Attractions

The southeastern part of Guizhou is squarely Dong territory, with over 400 Dong roofed bridges in Liping, Rong Jiang, and Cong Jiang counties. On the southeastern border across from Guangxi Province, Zhaoxing is the largest Dong village, while the area around Rong Jiang and Cong Jiang is dotted with smaller villages awaiting discovery.

Rong Jiang & Cong Jiang

The only reason to stay in Rong Jiang is its famous and incredibly colorful Sunday Market, which spills onto several streets east of the main road. Unless you want to explore the Dong villages around here, many travelers heading south from Kaili end up overnighting or changing buses in Cong Jiang, which serves as more of a gateway to both Zhaoxing in the east and Guangxi Province in the south.

Rong Jiang -- 173km (104 miles) SE of Kaili

Getting There -- From the Main Bus Station (Qichezhan) in the north of town, buses, including minibuses, large air-conditioned buses, and sleepers, run to Kaili (6-7 hr.; ¥35/$4.55/£2.30) from 6:30am to 4pm; and to Cong Jiang (3 hr.; ¥20/$2.60/£1.30) from 6:40am to 4:30pm.

Where to Stay & Dine -- The best place to stay is the Rong Jiang Binguan at Guzhou Zhong Lu 47 (tel. 0855/662-4188; fax 0855/662-4223), which has basic but comfortable enough standard rooms for ¥160 ($21/£10) with private bathrooms. There's also a restaurant.

Cong Jiang -- 79km (47 miles) SE of Rong Jiang, 252km (151 miles) SE of Kaili

Like Rong Jiang, there's little to recommend Cong Jiang itself, but about 7km (4 miles) before the town, on the road from Rong Jiang, the unusual village of Basha makes for a fascinating visit. Although recognized as members of the Miao, the Basha Miao are practically a tribe unto themselves. They cling to unique traditions such as the men's hugun hairstyle, which is created by shaving off all the hair except for what grows on the crown, and coiling what's left into a topknot never to be cut, as hair is considered the lifeline given by ancestors. Wandering through the village, you can hear the pounding of indigo grass and dyed cloth and see swags of glutinous rice hanging on giant racks to dry. Barefoot boys play hide-and-seek, and dogs bark at approaching visitors while pigs snort and wallow deeper in the mud. Living a simple and extremely poor existence, the Basha are understandably wary of cadres of tourists tramping through their village. You can only hope that the entrance fees of ¥10 ($1.30/65p) for foreigners and ¥6 (80¢/40p) for Chinese are actually going to the village and not padding some tourist official's pockets. If you're visiting on your own, tread softly and sensitively.

As you leave Cong Jiang in the direction of Zhaoxing, cutting a dashing sight on the left are the three drum towers of Gaozeng village. Two of the drum towers are the tallest in the region, at 17 stories and almost 30m (98 ft.) high. The road between Cong Jiang and Zhaoxing offers some of the most picturesque pastoral scenes of terrace fields cut into gently rolling hills.

Getting There -- From the Cong Jiang Bus Station (Qichezhan; tel. 0855/641-3957) on the eastern side of the river, buses run to Rong Jiang (3 hr.; ¥15/$1.95/£1/) every hour from 7am to 5:20pm; to Kaili (10 hr.; ¥53/$6.60/£3.30) at 6am, 8am, and 9:20am; and to San Jiang in Guangxi Province (3 1/2-4 hr.; ¥15/$1.95/£1), with nine departures from 6:30am to 3:30pm via Baluo and Fulu. To get to Zhaoxing, take a Liping-bound bus for ¥20 ($2.60/£1.30) from 6:30am to 1:40pm and change at Pilin. You can also change at Luoxiang, but connecting buses are infrequent; at press time, the dirt road (if it can be called that) between Luoxiang and Zhaoxing consisted a series of never-ending potholes.

Where to Stay & Dine -- The newest place to stay is the Yueliang Shan Binguan on Jiang Dongnan Lu (tel. 0855/641-4888), on the eastern side of the river just next to the bus station. Standard rooms with air-conditioning, TV, phone, and 24-hour hot water cost ¥120 ($16/£7.80). The hotel also has a Chinese restaurant. No English is spoken. Across from the bus station are food stalls that serve basic stir-fries (point to the vegetables you want and say "chao rou" if you want them with pork) and noodles to get you through the night. Off the main street west of the river is a small night market of barbecue stalls, north of the post office.

