Dugong Gaoding Village

　　   Gaoding Village: With over 500 households and more than 2,400 residents, it is located at the foot of Sanshengpo Mountain, about 60 kilometers northwest of Sanjiang County. Five hundred stilted houses, nestled against the mountains and by the water, stand in neat rows, each with a unique style and arranged in distinct layers. Seven drum towers built along clan lines feature soaring eaves and layered green-tiled roofs, competing in beauty. These seven towers are evenly distributed throughout the village, each with its own characteristics, standing prominently among the houses to form a cohesive drum tower complex. The Gaoding Drum Tower Group gets its name from the fact that one single village has as many as seven drum towers.

　　   Among them, the most famous is the single-pillar drum tower with eleven tiers of tiled eaves. It was rebuilt in 1988 by the Wu clan of the “Wutong” group, a lineage in Gaoding Village. Constructed with a post-and-lintel wooden structure, it features thirteen tiers of multiple eaves and a pyramidal roof, standing 19 meters tall with a base area of 130 square meters. Originally built in 1921 and reconstructed in 1988, it is a county-level key cultural relics protection unit. This tower has only one main supporting pillar, connected to the surrounding pillars through horizontal beams. Its rare design, ingenious craftsmanship, exquisite construction, and majestic presence showcase the extraordinary wisdom of the Dong people. It is hailed as the “finest in Sanjiang.” The reason it’s considered the “finest” lies not in its height or size, but in its unique architectural features. On January 10, 2001, it was designated as a county-level key cultural relics protection unit by the county government. Surrounding the village are ancient camphor trees growing in clusters, making it one of the main attractions of the Guangxi Sanjiang Dong Ethnic Eco-Museum.

　　   Source: People’s Government of Liucheng County