Xijiang Thousand Households Miao Village

The Largest Miao Settlement In China · Kaili, Guizhou

The largest Miao settlement in China: more than a thousand households of dark wooden stilt houses stacked up the terraced hillsides of a valley in the mountains of southeastern Guizhou, facing each other across the Baishui River and its covered wind-and-rain bridges. The Miao, one of China's largest ethnic minorities, are famous for intricate silver headdresses, embroidered costumes, lusheng reed pipes and songs, and Xijiang has become the best-known place to see their culture - staged, crowded and commercial in parts, but still a living village. Visitors are welcomed at the gate with the traditional blocking-the-road wine, drunk from buffalo horns offered by women in silver finery, and daily performances fill the central square with dances and pipe music. The classic sight comes after dark, when thousands of lights come on across the hillsides and the whole valley glows like a starfield, best seen from the viewing platforms above the village. Long-table banquets, sour soup fish and rice wine, silver and embroidery workshops, and the quieter upper lanes round out a stay. Kaili South high-speed station is about an hour away.

Xijiang Town, Leishan County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Kaili, Guizhou, China

Village open daily; ticket gates roughly 8:00-22:00, with a night ticket after 18:00. Lights on from about 20:30. Performances at set times (check).

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