Zhaoxing

Zhaoxing, the biggest Dong village in China with a population of 3,500 people (all surnamed Lu!), is one of those places where the rewards that await you are in direct proportion to the difficulty in getting there. And it is very difficult to get to Zhaoxing. With a history of over 700 years, this picturesque village of fishponds and rice paddies is extremely welcoming (but largely free of tourists) and boasts the single greatest collection of drum towers (five) in China, ranging from 7 to 13 stories high. With many settlements around the area ripe for exploration, there's enough to occupy you for at least a couple of days; allow an equal amount of time to get here and away. Though Zhaoxing can be approached from both Kaili and San Jiang in Guangxi Province, the latter has more direct buses.

Getting There -- The most hassle-free way to get to Zhaoxing is by private car/taxi hire. From San Jiang in Guangxi Province, the 3-hour-plus ride will run between ¥200 and ¥300 ($26-$39/£13-£20) depending on your bargaining powers. The most reliable public bus leaves at 6:50am, costs ¥14 ($1.95/£1), and takes about 4 hours. Unfortunately much of the road is currently under construction so it is probably better to allow 6 hours and perhaps bring a face mask to filter out the incredible amounts of dust. From Zhaoxing to San Jiang by bus (4-4 1/2 hr.), an early morning bus departs at 7:30am and another less reliable bus around 9:30am. The quickest way to Kaili (10 hr.) is to take the 7am bus to Liping and transfer to the 11:40am bus to Kaili. At press time, there were no direct buses to Cong Jiang. The best option is to take a bus to Pilin (2 1/2 hr.), then transfer to a Cong Jiang bus that's coming from Liping (3 hr.). Alternately, some folks have hiked an hour to Luoxiang; or they have taken a local farmer's truck for ¥30 ($3.90/£1.95) along a wretched pothole-riddled dirt road and transferred to a Cong Jiang-bound (¥11/$1.45/70p) bus, which runs every half-hour to hour from 7:30am to around 4pm.

Exploring the Village and Beyond -- The main attraction is the village itself, which is divided into five sections organized by clan, each with its own all-wooden drum tower, wind and rain bridge, and theater stage. Ranging from 7 to 13 stories (the tallest is 25m/82 ft. high), the drum towers have all been rebuilt since they were destroyed by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Desperately in need of a fresh coat of paint, the structures are still impressive and continue to play host to large events like weddings, festivals, and funerals, and to less-momentous occasions like a villager's afternoon nap. The rest of the place is filled with photo ops of villagers dyeing cloth, sifting rice, weaving baskets, and building houses.

There are also several villages around Zhaoxing worth visiting. Three kilometers (2 miles) or an hour's invigorating climb to the south, the village of Jitang has three well-preserved original drum towers that escaped destruction during the Cultural Revolution. The largest, in the middle of the village square, has 11 tiers of eaves and is held up by 16 original stone pedestals. Wander this lovely village, where bales of indigo cloth hang from beautiful traditional wooden houses and friendly children try their Chinese (usually limited to "nihao" meaning "hello") on you. To get there, follow the main street in the direction of Luoxiang and bear left as the road winds uphill. The village of Tang'an about 4km (2 1/2 miles) to the southeast has some stone terraces worth hiking out to see if you have time.

Where to Stay and Dine -- The nicest and most popular place to stay is the all-wooden Wenhuazhan Zhaodaisuo right in the center of town off the main road, just under 50m (164 ft.) from the informal bus stop. The spartan rooms come with nothing more than beds and fans but are otherwise clean, as are the communal showers and toilets. A bed costs ¥20 ($2.60/£1.30) and a standard room ¥50 ($6.50/£3.25). The owners don't speak much English but are very friendly and can cook Chinese and Dong meals as well as pancakes for breakfast. Deeper inside the village, Lulu's Homestay (Fengqing Luyou Shewai Minju Luguan; tel. 0855/613-0112) offers six rooms on the second level of the owner's (Lu Xinfeng) house, but a new wooden guesthouse was being constructed next door at press time. The new rooms should be basic but clean, with beds averaging ¥25 ($3.25/£1.65) each. Mr. Lu's wife cooks delicious Dong meals for ¥10 to ¥20 ($1.30-$2.60/65p-£1.30) per person, and instant coffee is available. Mr. Lu, with his smattering of English, often leads hikes in the surrounding hills.

Around Zhaoxing -- If you're traveling the road between Zhaoxing and San Jiang in Guangxi Province, you'll notice about 1 1/2 hours south of Zhaoxing at the hamlet of Diping a three-tower wind and rain bridge stretching 56m (184 ft.) across the river. Guizhou's most impressive bridge of its kind, the structure was built as early as 1883. Keep your eyes peeled for a lovely set of four stamps issued in 1997, featuring the Diping Bridge and three other splendid examples of Dong architecture.