Shanghai Museum
Over the past few weekends, we've been exploring some of the cultural offerings in Shanghai. The first place we decided to head to was the Shanghai Museum as this is where all of the ancient Chinese art can be found. Ceramics, calligraphy, paintings, bronze, jade, the list goes on and on, are housed within the four floors of this large museum. The museum is free for visitors, but only allows 8,000 people admission per day. Since we were headed there on a Sunday, we decided to get there early to avoid the much anticipated line and crowds once we were inside. We were expecting a lot more people to be there, but we were able to walk right in, get through the security line, and explore most of the museum without too many crowds or tourist groups. We made sure to visit all the main exhibits with the artifacts we are most interested in, but will need to go back for a second visit as the museum is way too big to cover in just a few hours.
**Visit the 'sound' section, to hear a clip of what the bronze bells, Bells of Marquis Su of Jin, sound like.
Beijing Opera
The next cultural activity we decided on, was attending a Beijing (Peking) Opera. I had never been to one before, but growing up I vaguely remember hearing it somewhere. When we were apartment hunting, one of the complexes we were shown was right next-door to the Peking Opera school. The realtor made sure to highlight that we would be able to hear them practice sometimes. Although Nate was intrigued, I remember it being very unique and decided that we should probably see the opera in person before choosing that particular location.
Yifu Theater near People's Square is home to almost all the Peking Opera shows. There were several different operas being advertised at the ticket office, but due to the language barrier we were not able to find out the differences, so just settled on the one that fell on a weekend. We weren't sure how formal of an event this was supposed to be, but since it was a mid-day show, we didn't get overly dressed. The atmosphere reminded me of a Broadway show in NYC -- people came dressed in a variety of outfits and some came with snacks and drinks. This particular show was over 2.5 hours long, divided into three acts with a very short intermission between acts 1 and 2. Seeing a show in an entirely different language was quite an experience, but the body language and voices of the performers helped us figure out the overall idea of what we were watching.
Here are a few audio clips we captured during the performance:
Since we didn't know that they would allow photography inside the theater, these were taken with our iPhones. Not sure how soon we'll be back, but the next time we attend a Peking Opera Nate will be sure to take some photos with the better camera.
~ Trisha