Guizhou 贵州

Guizhou is the least-visited province with the most to offer: a karst plateau of terraced hills, waterfalls and river valleys, holding the largest concentrations of Miao, Dong, Buyi and Shui people in China — 17 officially recognised minorities, living in wooden villages that were unreachable by road until remarkably recently. It is also the cheapest place in China to travel well. Go soon: the high-speed rail arrived in 2014–2018, tourism infrastructure is being built fast, and the window before it is fully discovered is closing.

• Region South-west China
• Suggested stay 5–6 days
• Best season April–May and September–October
• Getting there Guiyang Longdongbao (KWE) airport + high-speed rail 2 h from Chengdu, 5 h from Guangzhou

Guizhou is a landlocked plateau of 176,000 km² between Yunnan, Sichuan, Hunan and Guangxi, 90% mountains, averaging 1,100 m. No plains, which is why it stayed poor and why it stayed culturally distinct.Getting there: Guiyang Longdongbao (KWE) airport; high-speed rail now reaches Guiyang from Guangzhou (5 h), Chengdu (2.5 h), Chongqing (2 h), Kunming (2 h) and Shanghai (9 h). Within the province, the high-speed line runs Guiyang–Kaili–Tongren (east, towards the Dong villages) and Guiyang–Anshun (west, towards Huangguoshu). Buses and hired cars cover the last 30 km to most villages.

• Huangguoshu waterfall — the largest waterfall in China (78 m), with a water curtain cave you walk behind. Two hours from Guiyang.
• Zhaoxing Dong village — the largest Dong settlement, with five drum towers and five wind-and-rain bridges, in a valley of rice terraces. Stay overnight; the Dong chorus is performed in the evening and it is extraordinary.
• Xijiang Miao village — 1,000 stilted wooden houses on a hillside, the largest Miao village in China. Touristy in the middle, real at the edges; go up the hill and stay.
• Libo Xiaoqikong — emerald-green karst water, waterfalls in the forest, the “little Jiuzhaigou”.
• Zhenyuan and Qingyan — old walled towns on river bends.
• Fanjing Shan — a UNESCO Buddhist sacred mountain in the north-east, with temples on a knife-edge ridge.

Guizhou was never a province of the classical empires in the way its neighbours were. The Ming garrisoned it in the 14th–15th centuries to hold the route to Yunnan, and Han soldiers and merchants settled around forts — which is why the old towns look like military colonies and why minority villages were pushed uphill. Rebellions were frequent and brutal; the Miao were not fully pacified until the 19th century. Isolation preserved what conquest had not destroyed: languages, clothing, silverwork, and the wooden building traditions (the Dong drum tower is built without a single nail). Since 2010 the province has had the fastest GDP growth in China on the back of mining, hydropower, and — improbably — big data: Guiyang hosts one of the country’s largest data-centre clusters because it is cool and geologically stable.

This is the strongest surviving minority culture in China. TheMiao (Hmong) are known for indigo batik, pleated skirts, and silver headdresses weighing several kilos that are worn at festivals and represent family wealth; theDong build drum towers and covered bridges and sing polyphonic, conductorless choral songs; theBuyi farm the river valleys; theShui have their own script. Festivals follow the lunar calendar — the Miao New Year and the Sisters’ Meal festival in the third lunar month involve costume, courtship singing, and lusheng pipes. Villages run on mutual aid, and elder women still spin and dye by hand. Ask before photographing people; many will say yes for ¥10–20, some will not.

Guizhou food is sour, spicy and herb-heavy — the sourness comes from fermenting tomatoes and rice water, and it is unlike anything else in China:suan tang yu (fish in red sour soup, the provincial dish),siwawa (silk doll — DIY vegetable rolls),guizhou changwang noodles (noodles with intestine and blood),yangrou fen (rice noodles with lamb),zhergen (fish mint /折耳根 — a polarising herb, try once),tofu balls,sticky rice in bamboo, andMoutai baijiu, made in the town of Maotai on the Chishui river. Take home:Miao embroidery and batik,silver jewellery,Moutai (expensive, widely faked — buy from a state store),Duyun Maojian tea.

Allow 5–6 days: Guiyang 1 day, Huangguoshu 1 day, Libo 1 day, and 2–3 days for the south-east (Kaili–Xijiang–Zhaoxing).Timing: April–May and September–October; summer is wet and the waterfalls are at their best but the roads are slower; winter is cold-damp and quiet.Mistakes: rushing the villages as day trips (the evenings and the early mornings are the point); treating a staged cultural show as the real thing; assuming English is spoken outside Guiyang — bring a translation app and a phrasebook.