Peking Opera

Peking opera took shape in the capital at the end of the eighteenth century, when troupes from Anhui brought their singing styles to the city and merged them with others. Performers are trained from childhood into fixed role types, the male sheng, the female dan, the painted-face jing and the comic chou, and each carries its own voice, gait and makeup, with face patterns whose colours announce the character before he speaks. The stage is bare. A whip stands for a horse, an oar for a boat, a circuit of the stage for a journey of days. A small band led by the high jinghu fiddle cues every step, and the battle scenes are full acrobatics. It was inscribed by UNESCO in 2010.

What you actually see

• The painted faces - jing makeup where colour and pattern signal temperament and fate.
• The empty stage - gesture and props standing in for horses, boats and doors.
• The acrobatic fights - somersaults, spear-catching and flag work in the battle scenes.
• The jinghu and percussion - a small band that marks every step and pause.

When to go

Performances run year round, most starting in the evening. Theatres aimed at visitors stage shortened highlight programmes of an hour or so with English surtitles, while full-length works at the serious houses run three hours and rarely translate. Book ahead in the holiday weeks. Seats near the front are worth the difference for the makeup.

Honest expectations

The singing is high, nasal and slow by Western habit, and plenty of people give up within twenty minutes. Tourist versions cut the drama down to acrobatics and costume, which is not the same thing. Surtitles are often Chinese only. Cheap seats sit far back in large halls, where the face painting, the whole point, disappears.

Nearby

Beijing's hutong quarters and the theatres around Qianmen are within easy reach.