Enter Longsheng, Guangxi, and experience the customs of ethnic minorities

In the blink of an eye, it is December. As New Year's Day is approaching, deep in the mountains of Longsheng Autonomous County, Guilin, Guangxi, we are celebrating the annual New Year of the ethnic minority Dong people. We drove from Guilin Airport to Longsheng. After driving for nearly 2 hours, we finally arrived at Jinzhu Zhuang Village at the foot of the Longji Terrace. The houses built along the mountains are like terraces in the mountains, and they are scattered like terraces in the mountains, because it is approaching evening, and the quiet villages are rarely disturbed by outsiders. Our group will rest here for the night today to experience the style of Zhuang Village.

Jinzhu Zhuang Village is known as the "first village" among the thirteen Longji villages. It is named after a piece of golden bamboo in front of the village. There are 98 households in total and a population of more than 430. It is a typical Zhuang village in my country. It is known as the "No. 1 Village in North Zhuang". The architectural style of the penthouse is unique and relatively complete. Nowadays, you can experience the Zhuang style of B & Bs with various room types, not only there are two-story loft-style penthouse, as well as unique oversized wedding rooms. The huge floor-to-ceiling windows allow you to enjoy the green mountains and rivers without going out.

There has been a traditional custom of making camellia oleifera and eating camellia oleifera in Longsheng since ancient times. No matter which ethnic minority group still retains this eating habit. Adding coix rice, sweet potatoes, corn corn and other grains and condiments to tea soup can not only prevent diseases, but also quench hunger and thirst. It has a history of more than 4000 years and has become an intangible cultural heritage snack in Longsheng area. I also make my own hot camellia oleifera overnight.

The bamboo forests are dense in the mountains and rivers, and bamboo has many uses. Cut the bamboo, add soaked rice, a proper amount of water, and bacon and other ingredients to the sections of bamboo, sit around the oven and roast them with your hands. Bake the bamboo rice. After roasting, use a knife to split the bamboo rice from the middle. The hot rice exudes a meat aroma and is particularly delicious to eat while it is hot.

There is also a magical village in Longji, which is known as the "No. 1 Longhair Village in the World". All the girls of the Yao nationality have long hair, some of which are as long as 2 meters. They once broke the Guinness Book of Records. This is Huangluo Yaozhai.

Jiangkou Dong Village, also in Guangnan Village, held a Dong Pipa Song Competition on New Year's Day. The three provinces of Guangxi, Hunan and Guizhou gathered here. Although it was a competition, it was actually an annual gathering. Everyone dressed in their own ethnic costumes, despite the cold weather, did not affect everyone's enthusiasm at all. Round after round,"Welcome to Jiangkou","Beautiful Dong Village","Pipa Love Song", and the last song "The Sound of Pipa" sung by thousands of people pushed the atmosphere to a climax.

At the last stop, I finally arrived at Guangnan Village, where I was longing for it. I hung up lights and colored decorations to prepare intensively for the New Year. From morning to evening, there were wonderful programs, intangible cultural heritage performances, hundreds of houses, bonfire parties, and gorgeous Fireworks bloomed above the Drum Tower, and I felt very happy at that moment! I hope that the country will be peaceful and the people will be peaceful and the family will be happy in the coming year!

Huangluo Yaozhai: The world's largest Changfa Village

I have long heard that "the best Changfa Village in the world" is the beauty of women here. It is located in Huangluo Yao Village, Heping Township, Longsheng Autonomous County, Guangxi. It is mainly inhabited by Hongyi Yao, a branch of the Yao people. There are more than 60 people with hair above 1.4 meters.

Hong Yao has had the habit of growing long hair since ancient times. They usually use processed rice washing water to shampoo their hair, and their hair remains black and shiny even when they grow old. Hongyao women have passed down from generation to generation the custom of growing hair and dressing hairstyles and secret hair care recipes. The best way to understand the long-haired and red Yao is to come here and watch a performance with their ethnic characteristics. Yao girls dressed in traditional national costumes use their unique long hair.

Hongyao women have been growing their hair since the age of 12 or 13. After they grow to a certain length, they can cut off their long hair and treasure it. By the time they are around the age of 30, Huangluo Yao Village, Heping Township, Longsheng County, Guangxi has more than 400 residents and 180 women in the village. The average length of hair is 1.7 meters, and the longest reaches 2.1 meters. It is known as the world's largest long-hair village. The choreography is both life-oriented and unique. The performance of combing long hair by Hongyao women attracts a large number of tourists every year and has become a label of Huangluo Yaozhai.

