10 dys experience guizhou miao's lusheng festival

day 1 guiyang (d)

you will be met and welcomed by the guide in guiyangairport. guizhou is nicknamed 'the kingdom of mountains', as 87% of its land is comprised of mountains and plateaus. visit the hequn evening market after dinner, it will leave you an impression of guizhou’s mostpopular and spicy food.stay in guiyang.

day 2 guiyang–kaili (220km, 2.5hr) (b-l-d)

this morning you will be a guiyangnees, doing morning exercises in the people’s square, learning taiqi, waist-drum dancing, playing peg-top with your chinesefriends, etc. after lunch, drive 2.5 hour along the scenicmountain roads to kaili. pay a visit to the kailimuseum,it will leave you an overall view of the ethnic costume in guizhou. stay in kaili.

day 3 kaili–chong’anjiang (41km, 1hr)–kaili (b-l-d )

we will drive for 3 hours through the beautiful countryside with its terraced hillsides and quaint towns on our way to chong’anjiang. visit the miao’s lusheng festival, seeing the girls’ traditional costume and silver ornaments. join the celebration ceremonies, composed of lusheng dancing, horse racing, rooster fights, and buffalo fights. and it’s a good opportunity to learn and joining in the celebrate dancing.

lusheng, miao people’s musical instrument, is a chinese name for the miao bamboo pipe andtranslates as ‘reed instrument’. these pipes are most commonly played at festivals related to courtship and are not generally used at religious gatherings.stay in kaili.

day 4 kaili–huangping (45km, 1hr)–kaili (b-l-d)

today, we will drive 2 hours to gulong village, huangpingcounty, where another lusheng festival celebration is being held. in gulong, the festival activities are similar to those in chonganjiang, except that over 1,000 bamboo pipes are played here, a majestic scene yet to be seen anywhere else in this world. stay in kaili

day 5 kaili–rongjiang (204km, 5.5hr)(b-l-d)

we will drive from kaili to rongjiang via sandu, visit the beautiful chejiangdong village and the cluster of old banian tree on the way. the dong can be recognized by their turbans (for men), and pleated skirts (for women). they are also known for their architecture, particularly their drum towers, and feng yuqiao (or wind and rain bridges), which are pavilions for sheltering people during bad weather. stay in rongjiang guesthouse (simple condition)

day 6 ronjiang–congjiang (76km, 2hr) (b-l-d)

visit basha, a small miao village with very little signs of modern influence. the people rarely venture out of the village except for selling firewood and shopping for daily necessities in markets, and both men and women can be seen in traditional costumes, wearing their hair long. yintan, a dong village built on the top of the mountain with its beautiful landscape. stay in congjiang guesthouse (simple condition)

day 7 conjiang–zhaoxing (90km, 3hr)(b-l-d)

a 3-hour drive will take us to zhaoxing, one of the largest dong villages in the region, with more than 700 households and a population of 4000. after dinner, we will be entertained by the dong people's welcome ceremony (singing and dancing included) right beneath the dong's drumtower after dinner. stay in zhaoxing (poor condition woodenhouse)

day 8 zhaoxing–sanjiang (110km, 5hr) (b-l-d)

from zhaoxing we will continue our journey south into guangxiprovince. sanjiang in guangxi province, a town inhabited by the south dong, one of the two subgroups of the dong ethnic minority. a short drive away from sanjiang will take us to chengyang, a quaint little village with one of the largest fengyuqiaos (wind and rain bridge) in the region. here we will explore the villages on foot, visiting lively markets and hillside farms. stay in sanjiang.

day 9 sanjiang–longsheng(80km, 2.5hr)–guilin (160km, 2hr) (b-l-d)

we will leave sanjiang in the morning to visit longsheng, where the mountains are covered with terraced rice fields, some of them reaching up to 1,000 m (3,300 ft) peaks. we will arrive guilin in the afternoon. stay in guilin

day 10 guilin (b)

we will have an open morning to explore the beautiful city, and leave guilin, tour ends.