Kaili is known as the hub when visiting minority villages in Guizhou
Kaili is known as the minority hub in Guizhou because there are so many different minority villages nearby. We spent a few days exploring different Miao villages and to our surprise no-one seemed to mind that we brought our dogs along.
We had a car, so it was very easy for us to get around with our dogs and we thought worst case, it’s a 30 minute drive so we take them back to the hotel. We never had too. People seemed more than okay with our dogs. We were actually stopped a few times so people could pet them.
A lot of people thought they were foreign dogs. We kept hearing wài guó everywhere. I’m not sure if this affected how people treated our dogs, but overall, they didn’t seem bothered by dogs.
Landge Miao minority village is a smaller village and it was pretty empty when we went. Walking through the village and along the creek was very nice. The village was very quiet and looked relatively shut down when we went. You can walk around the village, and there was a path along the creek that we followed for a while. I think if we kept walking, we could have walked all the way to one of the villages along the road.
Xi Jiang is one of the largest Miao minority villages. It is the most touristy Miao village we visited, and this was the only village where we had to buy an entry ticket. The ticket was well worth the price, the village was amazing. It was very touristy, but it was very interesting to see all the Miao clothing and local crafts.
Here you buy your tickets and get on a bus that takes you to the village. There was no problem taking the dogs on the bus and through the villages. We were able to bring them into most shops and restaurants.
You need to bring your passport/ ID card when buying a ticket.
There was not much going on in this village, it looked like more of a swim spot. There is a deep river that goes through the village and everyone swims here.
You could tell this was more local than the other two villages. It was really nice to cool off on a hot day and our dogs even got to go for a swim. There didn’t seem to be much else around except the river and a small cold noodle booth.
I highly recommend a one-piece swimsuit for a woman as everyone was very covered and water shoes. The ground is very rocky and hard on the feet.