Jinzhu Zhuangzhai: Living by the mountain and emptying your soul

Leaving Huangluo Yaozhai, the "No. 1 Changfa Village in the World", one single-family village-style penthouse attracted our attention. This is the Jinzhu Zhuang Village where we stayed tonight. The simple and typical Zhuang people live next to the mountains. The penthouse, walking into each ancient house, has different decoration styles and themes, which make people pleasantly surprised.

Guangxi is a inhabited area of ethnic minorities, and the Zhuang nationality is the majority of B & Bs here. I heard from a local friend that there is a thousand-year-old village next to Changfa Village, the number one in the world. So we drove to this Jinzhu Zhuang Village with strong Zhuang customs.

Walking into Zhen Anglan's home, the adverbial here means "the best, happiest home". Step up the stone steps and walk through the corridor hung with Chinese red lanterns. A glass painting mirror screen of a phoenix begging for a phoenix appears in front of you. The main room is facing the green mountains and clear waters outside the window. What is created here is a newly married room. There is a study room, an oversized sun bath, a tea mat, a private garden, a stove kitchen, and a culture of Chinese elements. When celebrating, the new house has become a B & B. An artistic journey began here.

Imagine lying in a bathtub filled with warm water, enjoying the scenery of the terraced fields on the opposite mountain, watching the clouds rise and fall, and the green mountains are blue, and quietly watching the scenery change every minute outside the window. From sunrise to sunset, that feeling is really something you can encounter but not ask for. In the evening, you can make a pot of tea in the private balcony garden, snuggle up on the spring bench next to the railing, listen to the sound of flowers blooming, and have a dialogue between man and nature.

We live in Aji's mother's home. It has a single-storey wooden building, an oversized picturesque balcony, a main house in the middle, and two rooms on the left and right. Each room is a double-decked duplex room. Each room can accommodate 2-4 people. It is warm in winter and cool in summer. You can live on the second floor in winter and on the first floor in summer. There is a small balcony outside the first floor where you can enjoy the scenery outside the window while drinking tea.

In addition to the unique B & B experience, you can also feel the unique folk culture in the stockade, such as grinding tofu, grinding tofu with small stones, making glutinous rice cake, squeezing glutinous rice cake, five-color Zhuangjia glutinous rice, and crushing millet. The pure handmade production process can be experienced here, allowing you to experience an authentic Zhuang folk customs.

As soon as we entered the lobby, the hospitable Zhuang young lady served us hot oil tea, home-fried rice flowers, chives, peppers, salt, peanuts and other ingredients, and finally poured on hot oil tea. In the cold winter, after eating a bowl, the whole person warmed up.

I have wanted to eat bamboo rice for a long time. After we finished drinking Camellia oleifera, the Zhuang girls were roasting bamboo rice. We could already smell the aroma of rice from the bamboo rice. There was also roasted glutinous rice cake. In addition to cooking, roasting fire is also the most important way to warm up in the village in winter. We sat around, laughing and chatting while warming up. Although we couldn't understand what Zhuang was saying, we could feel the happiness they showed from the expressions on their faces.

Rich dishes with ethnic customs, such as earth-tiled pork, braised pork, chicken that grows on trees and can fly, as well as local characteristics of duck stir-fried chestnuts, and wild vegetable rolls. My favorite is the shaved pig soup, which is nutritious and warm to drink in winter. You can add pig blood, beef, vegetables, etc. to match it, as well as bacon that you want to eat in one bite. It will be delicious and fragrant. Finally, you must try bamboo rice. Compared with ordinary rice, it is softer, glutinous and delicious. You must eat it while it is hot. I really like this dish.

Jiangkou Dong Village: "Dong New Year Festival" Pipa Song Competition

The first day of November every year is a major event for the Dong ethnic minorities. The village holds lively New Year activities. In Jiangkou Dong Village in Longsheng Autonomous County, more than ten programs such as the Dong New Year Festival in the three provinces of "Guangxi, Hunan and Guizhou" are being held here, including the Pipa Song Competition,"Tianxing Bright Moon","Beautiful Dong Village", and "I Love You Dong Village". After the first round of the Pipa Competition, scoring and selection will be carried out before entering the second round of competition. Finally, a thousand people sang "The Sound of Pipa" to end the normal performance.

