I've just been to see the Chinese state circus in Leeds and they were brilliant. Well worth the cost; we got the cheap seats (only couldn't see one short thing cos of the position) which should have cost £10 each but cost £5 because we had a half price entry coupon. They move to Sheffield next.

They had a strongman act, some Peking Opera stuff, Chinese dragons, human chandelier (a girl who could bend in half backwards and roll around whilst holding a candle chandelier on each foot, hand and her head!), some urn juggling, tightrope stuff and the Shaolin guys waving weapons around and breaking stuff over each others heads. They always looked quite serious, as you would if someone was about to break bits of wood on your head.

The highlights for me were the guys jumping through hoops - much better than I make it sound, honest. There were some guys climbing vertical poles and jumping from pole to pole, very impressive stuff. Finally there was a guy slacklining, not the usual slackline you see in climbing mags but a wide v shaped slackline. Very slack indeed and useless for your washing. He walkied it, rode a unicycle on it, walked on his hands on it (honest!), laid down on it and rolled along it. Seriously impressive stuff.

All in all a very enjoyable 2 hours - if I could apply their balance and control to my climbing I'd be half way decent, instead of crap.

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