Guizhou

Guizhou is a mountainous province and home to a wealth of minority culture. Not long ago many parts of Guizhou were virtually inaccessible due to the lack of infrastructure, but with large investments in road construction in recent years more and more of Guizhou is within easy reach via the improved country roads.

The provincial capital of Guiyang is a nice city with some sights of interest, but you should get away from the main cities and get out into the countryside, where Guizhou's real charm lies. To the north is Zunyi, the city where Mao was propelled into power in 1935 at the famous Long March meetings. Heading east will take you to the Huangguoshu Waterfall, the largest in Asia, as well as a bunch of minority villages of varying interest.

East of Guiyang lies Kaili, generally thought to be the main city of the Miao minority. However Kaili has crown and become modern, and to see genuine minority life you will need to travel away from Kaili and into the mountains to the south. Here the town of Leishan provides an excellent base for exploring the numerous villages in the countryside. Two villages just outside Leishan, Jidao and Langde, are both great examples of the Miao way of life, and especially Jidao manages to maintain its original way of life. Xinqiao, another village in the vicinity, is famous as the home of the Short Skirt Miao, a subgroup of the Miao where the women wears very short skirts as part of their traditional clothing. Also not far from Leishan the village of Xijiang attracts attention as one of the largest Miao villages in China, famously known as 'the village of a thousand families'.

Going further west Zhenyuan is an old garrison town on the banks of the Wuyang River. Zhenyuan is an attractive town with much of its original Ming Dynasty houses still intact, a nice riverfront area and a lively night market. At dusk red lanterns are lit all along the river, creating an old-China atmosphere of dynasties past. Nearby Shidong is a somewhat dull town that is home to the Silver Miao, another Miao subgroup. The Silver Miao are famous for the incredibly detailed silver ornaments the women wear. Once a year the traditional Dragon Boat Festival is held in Shidong, attracting competing teams from all other villages nearby, and the sleepy town turns into a sprawling place with everyone out in full traditional gear.

In the south part of Guizhou the formerly inaccessible region of Qiannandong is home to endless rice fields and minority villages. The Dong minority lives here, and many of their beautiful villages with wooden houses and Wind-and-Rain Bridges are now easy to get to, notably Zhaoxing Village, which is a very charming place with mountains, rivers and rice terraces and an incredible five Drum Towers. With the new highway now open Zhaoxing is easily reached and can also be a stepping stone to get into the remote areas near the Guizhou/Hunan border. North of Zhaoxing is the town of Liping. The town itself is not much, but has a nice Ancient Street with a quite interesting Long March Museum. Just outside Liping you can visit local tea farms and Longli Village, known as the dragon head capital of China because of the local production here.