Rate This Advertiser   1 2 3 4 5  

Description of Activity/Tour

Founded in 1989, Edward Adventures was the first company in China's Yunnan Province to offer adventurous travel for Westerners in this exciting and yet little-known part of the world. It has provided motor travel, camping, trekking and mountaineering holidays and festival trips for tour companies and individuals from all over Europe and the States with its expertise. It is able to suit the requirements of all its clients at every level of travel experience.Southwest China and Tibet set the stage for real adventures. Here you can visit Buddhist monasteries and Taoist temples, climb sacred mountains dotted with holy lakes, follow ancient pilgrimage routes and explore both cities and little-known villages.Half of China's ethnic minorities have been living in this region for centuries. Their unique cultures and traditions have been well preserved till today, especially through various local festivals. Come and see them before they change forever.

Tour A: Fire-Dragon Dance Festival 2009

During this tour, you will attend four different festivals of Miao and Dong people in Southeast Guizhou. At the same time, you will also enjoy the landscape of the area and meet up with local people and learn about them.

Jisan Festival in Zhaoxin
San means grandmother, Jisan means worship the grandmother. Story said when Dong people was in difficult times and an brave old lady stood out and help the Dong people but she died. She saved the people, and she is most respected among Dongs. Every year Dong have this festival to worship this Lady and express their good wishes for the coming year.
The festival lasts for whole day, there are some ceremonies in the morning near the Drum Towers hosted by respectful priests and villagers, afternoon people walk around the village in the best outfits for the celebrations, in the afternoon, people are singing and dancing with musical instruments in the village square, in the evening, singing the traditional Dong Folk songs. People amuse the god and themselves at the same time. It’s also a time for young people to look for marriage partners.

Qiansan Festival in Liping
This is an ancestor worship festival of Dong people, during the festival, you will see some ceremonies hosted by priests and local Dongs to show their respect to the ancestors, other activities are singing, dance, visiting friends and relatives...

Lusheng Festival around Kaili
Lasting two days in each village, this festival takes place on the 5th - 23rd of the 1st lunar month in different villages around Kaili. During the festival, Miao villagers gather together and dance in the village square, wearing their finest costumes. These outfits can be so complicated to dress and undress that the girls’ mothers are always in attendance to lend a hand. In the square, people dance in circles while in the middle folk musicians play the Lusheng. As the girls dance in the square, the men watch buffalos fighting in the fields.

Fire-Dragon Dance Festival in Leishan
On the evening of the 15th of the 1st lunar month, the town of Leishan enjoys the most exciting night of the year. When it’s getting dark, 20 to 30 firework-laden dragons will dance through the streets of the town with people setting off the fireworks on the way. They dance from one family to another to give blessings and good wishes for the coming year. No festival is as exciting as the Fire-Dragon Dance Festival in Leishan.



Itinerary:

Jan.30th, Arrival in Guiyang, check in at hotel, at leisure.
Jan.31st, Day trip to visit Huangguoshu Waterfalls which the biggest in Asia, visit an old Han Chinses village Tianlong.
Feb.1st, Free morning in Guiyang, fly to Liping, two an half hours drive to a traditional Dong village Zhaoxin, visit the village visit five Wind-&-Rain Bridges and five Drum Towers.
Feb.2nd, Attend the Jisa Festival of Dong People for the whole day to see the singing, dances and all sorts of ceremonies, this is the most important festival of Dong people.
Feb.3rd, Three and half hours drive to Longli to visit an old Han village built 300 years ago regarded as the museum of Han Chinese architectures.
Feb.4th, Visit the villages of Han and Dong people in the area, drive to Liping.
Feb.5th, Attend the Qiansan Festival of Dong people
Feb.6th, Six hours Drive to Rongjiang and visit Chejiang Dong villages
Feb.7th, Seven hours drive to Leishan with visits to Miao villages along the way.
Feb.8th, Drive to Xijiang to visit the biggest Miao village in Guizhou, and take some walks in the terraces near Baiyan village.
Feb.9th, Morning walks to the fields and village in Shuidian and Peika, visit the market in Leishan and watch how local people prepare for Fire-Dragon Dance Festival. Attend the Festival in the evening.
Feb.10th, One hour drive to Kaili and attend the Lusheng Festival of Miao people in the village.
Feb.11th, Visit Kaili Museum to learn about the ethnic people of the area, attend the Lusheng Festival in the area.
Feb.12th, Three hours drive to Guiyang and city tour.
Feb.13th, Fly home.

