Zhoushan, Mount Putuo and a Day at Sea

Sunset over the islands of the Zhoushan archipelago

Yesterday and today are our “let’s be slugs” days. In the port of Zhoushan, the only excursion we signed up for was an evening outdoor performance set against the natural landscape of Mount Putuo, on the main island of Zhoushan. Mount Putuo is one of four mountains sacred to Buddhists. (The mountain is dedicated to Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, for the detail-oriented readers.)

The performance, called Impression Putuo, was designed and directed by Zhang Yimou, known for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. The performance blended dance, drama, cutting-edge lighting and sound technologies to communicate legends, Buddhist culture, the island’s maritime culture and a dozen other themes that mostly went over our heads. It’s all in Chinese, of course. During the performance, our seating area, holding at least a thousand, rotated from scene to scene. Viking passengers were perhaps half the patrons, all the others being mostly Chinese. All in all, an impressive show, however little we understood of it. (The main character becomes an enlightened monk. I got that part.)

I start pictures of our trip to see the performance with a shot of our transportation. The steps into the seating area were as high as ones on an English double decker although there was but one level to the bus. Right: The entrance to the theater.

The following are random pictures from the performance, some of the immediate stage, some projections on a high cylindrical screen at the back of the stage that opened and closed, some of the hillside beyond the stage, and some of the surrounding mountains. Between act, the entire seating area would slowly rotate to the next scene.

Here are a few more pictures of sites within the Yi Dun.

Left: This display area was in Chinese only, a reminder that the ship is predominately a Chinese one. Right: This shot is one side of “The Restaurant”, one of seven plus venues where passengers can find food. The two main restaurants are set up in a U shape, avoiding the typical cavernous dining area normally found on cruise ships. The food offerings are a mix of western and Chinese. We eat both, sometimes during the same meal.

Left: We attend one or two talks a day, more on sea days such as we are having as I write this. You will have to look up Ming Admiral Zheng. His voyages were remarkable. Right: The central sun deck/pool area has a retractable roof.

An aside on the Silk Road: It was (and currently again is) the Belt and Road. The “road” is the sea routes to Europe and the Americas. The “belt” was and is the overland routes. The three main exports of prior ages were silk, porcelain and spices. For obvious reasons, the porcelain went by sea, the weight and fragility of porcelain not being conducive to camel transport.

As I stated above, the visit to the island of Zhoushan was followed by a sea day. There must be a logistical reason for this sea day as we are not that far from Shanghai, our next port of call.