In the evening of June 15, outdoor opera “Gyantse Traces” was performed in Gyantse County, Shigatse of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, which is also the debut of 2016. From June 15 to September 30, tourists could enjoy this play in Gyantse.

With an investment of 50 million yuan (about 7.6 million U.S. dollars), “Gyantse Traces” is the first county-level outdoor opera in Tibet and the highest live-action musical in the world. This opera was the main cultural tourism item made by Tibet in 2014. Main creative team spends about one year on making this outdoor opera.

“Gyantse Traces” is performed by around 300 actors in a place of 350,000 square kilometers. This play consisting of a preface and the other five chapters vigorously presents Gyantse’s beautiful scenery, long history and rich intangible heritage cultures.

Why “Gyantse Traces” is performed here? Gyantse, located in the south of Tibet, is also called “Hero City”, because during British invasion, 500 soldiers of the Gyantse in Dzong Hill held the fortress against the British forces until died. As a national famous historical and cultural city, Gyantse is a new tourism town boasting rich tourism resources such as Pelkor Monastery and Karo La Glaciers.  

In recent years, with rich tourism resources, Gyantse strives to develop cultural tourism industry and build the historical and cultural tourism destination. Putting forward a theme of “Historical ancient city, Happiness Gyantse”, Gyantse mainly develop historical and cultural tourism, ecological tourism, adventure tourism and red tourism. In 2015, Gyantse received 84,500 tourists from home and abroad.

In addition, thanks to the chance of developing cultural tourism industry in Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet sets off a upsurge of creating outdoor operas. “Gyantse traces”, the second live-action musical after “Princess Wencheng”, plays an important role in creating jobs and increasing the local farmers’ income.

Pedron, a 57-year-old local villager, says that she performs in  “Gyantse traces” which brings her 3,000 yuan (455.7 U.S dollars).