Exploring the Ancient Dong Village in Guangxi: Celebrate the Dong New Year, Enjoy Folk Customs, and Taste Oil Tea with Me!

When talking about Guangxi, the first thing that comes to mind is the saying 'Guilin's landscape is the best under heaven'—everywhere you look is stunning scenery. But this time, my destination is not Guilin's Yangshuo West Street or the Li River's Ten-Mile Gallery, but a minority village deep in the mountains called 'Longsheng Guangnan Village.' You might not be familiar with this place. Guangnan is a village where the Dong ethnic group lives. Since the Dong people have no written language, the history of this village is passed down orally through generations or recorded sporadically in nearby historical records, making it very mysterious and ancient.

This Guangxi trip coincided with the Dong's annual traditional festival, the 'Dong New Year.' As someone who has never experienced the New Year culture of an ethnic minority, I was very excited. Celebrate the Dong New Year, enjoy folk customs, and taste oil tea—come with me to experience the grand festival of the Dong people.

The houses in the village are stilted buildings with stacked and orderly rows, all made of fir wood with hard roofs covered by small black tiles, simple and practical.

1. Guilin Airport: About 28 km from the city center, a 40-minute drive. The airport shuttle runs all day, costing 20 yuan, shuttling between Liangjiang Airport and Swan Hotel (near the train station).

2. Taxi: The express ride from the city to the airport costs between 80 and 100 yuan.

3. There are three train stations in Guilin, located in different districts and counties. The closest to the city center is Guilin Station, followed by Guilin North Station, and then Guilin West Station. High-speed trains usually arrive at Guilin West Station.

About transportation to scenic spots:

1. Huangluo Yao Village and Jinzhu Zhuang Village are both within the Longji Rice Terraces scenic area.

- From Guilin, drive directly via the Baomao Expressway toward Longsheng, about 1.5 hours to reach the scenic area.

- From Guilin Railway Station Square, there are 4 daily buses to the Dazhai parking lot at Longji Jinkeng Rice Terraces! Departure times from Guilin Railway Station Square: 8:30, 9:30, 11:30.

- From Guilin Qintan Bus Station, take a direct express bus (no stops in between) for about 27 yuan per person, 2-hour ride. Arrive at Longsheng Bus Station, then transfer to a special tourist bus to Dazhai Jinkeng Rice Terraces for 9 yuan per person to the mountain foot parking lot, about 90 minutes.

- From Guilin North Station, take a bus to Longsheng, then take a taxi to Longji Rice Terraces.

- Join a one-day tour of Longji Rice Terraces in Guilin, which is more convenient and effortless.

- Suitable for self-driving. Currently, public transportation to Guangnan Village is not very convenient.

- It is recommended to join a group tour.

World's No. 1 Long-Hair Village, Huangluo Hongyao Village

About 1.5 hours from Guilin Airport, you arrive at the 'World's No. 1 Long-Hair Village,' Huangluo Hongyao Village, near Longji Rice Terraces. Huangluo Hongyao Village is backed by Longji Mountain, facing the Jinjiang River, at the point where the Longji Rice Terraces begin to spiral upward. It is a village with only about 60 households and the only Yao village among the thirteen Longji villages, inhabited exclusively by the Hongyao people.

Crossing a small wooden bridge, you enter Hongyao Village. Compared to the other thirteen villages, it's not very bustling—more primitive and simple. A few tourists pass by occasionally. The entire village is short, with only one street that takes about 20 minutes to walk. Along the street, there are local handwoven fabrics and silver ornaments, and Hongyao sisters sitting together chatting about family matters.

Hongyao women, whether young or old, all have beautiful long hair. The average hair length exceeds 1.4 meters, with the longest reaching 1.7 meters. They even won the 'Guinness World Record for the longest hair among a group.'

It is said that they only cut their hair twice in their lifetime: once at the hundred-day mark as a baby, and once at the coming-of-age ceremony at 18. After 18, they never cut it again, keeping it coiled up. Although all of them coil their hair, there are strict rules. For unmarried Hongyao women, the hair is coiled on top of the head and wrapped in black cloth; only family members can see her long hair. If an outsider wants to see her hair, they must marry her.

