The Junsheng Sand Art Gallery, Zhangjiajie

Zhangjiajie Cultural Shows

At night, Zhangjiajie City comes alive with a string of wonderful cultural shows. The most enthralling is the Fairy Fox Opera – a musical retelling an ancient Tujia love story between a villager and woman fox spirit. The performance takes place on an open-air stage in the city suburbs, with the Tianmen Heaven’s Gate Mountain as a backdrop. The lighting, costumes and dances are spectacular and the music is by one of the country’s most acclaimed film soundtrack composers. There are shows in town too – including the Ethnic Minority Cultural show in the theatre at the base of the huge 72 Wonders Tower, where dancers and acrobats act out fables and stories from Tujia, Yao and other indigenous lore. Other shows take place in the open-air courtyard at the base of the Tower, which is a wonder in its own right – an apartment block over one hundred metres high built in the shape of an arch. It is the largest stilted building in the world.