Dinner at Shun Xing Ancient Tea House

The conference dinner is held at Shun Xing Ancient Tea House (順興老茶館), a restaurant located on the third floor of the Chengdu International Exhibition and Convention Center. The Sichuan dinner is excellent. (Some dishes are too hot to eat, though.) When everyone is about to finish eating, the dinner show begins. Dance by good-looking girls in traditional costume, shadow play, three masked men fire-spitting and face-changing (click here for a YouTube video), comedy by a woman and a guy who puts a lit candle on top of the head, singing by an old guy with rudimentary instruments. Honestly speaking, it is shabby. I'm a bit offended as the show interrupted my conversation with other diners.

By searching through Japanese websites, I learn that this restaurant is one of the three major places in Chengdu where tourists can enjoy chuanju or Sichuan opera. And the consensus among Japanese tourists is that the quality of the opera at this restaurant is the worst among the three. No wonder.

But the quality of food is still excellent.