Although Hongyao Village is small, it has the most distinctive folk performance, which is well worth watching. Dressed in bright red ethnic costumes, Yao girls sing sweet folk songs as they walk down from the stilted buildings, showing off their shiny black long hair. The performance mainly revolves around Hongyao love customs, inviting tourists from the audience to participate in interactive activities, from showing affection, drinking cross-cupped wine, to entering the bridal chamber. Finally, the Yao girls demonstrate their secret to maintaining and caring for their hair.

Longji Jinzhu Zhuang Village, Eco-Friendly Lodging

About 20 kilometers from Hongyao Village, Jinzhu Zhuang Village is the 'first village' among the thirteen Longji villages, located within the Longji Rice Terraces scenic area. Jinzhu Zhuang Village got its name from the golden bamboo groves. We arrived a bit late and directly checked into the Longji Jinzhu Guesthouse within the scenic area. The guesthouse's design incorporates Zhuang cultural elements, refined without losing rustic charm. Every room and floor has its own character, and you can also taste local specialties like oil tea, sour meat, bamboo-tube rice, etc.

Rustic wooden building, old locks

Beyond the bustle, the Longji Jinzhu Guesthouse nestles against the mountain.

Here, seek the long-lost peace and freedom in your heart.

Amid the mountain scenery, enjoy a cup of fragrant oil tea, or watch the wind and rain, savoring a slow time of 'stealing a moment of leisure.' Just sit quietly, and your heart will drift with the tea's steam, float with the music flowing in your ears, spend the entire evening with a cup of tea, and see the stars in half a dream.

The guesthouse consists of nine Zhuang-style stilted wooden buildings. The rooms are decorated elegantly and uniquely, with many old items: old tea pots with red cultural prints, vintage wooden chests, ancient embroidery—full of nostalgia. Standing on the balcony, you can see the terraced fields, blending with the surrounding nature. The butlers are local sisters, simple and warm. Each room has a traditional Zhuang 'fire pit' kitchen and lounge, and the bathrooms are equipped with high-end fixtures and bathtubs.

Experience the local fire-pit culture: sit around with friends and family in the evening chatting and laughing. The sisters roast fragrant bamboo-tube rice and original glutinous rice cakes, which you can taste for free! You can also drink oil tea made by Zhuang sisters themselves.

Primitive wood-fired stoves, old stone mills—live a day in someone else's hometown, find a piece of lost memory, gain a friendship from another land, breathe the fresh local air, and experience the authentic culture and customs of a foreign place.

Taste a bowl of delicious Zhuang oil tea: 'First cup bitter, second cup puckery, third and fourth cups make good oil tea.' Visiting here without trying oil tea is incomplete. Drinking oil tea must be accompanied by various side snacks, fried and stir-fried foods, and special coarse-grain cakes. In winter, a sip of oil tea with a bite of snack is truly delightful.

Especially recommended is the bamboo-tube rice—fragrant and delicious. It is made by stuffing fresh mountain bamboo with glutinous rice soaked for over 3 hours, then steamed separated from water. Because the bamboo is very tender, the bamboo-tube rice is especially tasty. Only here can you truly feel the local flavors and all the beauty nature offers.

Address: Jinzhu Group 1, Jinjiang Village, Longji Town, Longsheng, Guangxi

Nearby attraction: Longji Rice Terraces

Longsheng Jiangkou Dong Village, Thousand-People Pipa Competition

From Jinzhu Zhuang Village, we headed toward the long-awaited Guangnan Village, a journey of about three hours. I planned to take a nap on the way, but before I fell asleep, I was drawn by the lively noise. It turned out that December 15, which is the first day of the lunar eleventh month, is the most important festival for the Dong people. More than 1,000 Dong people from three provinces (Guangxi, Hunan, Guizhou) gathered in Jiangkou Village, Lejiang Town, Longsheng Various Nationalities Autonomous County, for a pipa song competition and exhibition, celebrating their traditional 'Dong New Year' in a distinctive Dong way.

