Kaili, in the southeast of Guizhou Province, is capital city of the Miao (aka H’mong) minority. A large, modern city, it holds little of more than passing interest in itself, but its hotels serve as useful stopovers when travelling across the minority belt that runs east through the hills into Guangxi province.

The surrounding countryside has a large number of Miao villages where you can experience minority life at close quarters. Most have been heavy commercialized in recent years, but our guides know how to sidestep the more frequented settlements close to the highways in favour of villages such as Langde, where many women still wear traditional dress and farmers irrigate the fields with old-style bamboo water wheels.