Things To Do in Guiyang

The stretch of the Nanming River southeast of the city center is worth a couple hours' stroll at most. From Renmin Guangchang (People's Sq.) on Zunyi Lu (now housing an underground Wal-Mart beneath Louvre-style glass pyramids), a giant gleaming white statue of Mao Zedong stands in his usual hailing a cab pose. Walk along the river to the Fuyu Bridge on which sits Jiaxiu Lou (open 8:30am-5:30pm). Built in 1598 as a meeting place for scholars attending the provincial Confucian examinations, this three-story pavilion has three tiers of soaring eaves supported by 12 stone pillars. The pavilion currently houses a teahouse and a small exhibit of the building's history as it is one of the few remaining traditional wooden buildings in the city. The real find is the open-air secondhand bookstore on the ground level that sells rare, hard-to-find travel and nature guides, great for exploring local caves, or reading up on the local flora and minority cultures at well below the usual tourist prices in other provinces. This is a must visit if you intend to do any extended travel in the province. At the other end of the bridge is Cuiwei Yuan (¥3/40¢/20p; open 8:30am-midnight), a series of traditional buildings once part of a Ming dynasty Buddhist temple. Today, it is home to a teahouse favored by mahjong players; pricey shops sell minority goods.

You're better off buying minority handicrafts in the outlying villages, although the Duocai shop (tel. 0851/687-3382) on the ground floor of the library has some very knowledgeable English-speaking staff and is a good place to begin your research. Guizhou is home to China's most famous alcohol, Maotai, an appallingly awful 106-proof liquor that most foreigners can take only in extremely small or extremely large quantities.