Viewing platforms
Above the hillsides.
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China's largest village of the Miao people, known as the «Thousand-Household Village»: more than ten joined hamlets whose wooden houses climb the hillsides at the foot of Leigong Mountain and line both banks of the Baishui River. Its people trace their history here to an ancient Miao migration, and in 2005 some six thousand people lived here, nearly all of them Miao. Its houses are wooden and raised on stilts, usually three storeys: tools and animals below, living quarters in the middle and grain stored above, and in 2006 the craft of building them joined China's national intangible heritage list. The village is known for the silver jewellery and embroidered costumes of its women. Visitors take the area bus up to viewing platforms above the village, then walk down its stepped lanes to the covered «wind and rain» bridges over the river; it is loveliest in the evening, when thousands of windows light up the hillsides like a starry sky. Tickets cost CNY 110 with the area bus, valid three days with re-entry, and entry is free for under-14s and over-65s, who buy only the bus ticket, per visitor guides.
Above the hillsides.
Over the river.
A Miao craft.
Xijiang town, Leishan County, about an hour from Kaili, Guizhou
Yes, it is at its best in the evening when the houses light up and early in the morning before the tour buses arrive, and the village has many guesthouses.
Choices are few in the village and local cooking uses a lot of pork, so bring food and look in Kaili for restaurants run by Muslims under the halal sign.