Some came from Hunan, and some were surrounding villagers. Each team had their own exclusive platoon in front of them, dressed in national costumes, and holding their own handmade wooden pipa. Although the weather was cold and humid, everyone gathered around the bonfire. Singing and dancing, the lively atmosphere made each of us forget the cold and did not weaken everyone's enthusiasm. We sat under the stage, surrounded the stove to warm up, ate local tangerines, watched the performance, and felt the strong local folk customs. It is also a rare experience.

Guangnan Village: Millennium Ancient Dong Village

At the last stop, we finally arrived at Guangnan Village, where we were longing for it. We were decorated with lanterns and colorful colors, and we were preparing intensively for the New Year. From morning to evening, there were wonderful programs, intangible cultural heritage performances, hundreds of families 'banquets, bonfire parties, and people who were good at singing and dancing. Those who could walk would dance, and those who could talk would sing. They were known as the "opera nest" and the "hometown of song and dance." Dozens of national musical instruments, songs and dances are circulated here, with pipa and Yanping tunes. In addition to the folk song and dance activities in Guangnan are held in the village during festivals and festivals, teams are often organized to go out to other villages to "serve". Generally, there are "dragons and lions" and "opera singing", which are warmly welcomed and warmly received. Literary and artistic teams from other villages are often invited to the village to "serve you", hold banquets and exchange culture and art.

Arriving in Guangnan Village was just in time for the annual New Year. A full day of activities was held in this Dong village. Lights and colorful decorations were decorated everywhere, filled with a strong festive atmosphere. The prelude to the New Year's celebrations began from the ancestor worship ceremony. After that, they were divided into several teams to make glutinous rice cakes. Taking advantage of the hot air of the glutinous rice just steaming, several people alternated with each other. The two people worked together from two directions at the same time. When the glutinous rice was completely stuck into a ball, while the hot air had not completely dissipated, Everyone rushed to snatch the glutinous rice cake, some used plastic bags and some used bamboo plaques to snatch the glutinous rice cake. In a few seconds, a large piece of freshly made glutinous rice cake was snatched away. The glutinous rice cake was particularly delicious when dipped in ground black sesame seeds.

The origin of the grass dragon in Guangnan Village dates back to the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty. The earliest Dong residents lived in deep caves. Due to the low level of productivity, crops were often harmed by locusts and drought. People believed that the dragon was the embodiment of the god and could call the wind and rain to suppress evil spirits and eliminate the plague of locusts. From then on, the villagers came up with the idea of using some crops, such as bamboo strips and rattan woven into grass dragons. It is said that on the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, dragon dances are performed on the day when dragons dry their scales. Nowadays, all grand festivals will also be used to dance grass dragons. For example, on New Year's Day, New Year's Day, Spring Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival, you can experience the style of grass dragon dancing.

Different from the grass dragon in Wuyuan, Jiangxi Province, the grass dragon weighs more than 100 kilograms is lifted together by more than a dozen people. On the stage, the dragon dancers vividly demonstrated the dragon's spirituality and majestic body movements, fully demonstrating the dragon's unique spirituality. Its majestic momentum runs straight into the sky and is spectacular, like the lion dance we are familiar with. In the dragon dance, it also reveals people's joy of a bumper harvest and their pursuit and yearning for auspicious, well-being and happy days.

Each person has a pipa, and the male and female voices sing in unison. The actors present are all local villagers. They may be mothers, fathers, or grandparents, and put aside their trivial lives. At this time, they have changed again standing on the stage. An identity has become actors who perform for everyone. I really envy the Dong people's ability to sing and dance.

When the gorgeous fireworks bloom above the Drum Tower, I feel very happy at that moment! I hope that the country will be peaceful and the people will be peaceful and the family will be happy in the coming year!

After enjoying the song and dance, the sky gradually became dark. Next was the highlight of the Baijia Banquet. The Baijia Banquet is a unique and ancient traditional folk culture. It can be seen on the Lantern Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Spring Festival and the Dong New Year. It has been nearly a century of history and was extremely popular during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. At the dining table, you came and drank, and everyone chatted together. The scene was very lively.

When I saw the blooming fireworks, my eyes became a little moist at that moment. I thought that 2020 was coming to an end. This year, the whole of China and even the world had experienced experiences different from previous years. Everyone's heart was more or less I have experienced sadness, depression, and pain. I hope that everything that goes wrong in 2020 will disappear like these fleeting fireworks and return to normal life as soon as possible. In 2021, we will get better and better!

