Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village

Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village is in Leishan County, Guizhou. It has 1,468 households and over 6,000 residents. Almost all residents here are Miao people, accounting for 99.5%. This is the largest Miao village in China, possibly the largest in the world. The place keeps its natural beauty and rich culture.

Highlights of Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village

Twelve Welcoming Wines

Twelve Welcoming Wines

The Miao people show their feelings with wine. When guests come, they must welcome them with wine - this is their important tradition. At the North and West Gates of Xijiang Miao Village, locals in traditional clothes offer twelve cups of welcome wine. Each cup carries deep meaning and shows its culture. This custom brings good wishes to guests and shares values the Miao have kept for generations.

Xijiang Miao Museum

The Xijiang Miao Museum has six separate two-story buildings. Built in traditional Miao style, they look like the Miao people's stilted houses (diaojiao lou). Inside, you can visit 11 halls: the Front Hall, History Hall, Production Hall, Festival Hall, Song and Dance Hall, Architectural Skills Hall, Costume and Silverware Hall, Sports and Miao Medicine Hall, Witch Culture and Religion Hall, Living Hall, and Multimedia Function Hall. Over 1,220 Miao cultural relics and 350+ pictures, portraits, and books are displayed here. These show Miao history, daily life, festivals, music, dances, clothing, silver art, medicine, buildings, and beliefs. This museum shares the unique and diverse Miao culture. It helps people study and understand Miao traditions.

Viewing Stand

Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village at night

The viewing platform is the perfect place to see the Xijiang Miao Village. During the day, you can see the whole village - stilt houses, farms and countryside views. The wooden houses stand tall in neat rows. At night, thousands of lights shine like stars across the village. The tall buildings and pretty pavilions look magical with the green trees and old bridges. From far away, the lit-up village looks like a silver butterfly opening its wings.

Yang Ousang Musical Drama

Yang Ousang is a large-scale live Miao song and dance poetic drama. Its entire performance lasts about 50 minutes. With a 360-degree rotatable audience platform, "human, sound, light, water, electricity, shadows, and scenery" are perfectly integrated through holographic projection, lighting, stage design, modeling, large-scale installations, and other real scenery elements. On stage, it not only shows beautiful natural scenery but also presents real Miao festivals, customs, and costumes.

Educational Value

Xijiang Miao Village has kept rich traditional farming culture and simple, natural Miao customs well because of history, geography and customs, making it a treasure of Miao culture. Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village, with deep culture, shows what the Miao people have built up over a long time. Called an "open-air museum" and "China’s most beautiful Miao village", it’s a good place to study and explore Miao culture.

Activities to do at Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village

Ancient Papermaking: At Gage Gu Xiang of Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village, the ancient papermaking experience uses bark from Leigong Mountain's Broussonetia papyrifera as raw material. Tourists learn from elderly Miao women to make paper through over 20 steps like peeling and cooking. Traditional techniques turn pulp into paper, where dried flowers and plants can add decoration. The paper is then made into handicrafts such as notebooks and picture books.

Batik : Visitors can follow intangible cultural heritage inheritors to draw patterns on white cloth with a wax knife, then soak the cloth in dye made from Radix Isatidis for coloring. After dewaxing, rinsing, and drying, blue-and-white patterns with "ice cracks" are finally revealed.