Guizhou Extravanganza - China

Daily details in brief 

Day 1 Arrival in Guiyang. Upon arrival transfer to Kaili (2 hours). Day 2 Kaili. It’s festival time! Be it the Sister Festival, Lusheng or Miao New year, it will be a day of music and dance by locals dressed in their best with traditional costumes and stunning silver accessories. Day 3 Drive (2 hours) to the village of Shidong and catch the local market. Locals from the nearby villages flock here for daily necessities to stunning silver jewelry, Miao embroidery, paper cuttings and cloth dyes. In the afternoon visit the Miao embroidery Museum for an embroidery class. Day 4 Today, drive to Leishan (about 45 minutes) which has some of the highest concentration of Miao villages. With a combination of hiking and driving, visit Xijiang Village, the largest Miao Village in China with distinctive architectural style, a Paika Miao Village and a short skirt Miao Village. End the day at the beautiful village of Langde where the locals entertain with their singing and dancing. Day 5 Deapart Kaili. Drive back to Guiyang airport for your flight home.

Note: Different villages have their own bazaars on different days. Your itinerary may be adjusted according to the bazaar calendar.

With a population of 8.9 million, the Miao people form one of the largest ethnic minorities in southwest China. They are mainly distributed across Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan and Sichuan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and a small number live on Hainan Island in Guangdong Province and in southwest Hubei Province. Most of them live in tightly-knit communities, with a few living in areas inhabited by several other ethnic groups. Much of the Miao area is hilly or mountainous, and is drained by several big rivers. 

History 

As early as the Qin and Han dynasties 2000 years ago, the ancestors of the Miao people lived in the western part of present-day Hunan and the eastern part of present-day Guizhou. They were referred to as the Miaos in Chinese documents of the Tang and Song period (A.D. 618-1279). In the third century A.D., the ancestors of the Miaos went west to present-day northwest Guizhou and south Sichuan along the Wujiang River. In the fifth century, some Miao groups moved to east Sichuan and west Guizhou. In the ninth century, some were taken to Yunnan as captives. In the 16th century, some Miaos settled on Hainan Island. As a result of these large-scale migrations over many centuries the Miaos became widely dispersed. Such a wide distribution and the influence of different environments has resulted in marked differences in dialect, names and clothes. Some Miao people from different areas have great difficulty in communicating with each other. Their art and festivals also differ between areas. 

Language 

The Miao language belongs to the Miao-Yao branch of the Chinese-Tibetan language family. It has three main dialects in China -- one based in west Hunan, one in east Guizhou and the other in Sichuan, Yunnan and part of Guizhou. In some places, people who call themselves Miao use the languages of other ethnic groups. In Chengbu and Suining in Hunan, Longsheng and Ziyuan in Guangxi and Jinping in Guizhou, about 100.000 Miao people speak a Chinese dialect. In Sangjiang in Guangxi, over 30.000 Miaos speak the Dong language, and on Hainan Island, more than 100.000 people speak the language of the Yaos. Due to their centuries of contacts with the Hans, many Miaos can also speak Chinese.