The scene was extremely lively. At the drum tower of Jiangkou Village, the sudden drop in temperature couldn't dampen the enthusiasm of the Dong people. Many locals in splendid costumes came in groups, and their exquisite clothing and pipas made everyone raise their cameras and phones to focus.

A visual and auditory feast began. Song and dance teams from various places took the stage, playing touching songs with their pipas, showcasing Dong traditional culture while remembering the red legacy, and a series of poverty-alleviation songs sounded the strongest voice of the nation.

Guangnan Dong Village Celebrates Dong New Year, Distinctive Folk Customs

Before even entering the village, we heard the sound of gongs and drums. After a journey through beautiful mountains and waters, we finally arrived at the thousand-year-old ancient village 'Guangnan Village.' Just in time for the Dong New Year. The old year has passed, and the new year arrives. The first day of the lunar eleventh month is the Dong traditional festival—the Dong New Year. This is the most grand and lively occasion in Guangnan Village, Pingdeng Town, Longsheng Various Nationalities Autonomous County, Guangxi. Men, women, old, and young dress in ethnic costumes and participate in folk parades, pipa songs, rice cake making, grass dragon and lion dances, reed-pipe dances, and hundred-family feasts at the drum tower.

The folk activities of the Dong New Year start with ancestor worship. The people of Guangnan deeply respect their ancestors. They worship the fire pit land god. A yin-yang master decides what food to bring that day, and the person in charge of the 'Sa Tang' prepares tea. At the drum tower, a village elder reads auspicious words, praying for the village's safety. The crowd responds with three loud shouts, then they drink tea, and finally sit together to enjoy food, wine, and meat, symbolizing that everyone is celebrating the New Year with their ancestors.

The Dong people celebrate the New Year with great enthusiasm. The scene is extraordinarily lively and grand. Among Dong festivals, the Dong New Year is the biggest and most solemn, like the Spring Festival for Han Chinese. In 2011, the 'Dong New Year' was listed in the third batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Performances came one after another, with singing and dancing to celebrate the Dong New Year. The people of Guangnan are skilled in singing and dancing. Those who can walk can dance, and those who can talk can sing. The village is known as a 'drama nest' and 'land of song and dance.' Dozens of ethnic musical instruments, songs, and dances are passed down here, with pipa, Yanping tune, Gui opera, Dong opera, Caidiao, Dong songs, Duoye, and Lusheng being the most popular.

Guangnan Village is extremely rich in opera, song, and dance, which are rarely seen at ordinary times. Only during the Dong New Year in Guangnan can you witness such a grand spectacle.

The Guangnan grass dragon—this was my first time seeing a dragon made of grass. It is also the most beautiful grass dragon in Guangxi, listed as a regional intangible cultural heritage project, with rich cultural background and historical origins. From the unique weaving material to the exquisite artistic form, it seems like a moving Buddha's light. It originated a thousand years ago from a large glutinous rice plant called Rongpabai...

A seemingly simple grass dragon needs millions of glutinous rice straws to weave. Making a grass dragon about 20 meters long requires over 200 workdays, with more than 3,000 scales alone, using over 120 jin (60 kg) of glutinous rice straw—no less than a million strands. Glutinous rice straw is the main material, along with bamboo strips, rattan, wood strips, etc. A complete grass dragon weighs no less than 150 jin (75 kg). The weaving process is complex and delicate.

All major Dong festivals are held at the drum tower, which is the symbol of a Dong village. The architectural form is a square, multi-eaved, flying-corner, tiled tower pavilion, usually built in the center of the village. In front of the tower is a bluestone square of tens to hundreds of square meters. In ancient times, a large drum was placed inside the tower to gather people or transmit information by beating the drum, which could be heard throughout the village—hence the name 'drum tower.'

The folk activities of the Dong New Year continue from day to night. After the hundred-family feast, Duoye is a kind of group song and dance of the Dong people. Everyone forms a big circle around a bonfire, singing and dancing, stepping in rhythm, with neat steps. A male leads the singing, and the group echoes with the end of the verse, just like a bonfire party we usually have—very lively and uplifting.

