6-Day Minority Adventure

Urbanization liberates villagers from poverty; yet all this modernization threatens to bring traditional handicraft to its knees. Southeast Guizhou is inhabited by minority groups, where people are skillful at all kinds of delicate manual crafts, yet unfortunately, ancient crafts and traditional customs are disappearing.

Open AllThis 6-day adventure gives insight into the diverse but disappearing culture of different minority people.

Day 1Arrival in Guiyang
Welcome to Guiyang! Your private guide will meet you in the arrivals hall and transfer you to your hotel in a private car.

Day 2Minority Batik-Making and the Female Soldier Tribe
breakfast & lunch

After you have gained a basic understanding of the ethnic minorities in Southeast Guizhou from the Kaili Ethnic Museum, pay a visit to a special minority village.

Apart from the Han and the 55 recognized minority peoples, there is a sub-group of the Miao who claim they don’t belong to any tribe. They say they should be recognized as the 56th ethnic minority, because they are distinct from all others, descendants of the legendary sun archer, Hou Yi.

If you are curious about this and would like to talk to the villagers, your guide can arrange a short visit to a local family.

It is interesting to observe the females, some of whom dress in army-uniform style, as their ancestors used to belong to the army. They also hang two batiks on the door instead of the usual antithetical couplets on red paper, as the village is renowned as a home to batik artisans.

Villagers dye white cloth blue by using indigo plant and paint various patterns with wax. You will have a chance to step into their dye-house, see how batik is made and try to dye.

Day 3  Mini-Skirted Miao and Silver-Ornament-Making Experience
breakfast & lunch

The Miao are a large minority group with a complex set of sub-groups and a myriad of cultures. Today you will explore the charms of different kinds of Miao.

No group of people in China knows how to work with silver better than the Miao. It is normal for a woman’s full set of silver ornaments to weigh up to 15 kilograms, partly because such ornaments are understood as symbols of wealth and also as amulets to ward off evil spirits.

Hidden deep in the mountains, the village you will visit first is famous for its silverware making. Observe a respected silversmith and learn how a dazzling ornament with complex patterns comes into being, step by step. Then have some fun taking part in the process.

After lunch, visit a village famous for its gorgeous mini-skirts and for its centuries-old creative way to store food.

Day 4  Ancient Papermaking Experience and China’s Last Tribe of Gunmen
breakfast & lunch

Rural people are experts at using any available resources to make a living: for example, paper is formed from wood pulp and so on. There is a village where people today are still using their ancestors’ methods for making paper.

Together with your guide, find the local heir of traditional papermaking methods and learn how intelligent ancestors were able to make paper simply from wood, and without smart machines, thousands of years ago.

The handmade paper is mainly used for writing. Some is mixed with colorful flowers and leaves to make delicate crafts, to be sold to other neighboring villages, to factories and even to places like the Forbidden City in Beijing.

You are encouraged to be as imaginative as possible and make a unique paper craft with your own hands, under the guidance of an experienced natural-paper maker.

After having lunch in a farmer’s house, cooked with fresh ingredients, set off for China’s last tribe of gunmen.

Apart from those who work in certain specific jobs, citizens in China are not allowed to carry guns. But you will visit an ancient village where men still carry a gun, gunpowder bag, bullet bag, and a knife. The traditional customs of the warrior Miao have been officially acknowledged and respected.

Day 5  A Rice Terrace Trek and a Dong Village
breakfast & lunch

The most impressive of the rice terraces in Guizhou lie wild and high. Today you will have a chance to hike through some. You can’t stop marveling at how in the past people constructed such large-scale terraces around the wild hilltops, without any firm scaffolding or convenient transportation.

The views from this 4-hour hike range from spectacular rice terraces and authentic hidden villages to stretches of green paddy field. Follow your guide and stroll along the bluestone paths, zigzagging between cloud-enveloped mountains.

Feel free to have a shower and freshen up at the hotel after your hike. Spend a relaxed afternoon at Zhaoxing, one of China’s biggest Dong villages.

Sometimes young, single people gather in the drum tower on the main street to find their match by singing antiphonally. Girls simultaneously embroider small accessories like insoles, to give to their favorite boy at the end of the gathering.

Day 6  Departure from Guiyang
breakfast

Your guide and driver will transfer you to Guiyang airport and help you to check in.