Kaleidoscope of Cultures

When most people think of the southwestern province of Guizhou, what comes to mind is its rich diversity. Minorities such as the Miao and the Dong, who wear striking traditional clothes and large silver headdresses, are some of China’s most interesting minzhu — ethnic groups. What makes a trip to Guizhou most interesting is that the local tribes, instead of succumbing to modernity and abandoning their colorful traditions and ways of dressing, have decided to embrace tourism and turn their ethnic diversity and traditions into an asset. Today, they use their folklore, songs, and music to entertain visitors and earn a living.

One of the best places to experience Miao and Dong culture is Qiangdongnan, the area surrounding the city of Kaili. Compact and filled with delicious food at its many street markets, Kaili is the best center from which you can day trip to surrounding villages along the slopes of Guizhou’s rolling hills. Some are more commercialized than others where travelers are freer to roam and experience a more authentic face of Guizhou’s country life.

The following is our expert recommendation of places you should visit based on your expectations and time.

The village of Langde is one of the most popular in Kaili. It’s also among the most commercialized as it has pretty much given itself up to tourism. Even so, it makes for a charming day trip. Twice a day, the local members of the Long Skirt Miao ethnic group put up a welcoming ceremony followed by a traditional singing and dancing show.  

At 11 am and 4 pm daily, villagers clad in traditional dress come together on the terraces at the front of the village. You can note how the silver jewelry and headdress ornaments change according to the age of the women: the youngest carry a round silver crown, often topped by a set of bull-like horns. Men in single file play their traditional lusheng reed pipes, singing greetings and offering visitors cattle horns filled with rice wine. Visitors are then ushered to the main square where locals perform a one-hour-long singing and dancing show which—although a little contrived—allows newbies easy immersion into Miao folklore.

Tucked 35km east of Kaili, Xijiang is the largest Miao settlement in China, with roughly 1200 wooden stilted homes cascading down the slopes of contiguous hills. The location is idyllic, and for this reason, it is another very popular visitor spot with scheduled traditional dance and singing performances. The setting here is stunning, and the surrounding countryside offers hiking opportunities through farmland and quiet forests.

To find some peace from the snap-happy Chinese domestic tourists posing in Miao garb (a China-wide phenomenon called lu pai), get outside town on hiking paths that weave through rice paddies, sidestepping farmers and water buffalo, and enjoy the quiet of the surrounding hills. For something more challenging, a 50-minute trail goes past terraced fields to Kaijue Miao Village.

Visitors can have a much more authentic ethnic group experience in the nearby village of Jidao, a real living Miao village with very little tourism set on a river bend 2km north of Upper Langde on the way back to Kaili. In the upper part of the village, you’ll find Miao wooden dwellings set around a central square where locals go on with their daily farming chores. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch Miao ladies in ethnic garb laying crops to dry in the sun, and if you can speak Mandarin, the locals here are genuinely interested in meeting visitors who seldom come this way.

The hillside village of Nanhua is about 18km from Kaili and is accessible from the main road through a large Wind & Rain bridge (a traditional Miao structure, usually covered) and then by walking uphill for about 600m. The village’s most ancient wooden homes and old center are tucked down an alley on the southeastern corner of the main square. Walking towards the deep end of the village beyond a silversmith workshop, the road follows the hill’s crest up to an attractive wooden and stone church that testifies to the arrival of Christian missionaries in Guizhou during the Qing Dynasty.

For a more hands-on approach to the world of Miao costumes and embroidery, one should visit the Xiu Li Tao Fei Ti Shiji in Kaili city, a traditional street market along Feihong Lu and its perpendicular alleys. It’s filled with ethnic embroidery, traditional clothes, woven textiles, and even original Miao headdresses. It takes place daily in a leafy and green area on the city’s south side, but it’s best to come on weekends when the action is in full swing as more sellers gather their wares here from the surrounding villages.