7-day Tour of North Guizhou Province - 21st Oct to 27th Oct - Part 1

We signed up for a private tour with our Dutch hostel owner who has lived in China for 10 years and has extensively explored the Guizhou province where we were. Very luxurious and expensive to travel in a new car with a private English speaking guide, but ensured that we were not constantly diverted into souvenir shops which is hard to avoid on standard tours and we could find out and explore a lot more in a short time.

Villages of Dong and Miao people's ethnic minority area. Known for their 'wind and rain bridges' and wooden houses. The wooden bridges were originally  covered to protect the structure against the weather and then became very central to the community and important for feng shui. Consequently they have become very ornate. Liz and our guide shown inside another one below.

 View from the hill.

All along the river there are water wheels like this that lift water into the rice fields powered by the river itself. They are as ever made all from wood and bamboo. These have been kept in operation for hundreds of years with the same materials still used for replacement parts.

Fancy something for lunch?

Market wares always fresh.

Below: Village centre life. Animals live there too. Another wedding party.

Family/Clan drum tower for meeting and celebration. Second picture shows its amazing interior structure built with no nails.

New house being built below. All prepared in advance and then assembled in frames as a group activity. Mostly done with hand tools, though hand held electric planes are also popular. Only wooden fixings are used. No nails or bolts. Trees all grown and selected on the nearby hills.

Every bit of space used

Herding the animals up and down the steep hills. A slow process, but at least she has a mobile phone these days!

Last minute clean up for a dance performance.

Kids under the local drum tower playing with the bamboo instruments used for traditional performances. Sound of the instuments is quite bagpipe-like. Each one only plays very few notes but in ensemble the sound is quite interesting.

Moved on to Longji area. Famous for its incredibly complex rice terraces covering the hillsides. The hillsides have names like Dragon's backbone, and 5 tigers, inspired by the contours and stripes. (You might need to enlarge the landscape photos to see the terraces properly).

We had to walk about 1 km up a steep hill with our luggage to reach the hotel. As part of the tourist services, ladies some who looked as old as us but half my height can carry your bags for a price in huge baskets slung over their back. Worth every penny. We were cooked just walking up! The baskets are normally used for carrying produce from the fields.

Grandmother of the family who owned our hotel still prefers to live in her old house behind the hotel, in spite of many other rooms being available for her where other family members live. This house is in the traditional style - rooms on the upper floor and space below for produce and animals. Our own rooms were in the new wooden hotel and very luxurious. (Our guide knows the family very well. We were not just snooping in people's houses).

Some of our neighbours.