Located in Shuicheng County in Guizhou Province, Hongde Village is known as a “dead end” to villagers living on both sides of the rift.
Unlike many modern villages in the country, there is no bus available to this village and the most convenient way to get there is to take the train. The nearest train station to the village is the Maocaoping Station, which is about 2 kilometers away. However, a big rift, Wumeng Rift, separates the two places, making the village a “dead end” to outsiders. In 2001, the first strop ropeway was built so that the villagers could cross the rift by riding the ropeway.
The only other way to cross the rift is by climbing down to the bottom of the rift, crossing a bridge and then climbing up the other side of the rift. The route is very dangerous and it takes two hours to reach the other side.
The local government decided to build a bridge across the rift in 2012.
Transport: Fly to Guiyang, capital of the province, from Shenzhen airport, and take a train to the Maocaoping Station.
Zhongdong Miao Village, Guizhou Zhongdong Miao Village, Guizhou Province, is probably the last “cave village” in Asia, based on a national investigation. At present, there are still 21 families living in the village who have refused to move to houses offered by the local government.
The Miao ethnic minority group has lived there for centuries and has developed a quasi-tribal society and built roofless houses, schools and a basketball court inside the 230-meter-long, 115-meter-wide and 50-meter-high cave. The inhabitants use water that falls from the rock and grow wheat in the hills near the quarry.
The cave is conveniently warm in the winter, cool in the summer and dry all year long. To take in enough sunshine, light and fresh air, most of the houses squeeze along the entry of the cave. Benches, beds and dining tables are prominent furnishings.
Each house is marked with a door number and separated by bamboo fences.
The village is far away from any urban community. Each week, they all walk to the market to buy necessities, which is about 15 kilometers away.
Transport: Fly to Guiyang and take a train to the village.
Zhelaizhai Village, Gansu
Located in a remote area in Gansu Province, Zhelaizhai Village may be the most special village in the country as it is home to a group of native Chinese with Western looks.
With deep-set green eyes and long, hooked noses, the villagers are called “Roman” by the other locals in the region.
Situated along the Silk Road, a 7,000-km-long trade route that linked Asia and Europe more than 2,000 years ago, the village stepped into the spotlight in the 1990s when archaeologist found the remains of an ancient fort and a crowd of Western-looking people there.
DNA tests in 2005 confirmed that some of the villagers are indeed of Western origin. Many experts concluded they are the descendants of an ancient Roman army headed by General Marcus Crassus.
In 53 B.C., Crassus was defeated and beheaded by the Parthians, a tribe that occupied what is now Iran, putting an end to Rome’s eastward expansion. But a 6,000-strong army led by Crassus’s eldest son apparently escaped and was never seen again.
Therefore, some anthropologists are convinced that these foreign-looking villagers are descendants of that ancient army.
The remains of the fort are currently surrounded by iron chains. A monument has been erected beside the remains that tell its story. A Roman-style pavilion stands near the monument.
Transport: Fly to Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province, and take a train to the village.
(Wang Yuanyuan)
