Guizhou is a very unique province. Though located in the southwest, it hasn’t been overdeveloped like Yunnan or Guangxi, which have been overrun by tourists from all over the world. Today’s Guizhou still retains its original charm. The landscapes of Guizhou combine ruggedness with gentleness, much like the girls in the Miao villages. Here you’ll find Libo’s Xiaoqikong, Asia’s largest waterfall Huangguoshu, China’s most beautiful karst cave Zhijindong, and cultural attractions such as Xijiang’s Qianhu Miao Village and Zhenyuan Ancient Town. But when it comes to the provincial capital Guiyang, it’s hard for many to form a strong impression. For most, Guiyang is just a transit point for traveling around Guizhou. To that, I’d say: they don’t appreciate Guiyang because they’ve never been to Time Guiyang. Moreover, after seeing so many mountains and rivers, you’ll notice that many natural landscapes start to look alike, inevitably causing eye fatigue. Only culture truly defines a place, and Time Guiyang not only offers food, fun, and entertainment, but also helps you understand the cultural fabric of Guizhou, giving you a deeper insight into the region and helping you plan your trip better.
So, how exactly would you describe Time Guiyang? Simply put, Time Guiyang is a condensed version of hundreds of millions of years of Guizhou’s history, centered around Tunbao culture, extracting historical stories of Guizhou, and infused with Western-style commercial aesthetics. Ming and Qing dynasty Tunbao architecture coexists here with Republican-era European-style buildings. Military settlements blend old fortress walls, watchtowers, and Jiangnan-style bridges and streams to depict a nostalgic old Tunbao culture; merchant settlements reflect a luxurious and private guild culture everywhere; official settlements incorporate elements of old Shanghai, recreating the residences of Republican-era masters like Wang Boqun and He Yingqin. Here, you can walk through Guizhou’s cultural corridor and enjoy your own leisurely, slow-paced time. You might ask, most cities have an area made up of imitation ancient streets—what’s so special about Time Guiyang?
Tunbao Culture: The Foundation of Time Guiyang
There’s a saying in Guiyang: if you haven’t walked through the “Nine Gates” and “Four Pavilions,” or can’t point out places like “Eighteen Lions Smiling Face-to-Face,” “Crossing the Bridge Without Seeing the Bridge,” or “Passing the Temple Without Seeing the Temple,” you can’t call yourself a true old Guiyang resident. And the restored Weiqing Gate in Time Guiyang is one of the old Guiyang “Nine Gates” built in the sixth year of the Tianqi era during the Ming Dynasty. It’s called Weiqing Gate because leaving the old city through Weiqing Gate led directly to the important Ming military garrison Weiqing Wei. So, what was Weiqing Wei? That takes us back to the early Ming Dynasty. In 1381, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang appointed Fu Youde as commander-in-chief, leading 300,000 troops in a two-pronged campaign against the remaining forces of the Yuan Dynasty in Yunnan, namely the King of Liang, Basalawarmi. After the successful campaign in Yunnan, some Ming troops were left behind to cultivate land and guard the Yunnan and Guizhou regions. In 1390, the Ming government established a garrison in today’s Qingzhen area of Guizhou, setting up the Weiqing Wei Commandant Office to oversee local troops. By the early Qing Dynasty, as the political situation in the southwest stabilized, the court dissolved Weiqing Wei and the nearby Zhenxi Wei, merging them into Qingzhen County, with the county seat located in today’s Qingzhen urban area. Through Weiqing Gate, you can sense how the life in Qingzhen has evolved since the Ming Dynasty military settlements, integrating with Tunbao culture.
If you love history, Time Guiyang is a microcosm of hundreds of millions of years of Guizhou’s past.
At the center of Time Guiyang’s Time Square stands a unique “sundial.” Originally, a sundial refers to the shadow of the sun; ancient people used the direction of the sun’s projection to measure and divide time, inventing the sundial as a timekeeping device, much like our modern clocks—but this sundial records the cultural changes of Guizhou’s land from the Triassic period to the modern era. Over 200 million years ago in the Triassic, small reptiles like Guizhou Dragon appeared in Guizhou; 240,000 years ago in the Paleolithic era, the upright human culture of Guanyindong emerged in Guizhou; 16,000 years ago, the Late Pleistocene Chuan dong culture appeared in Anshun, Guizhou; around 4000 BCE, the ancestors of the Miao people, defeated in the Battle of Zhuolu by the Yanhuang tribes, were forced to migrate to the southwestern Guizhou region; during the Qin and Han dynasties, the self-proclaimed mighty Yelang Kingdom emerged in Guizhou; in the Tang and Song periods, the Tusi culture arose in Guizhou; during the Ming Dynasty, Tunbao culture appeared, and Wang Yangming attained enlightenment in Longchang, Guizhou, founding the Yangming School of Mind; in 1935, the CPC Central Committee held the Zunyi Conference in Guizhou… All these elements are scattered throughout various corners of Time Guiyang. Here, you can witness hundreds of millions of years in a glance, taking in the full scope of Guizhou’s history and culture.
Was the Forefather of Guizhou Merchants Actually the Famous Shen Wansan?
The prosperity of Time Guiyang is inseparable from commerce, but historically, Guizhou merchants didn’t seem to have the same fame as Shanxi or Huizhou merchants. So what’s the historical background of Guizhou merchants? Let me give you a hint: there’s a square in Time Guiyang called Wanshan Square, and its ground relief features a treasure basin as its pattern. Any guesses who it might be? But we all know Shen Wansan was a famous wealthy man from Suzhou at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty—so what’s his connection to Guizhou merchants?