Age range, type of group

Any Adult from 25 to 65 can join the tours. We keep our tour groups as small as possible. The maximum is 12 and the minimum is 6. This helps maintain a better service, giving you more freedom and opportunities to interact with local people. However, we do take smaller groups upon request.

Sleeping and meals

We put up in 3-or-4 star hotels in cities and the best possible local style hotels in smaller towns. These give you the maximum opportunity to acquaint yourselves with the local area and its people. In some cases, we may stay in guesthouses, farmhouses or tents during treks, which are often the most exciting experience of the tours.All meals are inclusive: breakfasts in the hotels, and other meals in restaurants typical of the locality. During trekking/camping, cooked meals are provided for breakfast and dinner, while lunch is usually a picnic.

Rates

A trip costs from US$800 to US$1400 per person depends on the size of the group and different requests of the clients. The price includes: Domestic flights & airport taxes;All transportation and meals;Hotels, guesthouses and tents;Guides and sightseeing entry fees;Porters used during treks.

Other Information

We run tours in Yunnan, Sichuan Guizhou and Tibet, All the itineraries on our homepage just give you some ideas of where to go and what to do, but if you come on your own or with family or friends and want to do something different. All the tour can be tailor-made for you to meet your needs, just tell us when to come, what to do and where to go, we will do the rest for you. Whether you are interest in a colourful festival trip or an adventurous expedition in southwest China, we can make it for you. Join us for a trip of life time. Please visit our website for more details.

Guizhou - Miao New Year Festival 2008

New Year Festival of the Miao falls on Nov.10th, 2008 and lasts for a week, the first three days are the best to attend it. This is the biggest and most important festival of the Miao people in southeast Guizhou. At the Opening Ceremony, thousands of Miao and Dong people from the are will take part in, singing and dancing through the streets of Leishan and carrying on to the Square, gather there for the celebrations, During the ceremony, you will see different kinds of dances and folk songs of Miao and Dong, tens of thousands of people are watching. On the following days, there will be more songs and dances, buffalo fights, ethnic sports and so on. It is also a time for locals to visit friends, young people to look for marriage partners and arrange weddings. No festival in Guizhou is more colorful, interesting and worthwhile visiting than New Year Festival of Miao.


Itinerary
Day 1, Arrival in Guiyang
Day 2, Day trip to Huanggaoshu Waterfalls which the biggest in Asia and visit Han and Bouyi villages along the way.
Day 3, Six/seven hours drive to Shibing with visits to Miao villages along the way.
Day 4, Day in Shibing to visit Miao villages and take a four-hour walk on Mt. Yuantai.
Day 5 Drive to Zhengyuan, take a boatride on Wuyang River to enjoy the dramatic landscape of the water and mountains.
Day 6, Visit the ancient town of Zhenyuan by wandering in the old quarter to see the traditional houses built ages ago and visit Zhenyuan Museum, visit Dragon Cave which built with temples in different styles on a Cliff on the bank of Wuyang River, from here you can have a birds-eye view of the town. Relax
Day 7, 20 minutes drive from the town and take a five-hour walk in a mountain valley follow a stream to see the different vegetations of the mountain and vary landscape. To visit a place called Dragon Pool which the water comes out in a pool about 500 square meters, it’s blue and green with fogs on the surface, no one know how deep it is.
Day 8, Drive to Taijiang with a visit to Shidong on the way.
Day 9, Day in Taijiang to explore local Miao villages in the area.
Day10, Drive to Leishan and attend the Opening Ceremony New Year Festival of the Miao in the afternoon.
Day 11 & 12, Attend the festival and visit the local villages in the area. We can join the local dinner one day and see how the festival meals like in Leishan.
Day 13, Drive back to Guiyang via Kaili to visit the museum and a market in town.
Day 14, Fly home.

Dates: Nov.1st to Nov.14th, 2008


Group size: 6 - 12 people