Earlier this month, Zhang Mei was featured in China Daily in “A walk on the wild side.”

The article tracks Mei’s “Cinderella” story of growing up in Yunnan province, her transformative experience at Harvard Business School and working at McKinsey & Company. Journalist Mark Graham also discussed Mei’s pivotal moment when she began thinking about starting WildChina in the late 1990s. After several years in the corporate world, Graham reports, “Zhang began to formulate a plan to turn her favorite hobby, exploring the wilderness regions of China, into a viable business.”

Zhang Mei and her son in Argentina

Graham not only followed Mei’s professional life, but about how she spends her time when she is not in the office. “I love going back to Yunnan; I find living, breathing real villages more interesting. I take these amazing hikes; I still feel an adrenaline rush on every trip I go on,” Zhang says.

Outside of Mei's hometown, Dali, Yunnan

Mei also hinted at her favorite hidden treasure in China– Guizhou Province. The upcoming Sisters’ Meal Festivalis not to be missed (early April 2012) and the rich minority culture, warm people and colorful Miao villages are unlike anywhere else in China.

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Did Yunnan or Guizhou perk up your ears? Interested in having Mei as your travel consultant? Send an email to info@wildchina.com to learn more.

Sometimes all it takes is an unexpected moment – a snapshot of daily life – that brings a trip into focus.

I witnessed such a moment during recent travels in Baibi village, an isolated Miao community outside of Kaili in Guizhou province. The largest ethnic minority in this rugged southwestern province, the colorfully clad Miao people have a reputation for kindness, hospitality, and gregariousness.

I spent three days in Baibi working on a community service project with a spirited and driven group of high school students from Hong Kong. We built a retaining wall out of concrete around the edge of a rice paddy, paving the way for the creation of a new fishpond – a crucial food source in a place where protein is in short supply.

After the students put the finishing touches on their project and we gathered on the road to depart, an elderly Miao woman approached our group with a giant smile on her face. Using a mixture of Mandarin and her local Miao dialect, she explained to our local guide, Jacky, why she was so content.

Jacky told us that she was happy about the sunny weather and our presence in the village. Jacky, who is half-Miao, then explained that she was about to start singing: “Miao people have to sing to show they are happy!”

Right on cue, she closed her eyes, tilted her head back and broke into a slow croon that might have seemed mournful if not for the smile still spread across her weathered face. Students, teachers, and villagers alike stood motionless as she sang, and when she finished she distributed bags of sunflower seeds as gifts. For all we had heard – and experienced – of the famously friendly Miao culture, nothing brought it home like the infectious elation of this village elder.

Among the Miao people of Guizhou, there is a festival that only takes place once every thirteen years. The Guzang festival is a two-plus week celebration honoring Li Rong, the ancient leader of the Miao people.

The first day of the Guzang festival is a fairly laid back affair along the lines of an opening ceremony. It is followed by the local shaman circling a mountain with a male duck on the second day and the slaughtering of many pigs and a massive feast on the third day.

We were lucky enough to be in Kaili on the first day of the festival, and we decided to head to Beigao Village, where the local shaman is a friend of our Guizhou guide Billy Li.

Before arriving in Beigao we had to pick up some party favors, which included three large rolls of firecrackers to be set off in announcement of our arrival. We also purchased a male duck, which we would give the shaman.

Once we had prepared everything, we hit a trailhead about one hour’s drive outside of Kaili and started hiking toward Beigao.

During the three-hour hike we followed a clear stream uphill for the first couple of hours, using stepping stones to cross it several times.

The last leg of the hike was a steep ascent consisting primarily of narrow switchbacks. As we gained altitude, the vistas became increasingly spectacular. A village at the top of a mountain across the valley became visible, and Billy told us that every morning children from Beigao would descend their mountain and walk up the other mountain to go to school.

After a few stops to enjoy the stunning scenery we eventually made it to the entrance of Beigao Village. Billy lit a roll of firecrackers to announce our arrival. The nearly two-minute series of explosions created plenty of noise and smoke and also drew a large crowd of children who were curious to see who we were.

The village shaman, Mr. Li, came down to greet us. He thanked us for the duck and led us up into the village, where young Miao women were waiting for us with small bowls of rice wine, the traditional Miao greeting for guests.

After a quick three bowls of rice wine, we were buzzing in the warm sun. We were welcomed by the rest of the villagers at the village basketball court, where we were treated to traditional singing and dancing – and another round of rice wine.

The village’s women were all dressed in traditional Miao costume, with silver adornments a major feature. On the side of the court, young local boys waited for the festivities to move elsewhere so they could get back to playing basketball.

We were invited into the home of Mr. Li the shaman, where we sat around a long table and chatted with the young women who had given us rice wine. We discovered that despite Beigao’s remoteness, several of the girls no longer lived in the village – they had moved to coastal cities to make money, much of which they sent home.

