Splendid China and China Folk Culture Village, Shen Zhen

Do you know how many ethnics are there in China? The answer is 56. It will take ages to travel all the divisions in China to get know about them. As the shortcut, you can visit the Splendid China and China Folk Culture Village.

China Folk Culture Village

Splendid China displays the Chinese artificial scenery, showing most of the famous buildings and scenery in China, from Potala Palace in Tibet to Imperial Palace (Forbidden City) in Beijing. Other attractive scenery and buildings include The Great Wall, Shaolin Temple, the Temple of Confucius, the tomb of XiangFei (香妃墓), Yuanmingyuan etc.

China Folk Culture Village unfolds the vivid Chinese folk arts, customs and architectures to the tourists. The 24 villages of 22 minority nationalities were set up according to the ration of 1 to 1, including Va village, Dong village, Gaoshan village, Hani village, Jingpo village, Li village, Miao village etc.

Hundred Surname Street

There is a street called Hundred Surname Street (百姓街), with hundred of ancestors’ photographs hanging in a temple. As a Chinese, you can seek the ancestor trail, explore the surname origin and surname culture. I found my ancestor, but unfortunately I forgot his name after I came back from the trip :D (too bad for being absent-minded). There are two cultural shows daily, and my comment is GREAT + MARVELLOUS + EXCELLENT. Frankly, they are the best shows that I had ever watched so far. Each show takes one hour, but you wont feel boring at all. There are tourists from Japan and Korea that come to Shen Zhen just for watching the shows. I didn’t take any photo on the shows because it’s forbidden. Just a brief description about the shows:

Dancing with the Dragon and the Phoenix (龙凤舞中华)
It is a performance celebrating Chinese culture, use modern concepts and art forms to bring ancient China to life through their reinterpretation of traditional Chinese folk dances, opera and magic lantern shows.

Oriental Apparel （东方霓裳）
This is a grand folk costume poetic spectacle, consists of five acts: Northern Wind, Southern Flowers, Western Snow, Eastern Moon, and National Splendor. With the expression of romantic poetry and characteristics of distinctive folk art, it demonstrates colourful national costumes and Chinese ancient royal dresses.

After the shows, it was almost 8:30 p.m., little time left to do some shopping. The bus driver dropped us near the shopping area in Shen Zhen – 东门步行街, a lot of shops that sell clothes, shoes, bags, accessories, food etc. It’s the best place for shopaholics.