Here’s how it went: back then, rebel armies and warlords all over the country wanted to unify the realm, and local gentry and tycoons would choose sides with warlords, hoping to gain more benefits in the new dynasty. But in this choice, Shen Wansan backed the wrong horse—he chose the warlord Zhang Shicheng from the Jiangsu-Zhejiang area. Later, as we know, Zhu Yuanzhang defeated the other warlords and founded the Ming Dynasty. However, Shen Wansan was still sensible and quickly showed allegiance to Zhu Yuanzhang after the Ming was established, even helping build one-third of Nanjing’s city walls. Unfortunately, merchants weren’t politically savvy enough—perhaps Shen Wansan was too eager to prove his loyalty to Zhu Yuanzhang, as he actually offered to reward the emperor’s army on his behalf. That was really stepping on a tiger’s tail. After all, Zhu Yuanzhang started as a beggar and had little fondness for the rich. Moreover, he had just unified the realm, and the army was the foundation of his rule. When Shen Wansan offered to reward the troops for the emperor, how could Zhu Yuanzhang react? Enraged, Zhu almost had Shen Wansan executed, but thanks to Empress Ma’s plea, he was instead exiled to Yunnan. But Shen Wansan was Shen Wansan—even in Yunnan, he spotted business opportunities, transporting silk, ceramics, and other handicrafts from Jiangsu-Zhejiang to Yunnan, then redistributing them via the Tea Horse Road to inland northwest, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia, reaping huge profits. And the route from Jiangsu-Zhejiang to Yunnan had to pass through Guizhou, which spurred the development of commerce in Guizhou—and thus Guizhou merchants were born.
Di Opera: Living History in Traditional Theater
During holidays and festivals, Tunbao Square in Time Guiyang hosts performances of Guizhou’s distinctive Di Opera. Since Di Opera doesn’t require a stage, audiences can watch up close, often crowding around the actors for a lively scene. Commonly known as “Jumping Gods,” Di Opera is a folk drama widely performed in many parts of Guizhou. Hearing its name, you might wonder: Di Opera? Because it’s local? Jumping Gods? Is it related to spirit mediumship or some superstitious ritual? Actually, none of the above. It’s called Di Opera because it’s performed on the ground. What sets Di Opera apart from other mask-based dramas is that its masks aren’t worn on the face but on the forehead. There are generally two explanations for this: one is to give actors a wider field of vision, the other is to allow audiences on higher ground to see the front of the masks—many spectators watch from balconies, looking down on the performance. Another theory suggests that the Tunbao people, out of reverence for ancient heroes, place the masks representing deities on their foreheads. The masks are the essence and soul of Di Opera; their vibrant colors vividly portray scenes of battles and the rise and fall of dynasties from various heroic epics.
The term “Jumping Gods” stems from the Tunbao people’s hero worship. They regard historical heroes across dynasties as deities, and Di Opera depicts the historical tales of these figures riding into battlefields in golden armor. It performs their legendary heroism, and it’s out of reverence for these heroes that the opera is called “Jumping Gods.”
Batik: The Craftsmanship Hidden in Miao Villages
Craftsmanship is a word often touted by internet moguls these days, but I dare say an elderly lady at the Guizhou Rural Tourism Development Center in Time Guiyang is more qualified to speak of it than most internet companies. For decades, this old lady has done just one thing: handcrafting batik. Batik should actually be called “wax-resist dyeing.” The process involves using wax to draw patterns on natural fiber fabrics like linen, silk, cotton, or wool, then dipping them in indigo dye vats suitable for low-temperature dyeing. The waxed areas resist the dye, and once the fabric is removed and the wax is washed off, beautiful patterns protected by the wax emerge.
The history of Miao batik is very long, dating back possibly to ancient times. Among the Miao people, there are two legends about the origin of batik. One is the story of Chiyou, the ancestor of the Miao, who fought with the Yellow Emperor, was captured, and executed—leading to the “maple sap as a resist agent” dyeing method. The other says batik originally involved tracing patterns from bronze drums: cloth was placed over a drum, wax was rubbed back and forth on the cloth, and after dyeing, the drum’s patterns transferred onto the fabric, somewhat like making rubbings. In Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan, almost all Miao women’s garments, skirts, aprons, and other cotton daily items feature batik. This is tied to the Miao people’s reverence for batik—they believe owning many fine batik pieces symbolizes wealth, virtue, and beauty. Many Miao subgroups use batik not only as decorations for major events like ancestor worship, weddings, funerals, and festivals, but also as indispensable items in everyday life.
So how can you buy authentic batik? The old lady told us the key lies in the soul of batik—the “ice pattern.” This is an abstract, colorful pattern created when wax cracks and causes uneven dye penetration. Thus, ice patterns also serve as an anti-counterfeiting mark. Real batik ice patterns are naturally irregular, while fake ones follow a pattern.
Beyond these unique cultural elements, Time Guiyang also represents the everyday life of Guiyang. Amid the comfort of its wetland landscape park, you’ll find quintessentially Guizhou offerings like local snacks, traditional Di Opera performances, regional teahouses, and other uniquely rural elements. In addition, Time Guiyang has introduced IMAX cinemas, guild hotels, children’s play zones, cultural art museums, themed restaurants, boutique cultural inns, specialty bars, local product supermarkets, and maker craft shops, creating a cultural and creative hub for the cultural industry. Traditional Guizhou culture and Western-style Shanghai lifestyle aesthetics collide here, presenting both memories of Guizhou and its reinvention. No matter what you seek in travel, you’ll find meaning here.