Beijing: The Legend of Kung Fu

Exploring Asia Overview
Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific Lounge Review: The Cabin at HKG
Cathay Dragon A330-300 Business Class Hong Kong to Beijing
Lodging Review: Regent Beijing Hotel
Beijing: Dongcheng District
Beijing: The Great Wall
Beijing: Run-ze Jade Garden
Beijing: The Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs
Beijing: The Legend of Kung Fu
Beijing: Tiananmen Square
Beijing: The Forbidden City
Beijing: Hutong Tour via Rickshaw, Tea Tasting, Flying to Xi’an
Lodging Review: Hotel Shangri-La Xi’an
Xi’an: Qing Dynasty Terra Cotta Warriors
Xi’an: Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show
Xi’an Wrap-Up, Flying to Lhasa, Lhasa Home Visit
Lodging Review: Shangri-La Hotel Lhasa
Lhasa: Jokhang Temple and Barkhor Market
Lhasa: Canggu Nunnery and Sera Monastery
Lhasa: Potala Palace
Leaving Lhasa and Flying to Chongqing
Viking Emerald
Shibaozhai Temple
Cruising the Three Gorges
Three Gorges Dam
Jingzhou City Walls Tour
Wuhan: Hubei Bells Performance and Provincial Museum
Shanghai: Shanghai Museum
Lodging Review: Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai
Shanghai: Old Shanghai and Yuyan Gardens
Lodging Review: The New Otani Tokyo Hotel
Tokyo: City Tour
Mt. Fuji and Hakone Tour Returning by Shinkansen
ANA Suites Lounge Review, Tokyo Narita
All Nippon Airways B777-300ER First Class Tokyo Narita to Houston

After drying out from our daytime excursions, some of us opted for a show after dinner. The Legend of Kung Fu is apparently quite the tourist attraction as all the salespeople in the lobby spoke decent English and the entire show was narrated by an English recording.

The Red Theatre (in case you couldn’t guess)

Young Monk in the Lobby – every so often he’d strike his drum

The performers, with just a couple of female exceptions, were all monks in various stages of training. If I understood correctly, even the young boys who participated in the show were all students at the monastery. Before the show began, some of the young guns were being put through their paces by one of their training masters. It was hard to capture how they could kick up as high as their head or to capture the handsprings they were doing on that concrete floor.

The show begins as a boy who wants to become a Kung Fu master asks his grandfather what the Kung Fu life is like. The grandfather weaves a tale that is eventually revealed to be how he himself became a master.

Grandfather begins his tale

The performers were quite amazing and I’ve read their average age is only 17.

To watch this star performer was incredible as he placed the spear tips in the hollow of his throat and the other performers held their ends steady as he bent the spear into a U-shape.

Then he balanced his whole body on the tip of this spear.

To top it off he lay on a bed of nails, had a double-sided bed of nails laid on top of him, another performer on top of that with a slab of concrete on top of him – and then another performer with sledgehammer broke the slab. And no scars visible from the audience!

It was truly an amazing show.