Kaili and the villages of the Miao

Inside the almost unknown Guizhou province, the most interesting destination for the independent traveler is the city of Kaili. Placed to 184 kilometers to the east of Guiyang. Kaili, with little more than 100.000 inhabitants, is undoubtedly the most interesting Guizhou place. The city in itself does not have any interest monument, but not only it is the suitable starting point to know the villages of the minorities that live in the outskirts, but it has a quite interesting proper ambience. Scarcely there are four streets that interweave, but the human activity is impressive. Perhaps what more could surprise a foreigner they are the women Miao with his showy hairdos, weaving tireless at the edge of any building and the restaurants specializing in meat of dog, with the fourth bottoms of the cánidos exhibited in his doors.

Although for the quiet traveler, a stay in the city of Kaili can be enough to satisfy the need to feel during a moment that one is in the most exotic China, the majority they will fall down in the justicicada temptation of approaching to know the villages of the outskirts, where they inhabit branches different from the most interesting peoples Miao. Although every village is the whole world, there are someone that placed at a distance that allows to know them in an excursion of only one day, present an inappealable interest:

Matang
To twenty kilometers of Kaili for a quite good highway. There they live through the Gejia, through a village that, in spite of being classified officially like a branch of the Miao, they support that there are an independent cultural and human entity.

In fact, they have a few garments especially attractive and his singings and dances are of the most original in the region. His people are kind and the strangers usually treat with big warmth. Beyond Matang there spreads the country Gejia in strict sense, but to penetrate for him will be an arduous task for the one who does not speak Chinese.

Zhouxi
To approximately twenty kilometers to the south of Kaili. It has a few streets where it is possible to see the people living in the slow rhythm of the traditional life. It is curious to see the wooden houses, with his traditional altars for the ancestors in his interior, aligned in the hillside of a low hill.

Danzhai
In the Zhouxi highway. In fact it is very much further of what seems. Since from Zhouxi, the highway is not asfaltada and they can be taken up to three hours in covering 50 kilometers that separate them. Only advisable for the one that is going to continue towards the south. The Miao in Danzhai are completely different from those who are seen in the outskirts of Kaili. With his black hairdos, they produce a curious impression. It has a quite interesting main street and a very coloring market.

Xijiang
Xijiang is famous for being the biggest village of the Miao. In Xijiang almost thousand families live, what supposes an enormous pressure on the natural resources of the outskirts. It is already to more than fifty kilometers of Kaili and given the state of the highways, it will be necessary to go thinking of happening the night it was.

Copyright © 2004 www.wuhancom.net