The buildings of Guangnan Dong Village have the unique architectural style of the Dong Village. The houses where residents live are like five-pillar, three-story tiled wooden buildings. The front eaves are mostly double-layered cornice, and the two ends are connected by double-eaves hanging column corridors, forming side buildings. Row upon row. The most typical buildings in Dong Village are Fengyu Bridge, Drum Tower, Shidun Bridge, Pavilion, etc. The Drum Tower is the symbol of Dong Village. There are currently 5 Drum Towers in Guangnan. Their architectural features are four-sided eaves flying corners and tile-topped tower-shaped pavilions. Most of them are built in the middle of the stockade. In ancient times, a large drum was placed in the building, and the drum was used as a trumpet for gatherings or transmission of various messages. The whole village could hear it, hence the name Drum Tower.

Over the long years of historical development, the people of Guangnan Village have formed unique customs and habits of the nation in terms of production, life, culture, etc. Ethnic customs mainly include social customs, living customs, production customs, annual customs, etiquette customs and cultural customs, etc., and the customs are very strong.

Drum Tower is the symbol of Dong Village. There are currently 5 Drum Tower towers in Guangnan. Their architectural features are four-sided eaves and flying corners and tile-topped tower-shaped pavilions. Most of them are built in the center of the stockade. Dozens to hundreds of square meters of bluestone rocks are built in front of the building. Match. In ancient times, a large drum was placed in the building, and the drum was used as a trumpet for gatherings or transmission of various messages. The whole village could hear it, hence the name Drum Tower. The structure of the drum tower is a lifting tower or a lifting tower. The entire structure of the building is made of fir and tenon connections. Large and small Sichuan wooden beams cross the straight sets and crisscrossing. The structure is rigorous and there is no difference. The whole building does not need a nail. It is very solid, combining the majesty of the pagoda and the elegance of the pavilion. It is spectacular and elegant and unique in style. There was a drum tower for each of the four surnames in Dazhai in Guangnan. On the evening of December 14, 1934, the Red Army was set on fire by the Kuomintang secret agents following during the Long March through Guangnan camping. In 2006, villagers in Guangnan built a 28-meter-high Drum Tower in Guangxi through donations of money, work and materials, facing west, with an octagonal peak, a 15-story eaves and 28 pillars.

The Dong people in Guangnan have a saying that "Dong is always sour" in their diet. Various dishes can be marinated into a fresh and sour taste. Among them, sour pork, sour duck meat, and sour fish are the "Three Treasures of Dong family" in Dong cuisine. This time, I was fortunate enough to taste the sour fish. Cut the fish into thin slices and immerse it in a large bowl of pickled sour water. It can also be served with seasonings such as fish vanilla, fried peanuts, sesame powder, peppers and raw tea oil. After a few minutes, you can eat it when the fish is slightly white. This method of eating is called" fried fish raw".

In addition to sour fish, there are also pork and duck meat, which can also be made into sour products. These three are also called the "Three Treasures of the Dong Family". Generally, Dong people are accustomed to using this method to entertain distinguished guests.

about traffic

Guangnan Village: located in Pingping Town, Longsheng Autonomous County, Guilin City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

It takes a 2-hour drive from Guilin Airport or Railway Station.

Huangluo Yaozhai, the "No. 1 Changfa Village in the World": It is located in the Longji Scenic Area of Longsheng Autonomous County, Guilin City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region tickets are 50 yuan

Guilin Airport-Urban Bus

[1] Guilin Airport → Xicheng Road Crossing → Rongshan Road Crossing → Jinshuiwan Road Crossing → Xiangjiang Hotel → Civil Aviation Building

Operating hours: After the first flight of the day arrives-After the last flight of the day arrives

Train number: Every 30 minutes

[2] Guilin Airport → Guilin West Railway Station → North Railway Station → North Bus Station

Operation hours: 09:00-21:00

Train number: Every 60 minutes

[3] Guilin Airport → Sheraton Lingui Hotel → Wanfu City Terminal → Guilin South Bus Station

Operation hours: 09:00-16:00

Train number: Every 60 minutes

Guilin-Longji's car

Starting from the urban area, it is recommended to take a shuttle bus from the railway station to Longsheng. The bus leaves every half hour and the journey takes about one and a half hours. When you arrive in Longsheng County, you can take a special shuttle bus to Longji. Generally, you only go to Longji Scenic Area. Arrive at the entrance of Longji Scenic Area, take a local car to Huangluo Yaozhai. If you want to go to Jinzhu Zhuang Village, see the sign of "Longji Jinzhu B & B" and walk there directly. If you drive yourself, drive forward for another 1 minute., see the blue road sign of "Jinjiang Village", and you will be there 50 meters uphill.