Yao People's Villages

There are a number of ancient Yao people's villages in Longshen County. Four of them, namely the Huangluo Red Yao Village, the Baimian Yao Village, Sanmen Yao Village and the Jinkang Yao Village are the most famous and most-watched by visitors.
Huangluo Yao Village

Huangluo Yao Village - "The World's First Long-hair Village" - it is a certificated reputation that Guinness headquarters granted for it. In the village, the Yao people are called 'Red Yao' because of their red clothing. There are about 60 families in the Village. There every Yao woman has a beautiful long black hair on her head. The long hair of most of women can be loosened down to the ground. The longest hair is nearly close to 2 meters.

Black long hairs of the Red Yao women are set like a tray on their head all in the day's work. The hairstyle is different. Girls' hair set is wrapped by a coif on which has special signs. Married women's tray-like hair set is some flat. If a woman's hair tray is more with a pellet style, it means that the woman already has sons or daughters.

When a Yao girl is 10 years old, she will leave hair with her all the life. But there is an exception that the girl will cut her hair once at her age of 18. The 'shampoo' which the Yao females use to wash their hair is not really shampoos, and it is made from rice-washing water with something special. It is very good for keeping their hair jet black and beautiful.

It is said that each Yao Woman has three bunches of hairs on head all her life. It means that two bunches of hairs are tied up with the growing hairs on her head. One bunch is dropped hairs which are collected from every day. Another is the hair cut at her age of 18. From the fact, you can see that the Yao females look hairs as important as their life. When the long hairs are waving and flying with Yao dancing, that is such a kind of charming beauty!

Baimian Yao Village
Baimian (White face) Yao Village is another example for Red Yao people's life. The Yao people there keep a simple but unique living folkway. They live in storied wooden with green tiles; men are cultivating and women are weaving; they are contented with autarkic rural life. The Red Yao people are kind and hospitable. Every person are good at singing folk's songs and When guests come, the Yao girls will wear bright-color dresses, make a pot of savory oil tea, sing folk songs, and then bring you into their special dances and traditional folk sports competitions. "Red Yao Pole" at the gateway of the village is the Yao people's worship totem. An interesting odd rock called 'Dragon's tongue' or 'Red Army Cave' is near to the Baimian Yao Village.

Sanmen Yao Village
Samen Yao Village - a living museum of Yao people, the "Samen" in its name means "three family names" in Chinese. The village has three family names: Yu, Wei and Pan hence the name. Villagers there still keep traditional way of life of the Yao people. Their ethnic garments, buildings (Diaojiaolou), customs and festivals are the valuable references to researching Yao people's history and culture.

The villagers' red dressings have many decorative designs, each upper outer garment with a seal of the king of the Yao people and a tiger's paw on its back side. Paying a visit to this village, you will see the Yao people's red totem pole and beautiful embroidery, enjoy folk dances and songs, be astounded by the people who climb the "knives hill" and jump into the "fire sea"! Luckily, you may be welcome by the hospitable Yao people with a cup of delicious "Pearl Oil Tea".This village is 2hrs drive from Guilin, and only 10 km away from the Long Sheng Hot Springs.

Jinkang Yao Villages
By the Jinkang Terraced Rice Fields, and 30km away from the Longshen County, the Jinkang Yao Villages consist of 18 small Yao villages. There are many gold (Jin) mines underground of the villages, and the local lay looks like a big Pit (kan), hence the villages' name with Jinkang. All these villages face the beautiful terrace rice fields, the ancient spruce and metasequoia grow in the front of every family's houses (Diaojiaolou, a unique style house of the Yao people). The villages' raiment is beautiful and with very distinctive ethnic flavor. Men wear blue clothing, women wear silver decorations, dress in red blouses and green skirts. Today, the Yao people there still use the primitive looms. All women excel in weaving, dying and embroidering.