Dong Village Cuisine: Oil Tea, Sour Meat

Longsheng Various Nationalities Autonomous County in Guangxi has rich ethnic customs and unique food culture. Locals have the eating habit of 'Dong cannot do without sour' and 'Dong cannot do without fish.' Besides the three sour foods, oil tea is a must-try here. The Dong people have been drinking oil tea for over a thousand years, and it is one of the best specialties for entertaining guests and friends.

After watching the performances, it is also a happy thing to sit together, chat about family matters, and enjoy oil tea and Dong cuisine.

Eating a Dong New Year meal here is especially joyful. Among the dishes, sour pork, sour duck, and sour fish are known as the 'Three Treasures of Dong Cuisine.' Having these three treasures generally indicates a wealthy family. So we experienced the treatment of a wealthy family, haha—just saying that in fun. Actually, tourists can all taste these special foods here.

Water and Wood Dong Village Guangnan, Ancient Thousand-Year-Old Village

Guangnan Village is a beautiful mountain village where the Dong people live, embedded in the northwest of Longsheng Various Nationalities Autonomous County, Guangxi. Surrounded by mountains, with fertile land, wide fields, green mountains, clear waters, and beautiful scenery, it has a strong Dong cultural atmosphere and a deep heritage. It also features distinctive Dong architectural culture such as ancient drum towers, wind-rain bridges, stone slab roads, stepping stone bridges, old wooden buildings, ancient temples, ancient wells, and ancient pavilions.

After two days, I still hadn't thoroughly explored Guangnan Village. Walking along the bluestone path worn smooth over time, the ancient wooden buildings on both sides of the street seem like old men telling the history of a thousand years. In the stone street's water channel, the character 'Fu' (blessing) is 'inlaid' with pebbles. The flying eaves and carvings on the wooden buildings represent the happiest life here.

Dong brocade is the most distinctive hand-weaving technique here, with a history dating back to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods over two thousand years ago. From the Han to Tang and Song dynasties, the ancestors of the Dong formed their own unique style of weaving and dyeing. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, with the formation of the Dong ethnic group and the maturation of their traditional culture, the Dong brocade weaving technique developed greatly. Every piece of Dong brocade here is handmade, with exquisite colors and patterns—perfect as a gift or for personal use.

Every Dong village has a wind-rain bridge, and Guangnan is no exception. Within Guangnan, there are 10 ancient wind-rain bridges of various sizes. The most famous is Shenpo Wind-Rain Bridge, located 500 meters north of the village over the Guangnan River. It was built in the fourth year of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty (1799 AD). The bridge is 40 meters long, 6 meters wide, with 10 bays.

The bridge body is a four-pillar, multi-story building. On one side of the long corridor, the middle bay has two additional hanging pillars to install a shrine, where statues of Guan Gong and other gods are enshrined. Behind it are murals of dragons, unicorns, clouds, etc. On the bridge, there are three multi-eaved pavilions with upturned eaves, rising above the bridge roof. Inside, beams, square timbers, and wind-eave boards are carved and painted with flowers, birds, and animals. Shenpo Wind-Rain Bridge is the oldest surviving wind-rain bridge in Guangxi, even more than a hundred years older than the famous Sanjiang Chengyang Wind-Rain Bridge.

Walking along the river in the Dong village, you won't get lost. Although the village is not large, it is a maze with many small paths. Only locals can navigate it. I only realized when I reached the river that everything is built along the water. The terrain of Guangnan Village is roughly high around the edges and low in the middle, with the mountains trending northeast-southwest. The Pingdeng River and Liuli River run through Guangnan, converging at the end of Jiajiang Village and rushing toward Guangxiao and Longtang—the main rivers that nourish the Guangnan Dong Village.

The architecture of Guangnan Dong Village has a unique Dong building style. The houses are generally five-pillar, three-room, three-story wooden buildings with tiled roofs. The front eaves are mostly double-layered, and the ends have double-eave hanging pillars connected by corridors, forming side wings. They stand densely and orderly on the vast fields, presenting a spectacular sight.

The tranquility and peace of Guangnan Village are what many people yearn for. If you are also tired or weary, why not come here and slowly enjoy the simple life of the Dong people.