DRAGONS, DRUMS & ART: Guizhou Tribes & Festivals

 Pre tour extension: 7-Day Kunming, Stone Forest, Dali, Lijiang & Tiger Leaping Gorge

 Post tour extension: 6-Day Xian to Beijing by High Speed Train

Back in the 80s, we pioneered Ethnic Minority study trips to Guizhou and Yunnan for UCLA Extension.  Back then there were no flights and barely any roads.  After decades the company owner is taking an exploratory tour back to Guizhou’s smaller villages to attend an intimate tribal festival before it disappears!  Guizhou has been earmarked for major modernization.

Do Colorful Festivals and bamboo pipe (Lusheng) music excite you? Escape to Guizhou one of China’s most interesting and scenic provinces.  Arrive earlier in Shanghai to experience its stunning skyline of modern and neoclassical architecture, Avant-garde art scene, museums, historic teahouses, classical gardens and sensational nightlife.  Go on a scenic river cruise past stunning limestone mountains, stay amidst cascading rice terraces and view the astounding dragon spine rice terraces sculpted into 2000-foot mountainsides.  Spend time in Guizhou’s melting pot of 14 ethnic groups that lend a splash of color and diversity, seen in its markets and villages. View the array of minority crafts ranging from musical instruments to exquisitely embroidered textiles.  The native Miao make elaborate costumes that are not only their most important possessions but also a major living visual art form of their culture.  The decorative techniques, patterning, and stitches distinguish one ethnic group from another.  Journey along silent rivers and misty mountains, walk to villages set in bamboo groves to meet the Bird, Baisha, and Buffalo Horn Miao, tribes.  Relish the traditional salt or sour fish hot pot and marvel at the mysterious drum towers and wind and rain bridges of the Dong people that have fascinated anthropologists for ages.  Celebrate an intimate local festival – a long-standing tradition.  Photograph the stunning remote scenery and the Miao girls resplendent in their silver headdresses and hand-embroidered costumes.  Even the men turn out in their indigo tunics playing bamboo pipes.

Destinations

Guiyang * Smaller Tribal Villages * Kaili * Zhenyuan * Ronjiang * Congjiang * Zhaoxing  * Rice Terraces * Guilin * Yangshou

Suggested Custom Tours

Add pre or post tour extensions to this group tour anywhere in Asia!

China

CHINA: Xi'an to Beijing by High Speed Train

6 Days

$2380

China

YUNNAN: Stone Forest, Dali, Lijiang, Tiger Leaping Gorge

7 Days

$3180