Xijiang: Miao Village Trip

Chris's birthday was Saturday, the worst possible to day to celebrate
a birthday since we work 12+ hour days. We decided to get away this
weekend as something exciting for his birthday (our weekend being
Monday and Tuesday). Chris, chris's girlfriend Jolene, Garry, Maja and
I went on the adventure. Guizhou is home to the majority of the Miao
and Dong minorities in China, and we decided to visit a Miao village.

We left on Monday, and after going to the wrong bus station, we got on
a bus to Kaili. Kaili is about two and a half hours away from Guiyang
and the jumping off point for visiting minority villages. . After that
it was another hour to Xijiang, the Miao village. It was a winding,
scenic road with lots of farmland, rolling hills, rice paddies, and
Miao and Dong minority homes and people.

It was a bit different to what I expected- there was a large entrance
and an entrance fee to get into the village. Sort of like Disneyland
or something. And lots of English signs everywhere, so clearly they at
least want it to be a tourist attraction. Yet still, we were in a
farming village with oxen and roosters wandering around, and
schoolkids playing basketball. It wasn't very crowded at all, and as
ever foreigners were more of sight than the girls in full Miao dress,
so we are in a lot of pictures with random Chinese people. Similar to
Qingyan, there were lots of souvenir type shops- Miao silver and
batiks and handicrafts.

There were plenty of hotels so we grabbed some rooms in a completely
wooden building. The walls were so thin we could talk to each other
despite being in our separate rooms. And we had little balconies with
a view of the wooden houses behind us.

We ate dinner on a balcony- the weather was really nice and warm. We
ate some delicious Miao food while watching the sunset over the
fields. We walked around and had some drinks. As I've mentioned often,
Guiyang is incredibly loud so it was night to be out in the dark,
quiet countryside.

Today Maja and I woke up a bit early and naturally, some crazy old
woman pulled us into her home video/family photos. We did some silver
shopping, and then heard music so wandered to watch a show of singing
and dancing in the traditional garb.

We had lunch at a place that had been rollicking at dinner the night
before. We ate on another balcony. Then we got a Miao toast- the women
sang, the men played the large pipes (you gotta just look at the
pictures, they're crazy looking), and women literally fed us rice
wine- we're guessing Miao rice wine of the town.

Unfortunately the last bus back today was at 3:30- or we could have
left early tomorrow. It would have been nice to stay another night but
we ended up making the journey back this afternoon. At any rate, it
was a nice trip and it got us excited to do more short trips around
the province for a change of scene.

I'll be posting pictures online and you'll see the scenery- it really
looks like the images that pop into your head when you think of China:
the rice paddies, the rolling green countryside. Although it's sort of
a strange juxtaposition when you see the traditional Miao wooden
houses that all have satellite dishes.