Dragon Boat Festival

This morning, you travel to Guiyang by flight or train, arranged on your own, where your guide meets you for the drive to Kaili, the capital of the Miao and Dong Minority Autonomous Region. The drive takes about 3 to 3.5 hours, giving you a first look at the region before you arrive.

In Kaili, you spend the afternoon at the Kaili Museum, an open-air museum of Miao nationality culture and customs established in 1987. About 100 families and more than 500 people, all of Miao nationality, live on the museum grounds, so you walk through a living community rather than a set of static exhibits. Kaili itself hosts more than 120 local festivals a year and is known as a center of Miao arts and crafts, including jewelry, embroidery, brocade, batik, and paper cutting.

You check into your hotel in the evening and rest ahead of the festival days ahead.

After breakfast, you set out to visit several Miao villages before watching the first rounds of dragon boat racing at Shidong.

You hike about an hour to reach Langde, a village of 300 Miao families whose ancestors settled here roughly 900 years ago. Miao architecture and customs are on full display, and the village carries real history: in the 1860s, a Miao rebellion against the Manchu court broke out here, led in part by people from Langde.
From there, you continue to Paika village near Leishan, a center of Long-Skirt Miao costume culture and traditional Lusheng pipe making. You spend time with a family who has made these bamboo pipes for generations, learning how they're built and played at festivals tied to courtship, and you get the chance to make and play a Lusheng pipe of your own. Lunch is arranged in advance today, since festival crowds leave no restaurants open nearby.

In the afternoon, you drive to Shidong village, a maze of old wooden houses and the heart of the Dragon Boat Festival. Local silversmiths still hand-craft traditional silver ornaments here. You watch the preliminary dragon boat races for about two hours, a Miao tradition in which crews hang live geese and ducks from the dragon's head and carry live pigs aboard, then release the animals onshore after honoring the dragon king. You drive about 1.5 hours back to Kaili for the night.

Hiking Length: 1 hour

Note: Lunch arranged in advance since no restaurants operate near the festival villages.
 

This morning you drive about an hour to Chong'an, a Miao town, then continue to Wangba village to meet the Gejia, a Miao subgroup who share many Miao traditions. You see their hand-made batik clothing up close and take an easy hike through the village's lush surroundings. Where it's possible, you visit a local family and join them in the fields, picking vegetables alongside them.

In the afternoon, you drive to the festival grounds for the final dragon boat races, the climax of the whole festival and your best look yet at the celebration that defines Miao life at this time of year. Lunch is arranged in advance again today, since no restaurants operate near the festival site. As the races wrap up, you drive back to Kaili for a final night.

Note: Lunch arranged in advance since no restaurants operate near the festival villages.

Your final morning begins with breakfast at the hotel. You then check out and transfer for about 3 to 3.5 hours back to the Guiyang airport for your flight home or to your next destination