On the Road to Danzhai County

The two-hour drive traverses Guizhou's mountainous terrain, showcasing the area's landscape and the infrastructure. The proliferation of highways, tunnels and bridges has linked remote areas, spurred tourism, and facilitated increased interactions between ethnic minority communities and the broader world.

Danzhai County, once classified as a national-level impoverished county, has undergone significant modernization. The county is renowned for its rich intangible cultural heritage, including Miao batik, embroidery, birdcage making, and traditional papermaking. These traditions are promoted as tourist attraction, for example showcased in Danzhai Wanda Village, a tourist village established in 2017 as part of a poverty alleviation program to create incomes. As of 2022, Danzhai Wanda Village had received a total of over 20 million visitors since its opening.

Previously, Guizhou's mountainous terrain left many communities isolated and impoverished. By 2012, the province had the highest number of impoverished people among all provincial-level regions in China. The province now boasts over 8,000 kilometers of highways, interconnected by more than 12,000 bridges and over 2,100 tunnels and every village is accessible via paved roads. This accessibility has profoundly impacted local ethnic minority cultures, influencing their cultures and economic situations. My project aims to explore these changes, documenting how modernization and tourism are reshaping traditional practices and daily life in these communities.