Xinqiao Miao Village

Xinqiao Miao Village is an old settlement with real local life, 12km south of Leishan County in Datang Township. This living museum keeps Tang-era headdress styles, Song-dynasty buildings, and Ming-Qing costumes. It also has traditional song-and-dance shows and old handicrafts like embroidery and weaving, all growing naturally through centuries of ethnic cultural practice.

Highlights of Xinqiao Miao Village

Short Skirt Miao Dress

Xinqiao Miao Village, known as "the First Short-Skirt Miao Village," shows its unique culture through women's special clothes. Their skirts are only 5-7 inches long, made from folded indigo cloth with no patterns. The pleats look like banana leaves, and the hems turn upward. This centuries-old tradition has mythical roots, including stories of imitating pheasants.

For daily use, Miao women wear simple outfits: handwoven cotton blouses with right-crossing collars, matched with short woven aprons. But during festivals, they dress beautifully—wearing up to 20 layered short skirts, and embroidered blouses with lucky designs like dragons, phoenixes, and flowers. They also wear fancy silver crowns, bells, large wooden combs, and old-style hairstyles. This makes them look like figures from classical paintings, wonderfully showing their rich cultural heritage.

Water Granaries

The Water Granaries of Xinqiao Miao Village are an architectural wonder. More than 40 wooden granaries sit above ponds, built with mortise-and-tenon joints—no nails used. Over a century old, these small structures have fir bark roofs and cleverly keep grain dry, safe from rodents, fire, and theft, making them living relics of ancient Miao farming culture.

They stand neatly next to stilted wooden houses, their ordered rows forming pretty reflections on the water. Walking through them shows not just great craftsmanship, but also the Miao ancestors' wisdom in living harmoniously with nature.

Miao Traditional Dance

The Miao people of Xinqiao Village are good at singing and dancing, with rich folk dance traditions. Grand dance shows are often held in the village square. Men form lusheng (reed-pipe) bands, playing nice tunes to the rhythm of large bronze gongs. Hundreds of women in colorful clothes move together perfectly—stepping in rhythm to form neat lines and circles, creating complex patterns.

In the "Jinji (Golden Pheasant) Dance," performers dress like the beautiful bird. Their fluttering costumes look like a pheasant spreading wings or a peacock showing its feathers, clearly reflecting the Miao people's passionate, bold nature. The lively "Bronze Drum Dance" has unique moves around the drum, expressing respect for ancestors and love for life. Visitors can join the happy rhythms, dancing with villagers to fully experience Miao dance culture.

Educational Value

Xinqiao Miao Village is a living fossil of rice-farming culture, keeping its old farming ways. Its well-known water granaries show the Miao's ancient way of storing and sharing grain. They reveal a group management system: privately owned granaries stand in neat rows, balancing personal and community needs.

Festive group dances and lusheng plays show how Miao society uses rituals to strengthen community ties. These traditions give real proof of how farming culture shapes social structures. They let visitors see up close how old Chinese villages were run and how culture was passed on, making their understanding of rural China more concrete.

Activities to do at Xinqiao Miao Village

Chixin Festival: This traditional farming festival is celebrated by Miao people in Guizhou's Leigong Mountain area. It marks good harvests and prays for future prosperity. Held between the 6th and 8th lunar months when crops ripen, it has lively activities: lusheng dances, fish catching, bird contests, tug-of-war, and Miao song competitions. These all show the community's joy and cultural heritage.