At HiDiLao, it’s dinner and a show. Customers rarely leave before asking for the Hand-Pulled Noodles. This HaiDiLao signature is not just a dish, it’s an artistic performance like nothing you’ve ever seen before.
Every Hai Di Lao employs a handful of "noodle masters," who train an average of four to six months before starting to perform their dance in the middle of the dining room. They stretch foot-long wads of dough into at least 10 feet of slender, ribbonlike noodle by whipping the center out like a jump rope and rippling and swirling it through the air like the ribbons twirled by Olympic rhythmic gymnasts. Often, the dancer flings the dough over customers' heads as they squeal and clap, before folding it with a flourish and dropping it in the broth.
The Jarana is the typical dance of Yucatan, with its origins in a blend of ancient indigenous, mestizo and Spanish dances. The typical costume of Yucatans mestizo women is known as the Terno.
Impression Lijiang is a magnificent outdoor singing and dancing performance demonstrating the tradition and lifestyle of the local ethnic people. It is the creation of famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou.
The show is innovatively staged at 3,100 meters (10,100 feet) above sea level with Jade Snow Mountain as the breathtaking backdrop.
Around 500 local ethnic Naxi, Bai and Yi people were selected from nearby towns and villages to participate in the performance. They dress up in their ethnic costumes and accessories to perform the singing and dancing, horse riding and drumming, presenting real ethnic atmosphere to the show.
Madness is an understatement. But, as I watch all 12 boulevards, each accommodating several lanes of traffic, spill out into the 10-lane, pavement marking-less traffic circle surrounding the Arc, I cannot help but to laugh out loud! Motorcycles whip between double-decker tour buses and delivery trucks. Taxis and Ubers merge aggressively from the outside of the circle to the inside to drop off tourists at the Arc, while cars just passing through attempt to plunge, often without turn signals, towards their boulevard of choice. The sound of angry horns and screeching brakes fills the air – even on a Sunday morning. It is chaos. But boy, do I love it.
Everyone’s heard of the icing on the cake but this is the sparkler on the cake. “Paris vous aime” (Paris loves you).
