Shui people’s villages

In China, the population of the Shui ethnic group is approximately 340,000. They live in compact communities mostly in Sandu Shui Autonomous County (三都水族自治县), Libo County, Duyun City, Dushan County in Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (布依族苗族自治州); in Kaili City, Liping County, Rongjiang and other small region in the west of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The residential areas of the Shui ethnic group are located at the south side of the Miaoling Mountains and the upper reaches of the Duliu River and the Longjiang River in the southeast part of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, where forests are densely covered, mountains and rivers are like pictures. They are known throughout the country as good dancers. Their most popular festive dances are the “Copper Drum Dance” and the “Lusheng Dance.” They also play traditional music using several instruments, such as the huqin, drums, gongs, lusheng and others.

Shui people

The Shui ethnic group are also known for making gorgeous handicrafts, such as paper cuttings, woodcarvings and embroideries. This minority usually dresses in black and blue with the women wearing collarless blue blouses, black trousers and aprons and the men wearing black turbans and long gowns. During festivals, the women will wear skirts and wear lots of silver, as well as put their hair up in a bun. As far as their food habits are concerned, the Shui people eat a lot of fish and rice, along with helpings of sweet potatoes, barley and corn. They also specialize in making a rice liquor. The Shui people are most likely descendants from the Luoyue people, an early tribe that lived before the Han dynasties (BC 202 – AD 220) on China’s southeastern coastline.

Shui people’s villages

The best place to understand Shui people’s culture is Sandu Shui Autonomous County, which is located in a remote part of Guizhou province and has a long history of some 1360 years, thus a lot of interesting villages can be found in the region and rich minority culture is well preserved where you could see the famous horse tail embroidery, exquisite papercuts. The Shui ethnic group in the region still keep their peculiar hairstyle and beautiful costume, and all these is worth exploring. You may see the traditional festivals such as Duan festival and Mao festival in lucky.

Recently a few interesting Shui people’s villages in the county were opened to tourists, the recommended ones are Banmiao Shui village, Shuige Shui village, Bangao Shui village, Tangdang village, Yangweng Shui village, and Zenlei village.