THE DIRECTOR'S VISION
Zhang Yimou and the Impression Series Behind This Show
Impression West Lake is part of a wider series of outdoor Chinese spectacles from the same directing team — here's who made it and what came before it.
See Impression West Lake dates on GetYourGuide ↗Who directed Impression West Lake
Impression West Lake is credited to a directing team of Zhang Yimou, Wang Chaoge and Fan Yue, a trio that has worked together across the whole 'Impression' series of outdoor Chinese productions. Zhang Yimou is internationally the best known of the three — a celebrated film director whose work spans decades of acclaimed Chinese cinema, and who later served as general director of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, a production watched by a global television audience. That same instinct for large-scale, visually driven spectacle carries through into the outdoor 'Impression' shows, of which West Lake is one.
A trio, not a solo act
While Zhang Yimou's name is the one most visitors recognise, co-directors Wang Chaoge and Fan Yue have shaped every production in the series alongside him, and are often credited as equally central to the choreography, staging and site-specific engineering that make each show work. This kind of long-running creative partnership is unusual in large-scale outdoor theatre, where productions more often rotate directors between projects — part of why the 'Impression' shows share a recognisable visual language (real landscapes as sets, large ensemble casts, folklore-inspired themes) even though each one is staged in a different Chinese province.
Where the series began: Impression Liu Sanjie
The 'Impression' series began with Impression Liu Sanjie, staged on the Li River near Yangshuo in Guangxi province and first performed in the early 2000s. It set the template the later shows would follow — a real body of water and its surrounding landscape used as the stage, local folklore woven into the choreography, and a nighttime lighting design built specifically for that setting. Impression West Lake, staged in Hangzhou, followed a few years later as one of the productions that extended this same approach to a different city, a different body of water and a different local legend.
A growing family of outdoor shows
Beyond Liu Sanjie and West Lake, the same directing team has staged further 'Impression' productions in other Chinese provinces, including a show set among the karst-and-river scenery of Lijiang in Yunnan and another built around the tea-growing landscape of Wuyi Mountain in Fujian. Later entries in the series moved into other Chinese regions and themes as well. Each production is independently staged and cast, so none of them are interchangeable — but visitors who enjoy Impression West Lake's blend of real landscape, light and folklore may recognise the same creative fingerprints in these other shows if their travels take them further afield in China.
What ties the series together
Across the different cities and legends, the 'Impression' productions share a consistent idea: rather than building a theatre and importing a set, stage the performance inside a real, recognisable natural landscape and let that landscape do much of the storytelling. For Impression West Lake, that landscape is a UNESCO-listed lake already loaded with centuries of poetry, painting and folklore — which is arguably why this particular entry in the series leans so heavily on a local legend for its themes, rather than starting from an original story written for the stage.
More things to do nearby
Still deciding on dates?
Leave your email and roughly when you're travelling — we'll send a short rundown of how to choose the right ticket and how far ahead to book.