Impression DaHongPao in Wuyishan: The Story of Tea

A visit to the Wuyi Mountains is all about tea. You’ll spend your days hiking between tea gardens clinging to craggy peaks and brewing pot after pot of the best Wuyi Rock Tea, Oolong and DaHongPao on earth. To get the whole tea culture experience, you MUST also see the Impression DaHongPao. 

The Impression DaHongPao show, or The Story of Tea, is a musical extravaganza that will blow you away, and your mouth will hang open from the beginning until the end. 

Directed by renowned Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou (the producer behind the House of Flying Daggers and the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics), this impression show is on a scale and level of extravagance only China can pull off. 

With a 28 million dollar budget and a stage covering more than a hectare, the DaHongPao Impression is shamelessly over-the-top, and you’ll wish the 70 minutes to go on forever.

Tickets cost from USD 30, and can be booked online.

Impression DaHongPao: The Set

The outdoor auditorium seats 2 000 spectators and claims to be the largest theatre stage in the world. But it’s not just a stage that we are talking about.

The set extends to the Wuyi Mountains in the background, which are lit up during critical parts of the show, boats float down the river, and horses run across the landscape on LED screens that pop up between the trees. Spectators never know what to expect next.

The most surprising aspect of the show is how the audience rotates 360 degrees from one jaw-dropping scene to the next. The 2000 seats in the centre look outward and slowly spins between the five chapters surrounding the seats.

Inspired by the boatmen who punt visitors on bamboo rafts along the Nine-Bend stream in Wuyishan National Park, performers use long bamboo poles to spin the audience from scene to scene. The choreography and special effects make this feel so real as if the cast is actually moving the whole audience along.

The Story of Tea

Intertwined with the history of traditional tea culture and tea production in the Wuyi Mountains, Impression DaHongPao weaves together the love story of The King and the Jade Maiden.

It also touches on the problems of modern life: how we don’t seem to have time anymore to sit and relax with a good cuppa.

The Story of Tea is a spectacle with hundreds of performers dressed in traditional costumes plucking tea, sorting leaves, serving tea in teahouses and the punting boatmen who move the story along. It is like a 3D movie in real life!

Of course, the Story of Tea won’t be complete without the main character: TEA. When the audience stops spinning around at the end of the show, the actors go from row to row, serving each member of the audience a nice, hot cup of DaHongPao.

I sipped my cup of DaHongPao as slowly as possible as I didn’t want the magic to end.

Impression DaHongPao Info

• Duration: 70 minutes
• Time: 20:00 every night (weather permitting)
• Price: From USD 30. Book online as this is very popular.
• Address: Impression Dahongpao Theater – 福建省南平市武夷山市大王峰路 邮政编码 [location].
• Tip: Remember to bring your passport
• Language: Everything is in Mandarin

Is the Impression DaHongPao Worth Seeing?

Even if you use a teabag to brew your cuppa or prefer Americano, this show will blow you away. It’s the most spectacular performance we’ve ever seen. (It’s a close tie with the House of Dancing Water that we saw in Macau).

The outdoor setting, the grand scale of the production, the rotation and amazing choreography and special effects put it in a class of its own. It’s something you haven’t seen before. To experience everything Wuyi tea culture has to offer, you must come and watch this spectacle.

Impression DaHongPao is something that you must see to believe, and no visit to the Wuyi Mountains is complete without seeing it.