Carp Miao Ethnic Culture Village and Carp Lake

Carp Miao Ethnic Culture Village and Carp Lake

Carp Miao Ethnic Culture Village and Carp Lake

Located within Tunjiao Town and about 15 kilometers from the county seat, Carp Miao Ethnic Culture Village and Carp Lake sit astride the Tun (jiao) to Ba (ling) Highway on the eastern side of the lake. With a convenient location and easy access, the area has seen a growing number of visitors year by year and has become a highlight of westbound tourism in the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi. It represents one of the best-developed tourism resources in Xingren County. The site holds great potential for development into a comprehensive tourist park integrating sightseeing, ethnic culture, leisure vacations, and summer retreats, complete with supporting services for dining, accommodation, entertainment, and recreation. It offers visitors a chance to return to, immerse in, and enjoy nature.

Originally called the Sanjiao Dam Reservoir, Carp Lake was first constructed in 1958 and put into use in 1966 as a key water storage project. The dam is a homogeneous earth-fill structure, 65 meters long, 21 meters high, and 5 meters wide at the crest. It has a catchment area of 10.07 square kilometers, a water surface covering 777 mu, and a total storage capacity of 4.08 million cubic meters. The lake lies upstream of the dam.

It spreads eastward and westward along the valley, with the eastern section stretching 1.99 kilometers in length and 50–200 meters in width, and the western section 1.8 kilometers long and 50–180 meters wide. Branches and inlets form numerous large bays, resembling two giant blue dragons playfully writhing and competing for treasure. Carp Lake is currently the largest water storage and irrigation project in Xingren County. Its long, broad waters are crisscrossed by branches and winding bays, with clear and deep water. The surrounding hills are gently undulating, covered with tall, lush pine and fir trees, creating a picturesque landscape where mountains and water enhance each other’s beauty. The unique mountain formations of Carp are especially striking, with year-round streams flowing through valleys and peaks encircling the fields. Shrubs densely cover the hilltops, lending a distinctive charm to the prominent peaks and offering a refreshing, open view. The most remarkable aspect of Carp’s topography is the individuality of each peak — some resemble crouching tigers or coiled dragons, others a proud golden rooster or a Miao maiden, and still others a drunken man lying on the ground... Especially on misty early summer mornings or during the golden sunset of autumn, climbing to the top of any peak reveals ever-changing, vibrant mountain vistas. As the saying goes, “Mountains are dull without water, and water lacks beauty without mountains.” Carp Lake is embraced by mountains and reflects them in its waters — a true masterpiece of natural landscape, akin to a paradise on earth.

Around Carp Lake, Buyi and Miao villages are scattered like stars, complemented by idyllic farmland and rich ethnic culture. The area seamlessly blends natural scenery — including mountains, water, forests, lake bays, and fields — with vibrant ethnic traditions, creating a uniquely charming and graceful tourist destination with abundant resources. Over 200 Miao households, totaling more than 1,000 people, live around Carp Lake. Their simple and unsophisticated lifestyle, traditional costumes, jewelry, hand-embroidered crafts, and unique customs reflect the simplicity, richness, and diversity of Miao culture. Miao attire in Carp is notably uniform, especially among women who wear dazzling traditional dress. The Miao clothing of Carp makes extensive use of exquisite weaving, embroidery, and batik techniques, making it a vibrant and enduring cultural treasure. Among these, the Miao hand-embroidered neckties developed as ethnic craft tourism products have gained popularity both domestically and abroad. The intricate patterns on their clothing reflect shadows of blue skies, white clouds, exotic flowers, and unusual rocks, blending natural and human landscapes seamlessly and nurturing the Miao people’s aesthetic sensibilities and refined sentiments. The Miao people in Carp have a rich variety of ethnic dances, categorized by age into dances for elders, youths, and children, or by content into dances reflecting herding and hunting life, mimicking animals, ceremonies, production activities, or war scenes. The most representative dances are the Bench Dance and the Lusheng Dance. Both are fast-paced, lively, and vigorous, symbolizing the straightforward, passionate temperament and indomitable spirit of the Miao people. The Miao Bench Dance is performed not only in villages and fields, under moonlit nights, or during festivals, but also in county towns, prefectural capitals, provincial cities, Urumqi in Xinjiang, Beijing, and even abroad. It has earned widespread acclaim for its style and spirit. At the First National Minority Games held in Urumqi, the Carp Bench Dance, performed as part of the Miao ethnic group team during the opening ceremony, received high praise. In 1994, the Carp Bench Dance won a silver medal at the opening ceremony of the National Minority Sports Games. In 1992, it was performed by the Qianxinan Prefecture Ethnic Song and Dance Troupe at the International Folk Art Festival in Italy, winning great favor among international audiences. Since 1990, Carp has hosted over 80 tour groups from Europe, America, Japan, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, with more than 800 visitors. In April 1997, a crew from the “China Expo” television series came specially to film the local ethnic culture and crafts, which were later broadcast on Hong Kong Star TV. Some foreign tourists, such as Ms. Henna from Los Angeles, USA, have visited Carp multiple times — she came three times.

Mr. Yoshikawa Tadanjiro from Japan has visited eight times.

These repeat visits demonstrate that the serene lake and mountain scenery and the authentic, vibrant ethnic culture of Carp possess a unique charm that deeply captivates overseas visitors.