Location info and some photos withheld. As of my last visit, this mural site is vulnerable to theft or destruction. I have withheld the location beneath the county level and any photographs (of steles, signs, scenery, etc.) that might identify the place. If you are an accredited scholar and you have a good reason to want to see this information, email me and we’ll talk about it.

Structure Type: Opera stage 戲台.

Location: Yu County, Hebei Province 河北省蔚縣. The stage faces north, across from a now-vanished temple. The whole complex sits outside the south-facing gate of the old village fort.

Period: Undated. Late 19th- or early 20th-century based on style and color.

Artist: Unknown.

Mural Contents: The murals outside of the scaenae frons 隔扇牆 show “buildings of the western seas” 西洋樓. On the gate of one of them is written Yida Gong 意大宮, presumably, “The Italian Palace”. The murals in the backstage (which, regrettably, I took very bad photographs of) show interesting life-sized scenes. In one, an actor speaks with a young woman. In another, a soldier and another man sniff a woman’s shoe.

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