Opened at the end of May, this is the fourth Madame Tussauds in China (after Hong Kong, Wuhan and Shanghai) and the sixteenth in the world. Located onQianmenDajie, an area renowned for its old Beijing culture, the museum has already proven a hit among locals, drawing in 3,000 visitors in its first three days, and around 18,000 in its first week and a half.
The first thing you see when you enter the brand new Madame Tussauds wax museum is a whole lot of red - red floors, red walls, red ceilings, red banners, even red-collared shirts on the creepily enthusiastic employees selling tickets at the counter. We wind our way through a maze of (red) ribbon, meant to control the stampeding hordes, as inspirational music blasts from speakers overhead.
The first figure Lao She enjoys a level of status rare among his fellow wax figures: seated at his desk, surrounded by his papers, Lao She is the undisputed master of his domain. After walking past a dragon boat - from which a young woman shouts, ‘jia you! jia you!’ to her paddling minions - the museum transitions into political figures and world leaders, starting with the British royal family - or, rather, Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge alongside Her Maj, who wrings her hands nervously as if scandalized by the tourist in platform sandals who’s lounging in one’s throne and wearing one’s crown.
In the next room is the Oval Office, where President Obama stands next to his desk, smiling in tacit approval at the unending stream of visitors who pretend to sign papers. Across the room stands a disgusted-looking Nelson Mandela, arms slack at his sides, possibly perturbed by the fact that he’s flanked by what appear to be two US secret service agents. Further on are a dapper-looking Putin and a seated Karl Marx. The floor ends with a room of photos which is inexplicably dominated by images of both Putin and Queen Elizabeth meeting Buddhist monks.
The third floor is where things get interesting. It starts out with an informative video about the history of the museum, next to a wax representation of Madame Tussaud herself, grimly unwrapped a severed head. This leads into a small display that explains how the figures are formed and - even better - a station where you can have wax versions made of your own hands (58 RMB for one; 88 RMB for two).
The next gallery marks the beginnings of serious selfie territory: a room full of all-star athletes such as David Beckham, Serena Williams and Li Na. The highlights for most tourists, though, are the basketball players Jeremy Lin, Kobe Bryant and Yao Ming.
In contrast to the nice photos we saw online of people pretending to pass to the players, all the visitors today are making vicious attempts to knock the basketballs out of their very hands. It doesn’t end there. We watch as one young woman poses beside Yao Ming, and then, as if seized by a sudden uncontrollable urge, yanks out the elastic waistband of his shorts to peer inside. The primal id has at last been awoken through the power of wax.
More likely to welcome the woman’s clumsy advances are the rock stars in the next room, who include Michael Jackson, Madonna, Lady Gaga and Elvis, as well as several Chinese pop stars like Jay Chou and Teresa Teng. There are lots of chances to interact with the musicians, but the biggest is the stage set-up behind China’s first rocker, Cui Jian.
As if to complete his downfall, two visiting gentlemen don longhaired wigs, one pink and one white, and pick up guitars before taking to the stage with Cui. Behind them, a noodle-armed girl taps listlessly at the drums to the rhythm of a music video in which a guy with bleached blonde hair and a sequined jacket caresses his own abs while serenading a girl who looks worryingly similar to himself.
The final sections are home to the biggest draws - movie stars. Lucky for us but unlucky for them, because by this point the herd of photo-snapping twentysome are drunk on their own daring, and inhibitions have dipped dangerously low. Superstars like Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn remain relatively unscathed, while Daniel Craig gets away with a chaste peck on his cheek from a girl and a jibe at his height from her male companion.
Things start heating up in the action star room, where a banged-up but stoic Bruce Willis stands mostly ignored, while across the room people jockey with one another to take pictures with – yep, you guessed it - Jackie Chan. To the right, a giggly gentleman carrying his girlfriend’s purse positions himself to get kicked by Bruce Lee, who is flying in through a window, then stops, thinks better of how this comes across, and hands back the purse before reassuming the position.
The downstairs opens up into a white plaza featuring Leonardo Dicaprio, Johnny Depp, Jackie Chan and Brangelina. Halfway down the room we catch a girl peeking under Kate Winslet’s skirt, while a couple quietly harasses Hong Kong starlet Carina Lau. The girl flicks Carina’s earrings several times before noticing that her companion is attempting to look up the actress’ nose.
The display concludes with superstars like Li Bingbing and George Clooney, and then ushers you into the museum gift shop filled with the requisite bric-a-brac like snow globes and oversized mugs.
Altogether, the museum is home to 60 figures, all determined by a research team in the UK who surveyed locals on the subject of their favorite celebrities. The museum’s marketing manager says they’ll continue to add four or five figures each year.
Open: 10:00 am - 9:00 pm daily
Tel: 86 10 8755 9688
Add: No. 8 Qianmen Dajie, Dongcheng District, Beijing