During a delicious home-cooked meal of stir-fried pork and cabbage and spicy and sour fish soup, the shaman encouraged us to drink more rice wine, which we drank in increasingly small sips. The young women burst into song once more, captivating all of us with their beautiful voices.

After the meal, one of the women who had cooked for us exonerated us to stay an extra couple of days for the upcoming feast. Unfortunately, we were not going to be able to catch the height of the Guzang festivities this time around.

It was time for us to make our way back to Kaili via a bus that was waiting for us outside the village. Nearly the entire village walked with us to our ride. We were given hearty handshakes by the men and – you guessed it – rice wine by the women.

Driving away from Beigao we were once again struck by the friendliness and generosity of the rural people of Guizhou – and the potency of their rice wine.

The next morning we discovered one of the members of our group had left his hat at the shaman’s home. We wouldn’t have time to go back and get it this time, but we now had the perfect excuse to hike back to the village next time we were in Guizhou.

Every corner of China is home to amazing people, nature and geography, but it’s hard to match the diversity found in the country’s southwest. Destinations such as Yunnan, Sichuan and Guangxi are already known far beyond China’s borders for their stunning scenery and rich cultures.

But not everyone knows about the breathtaking scenery and fascinating minorities found in Guizhou. At least, not yet.

From its dynamic capital of Guiyang to the colorful ethnic villages dotting the countryside around Kaili, Guizhou is one of China’s best-kept travel secrets. WildChina has been taking clients who want something different to Guizhou for the last decade, during which time we’ve become even more familiar with this area that is still relatively unknown, even for Chinese.

Karst hills, terraced mountains and scenic waterfalls are reason enough to make the trip to Guizhou, but it is Guizhou’s people that make the journey memorable. On our Hidden Minorities of Guizhou trip, you can take in Han opera in Guiyang before heading to the countryside, where you will learn traditional art forms and crafts of the colorful Miao and Gejia people. The highlight for most of our clients is the village homestay in Paika on the fourth night.

Guizhou has a generally mild climate, which at its most comfortable in the autumn. To learn more about how you can experience Guizhou this fall, please contact us today.

It is one thing to visit a remote Chinese village – but have you ever wondered what it would be like to live and participate in one?

I often think back to my study abroad experiences in China. While studying at Hangzhou’s Zhejiang University of Technology (through the C.V. Starr – Middlebury program), I loved taking trips with my Chinese roommate, both with school and on our own, meeting local people in various provinces and sampling all things cultural that my semester in China could offer me. (After such a great experience, it’s no surprise that I moved back.)

So, when my colleague Summer, who works in WildChina’s Educational Travel department, recently shared with me a few stories of student homestays in Miao minority villages in Guizhou province, my interest was immediately piqued. The trips’ unique combination of cultural interaction, adventure and service made me wish I were still that student on her abroad program trips.

The coolest part about these trips is that they were both centered rural village homestays – an integral part, in my opinion, of academic travel in China for both high school and college students alike. Doing so offers students a chance to personally encounter and understand daily life for rural minority peoples in China.

The beginning of the students’ homestay was one I didn’t expect: to arrive at these communities, Summer told me, students hiked 1-2 hours from Kaili, a larger town in Guizhou.  With a larger group of students, it’s not always easy to motivate everyone to trek on foot to a new destination. But, the old adage “when in Rome” applies here – it’s all part of the rural experience. I think it is a special, and important, part of the program.

Other highlights I found from my conversation with Summer were Miao fish hotpot, service activities at local schools, and learning to play the lusheng.

But, what really impressed me was the inclusion of household chores in these homestays. This may seem incredibly mundane, but to explain myself, a quick anecdote about my horse-crazed sister. Growing up, she rode at a barn that required riders to do everything from tacking up, feeding the horses, and cleaning stalls to tidying up the barn, fundraising at events, and running a rider-created committee to work on barn improvement. She has always had a closer relationship to and greater understanding of horses and riding than anyone I have ever known.

It’s the same with chores in these Miao villages: there is so much value to being a part of a daily system that sustains a traditional Chinese community. It makes a student’s experience in the community that much more integrated and personal. In the spirit of my own positive personal experience with Chinese community members during study abroad, I think Summer was right to make this a core part of the academic homestay experience.

Make your school trip experience in China memorable, too – take a look at our customizable educational travel programs.

Did you know that kung pao chicken originated in Guizhou province, not in Sichuan?

Yes, food is on my mind, as I’ve been eating way too much. And, no, the title of my post isn’t referring to preserving food. It’s about preserving ancient cultural traditions, ones that have been passed down from one generation to the next for years on end.

In Guizhou (southwestern China), I joined a family of four from North Carolina, on a trip entitled “Hidden Tribes of China.” We were led by our highly energetic guide, Xiao, a lifelong Guizhou native whose deep passion for his province was truly infectious. The trip was eye-opening for all of us—a chance to see how China’s ethnic groups have maintained their vibrancy in the midst of the modernization sweeping across the country.

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