the entire tour.

[tomcat]

Originally Posted by John Tan wow! Very nice! How is the weather over there?

Thanks.
The weather was very good when we were there. The tour guide however said that it had been raining all the while until the day we arrived in China. So we were very lucky I guess. It was air-con cool during the day though the sun's ray was really strong and could cause sun burn because of the strong UV rays in the high attitudes there. One of my friends actually got sun burned on one side of the neck while watching the show.

[tomcat]

Originally Posted by betazone Like the series, to nitpick maybe some of the clouds are overex.

Sorry but I don't have any control over the clouds. I could try to exclude the clouds from the frames if they were too extensive and caused over exposure problems but the shots would not be so dramatic then.

In fact the cloud movements were very dramatic on that day. When the show starts, the peaks of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain were almost all obscured by clouds but as the show progressed, the clouds gradually moved away towards us until just as the show ended, almost all the peaks were suddenly revealed as if Mother Nature herself had timed the cloud movements to synchronise with the ending of the show. Very awe-inspiring !


This panorama of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain was taken just as the show ended.

[lukexav]

Impressive, sharp and clear.

Interested in the dynamics of process in taking the photos. What lens did you use? seems u are able to zoom in very far in. Did you run abt when they were performing the show?

Always good to hear of your experience so that I can learn when i happen to go tour.

[tomcat]

Originally Posted by lukexav Impressive, sharp and clear. Interested in the dynamics of process in taking the photos. What lens did you use? seems u are able to zoom in very far in. Did you run abt when they were performing the show? Always good to hear of your experience so that I can learn when i happen to go tour.

All were shot with the Leica 14-50mm lens except for #2, #3 and #7 which were taken with the ultra-wide angle 7-14mm lens at 7mm. I was seated almost all the way at the back which was lucky for me as the stage was so wide that even the 7mm (equivalent to 14mm for 35mm format) focal length was not enough to capture its full extent. I did not run forward to shoot if that's what you mean. The 3 shots mentioned above made the stage looked very far because of the short focal length used.

The organisers allow both photography and videography. Some people even videotaped the whole show. I really regretted not bringing my video camcorder for this trip. Those who will be going to catch this show may want to take note.

[compro_1975]

did you ps it to enhance the cloud???