Misadventures of Lisa & Trisha: Getting a Ride to the Beijing Opera

In November 2008 while while my friend Trisha and I were both living in Japan we decided to take a few days off of work and visit Beijing, China.  

One of the things that we wanted to see was the Beijing Opera so when we checked into our hostel in the evening and saw a great deal for transportation and tickets we decided to book it for the next day.

We spent our first day in Beijing being amazed by the vastness of the buildings and intricacies of the detailed carvings at the Forbidden City.  After spending the remainder of our day soaking in the history of Tiananmen Square and marveling at the beauty of the Temple of Heaven we headed back to the hostel with a little bit of time to kill prior to headed to the opera.  We grabbed a drink at the hostel bar and chatted about our day until it was time to get picked up.

I had to use the restroom so Trisha headed to the lobby with our booking tickets and I met her there after going to the bathroom. When I got there she was standing with a Chinese guide who was holding the booking tickets and said "OK, let's go," once he saw me.  We followed him a for a few winding blocks until we reached an old, beat up car. He opened the back door and without saying a word slid into the back seat with us. The car drove off and the two guys in the front and our guide started chatting away in Mandarin.

It all seemed a little odd so and I wondered what had transpired between Trisha and our guide while I was in the bathroom. "So, what is the plan?" I asked Trisha. "I have no idea," she repiled, "He came into the lobby and said 'Beijing Opera?', I said 'Yes,' he said, 'Tickets?', I gave them to him and then you appeared. I don't know anything more than you."

At this point I thought maybe it was time to interupt the conversation between the three guys and ask our guide a little bit about the opera. He explained in English that it was about a twenty minute drive to the opera house and that he would need to pick up the opera tickets at will call for us once we got there. Satisfied, Trisha and I enjoyed the rest of the amusing ride listening to the Mandarin banter between the guys and cracking up that our paid ride was in a vehicle with a transmission that was contstantly slipping and where we were packed in like sardines.

Upon arrival at the opera house the driver dropped us and the guide off at the front and drove away. Unfortunately, I had to use the restroom again and left Trisha in the lobby while the guide went to the ticket window for our tickets. I returned to see a dazed Trisha holding two opera tickets in one hand and twenty yuán in the other. "OK, I go now," said the guide. "Wait, when are you picking us up?" I asked. He proceeded to explain that the twenty yuán was for us to take a taxi home and he was leaving. I argued for a little bit that we had paid for a ride both ways and how could we be assured that twenty yuán would cover the ride home. He was adamant that it was more than enough and there wasn't much that Trisha and I could do so we headed into the auditorium.

After finding our seats and laughing about our strange, adventurous ride Trisha and I noticed a posting up front saying that we could watch the performers applying their stage make-up in the next room.  We were really early and had nearly an hour until curtain so we thought it would be fun to check out.

Watching the performers put on their make-up was fascinating. For the actors portraying most of the humans, they started with a base with an orangish hue and then brushed red accents around their eyes before finishing with dark eyeliner around the eyes. Since all parts in Beijing Opera are played by men it was interesting to watch the transformation into a beautiful woman by some of the men. I particularly enjoyed the make-up of the Jing, which have very elaborate patterned make-up in bold colors.

Trisha and I had been watching the make-up process for a few minutes when some additional actors entered the room. "Oh, my goodness, Trisha, that guy is the front passenger from our car," I surprisedly said. "And that guy was the driver!" Trisha replied. All of a sudden everything made sense. The performers in the opera must get a discount on tickets and since they are heading to the opera house anyway they can probably make a little profit even with offering the tickets for such a great price. All they needed was a friend with some English skills to help with the pick-up and getting the tickets they had reserved at will call. It also explained why we arrived so early; the performers had to get ready for the show.

After watching the rest of the actors, we headed back to our seats to enjoy the show. The opera was simply amazing. The style of music is very different from what we were used to with Western music but it was mesmorizing. There were English translations projected on screens to the side of the stage but we were so wrapped up in the performances we didn't look at them much. In addition to the talented singing, amazing acrobatics were also incorporated into the performances. One act was a female aria with the actor creating lovely scenes with waving ribbons. It was an amazing evening and Trisha and I were sad to see the show come to a close.

Trisha and I headed out to the street reflecting on the amazing performances we just saw and as we hailed our taxi we laughingly wondered how many other people were driven to the opera that night by two members of the chorus. In the end, it also turned out that the guide was indeed correct; the taxi ride cost less than twenty yuán.