Zhaotong Ethnic Minorities and Customs

Zhaotong is located in the northeast corner of Yunnan province, near the border to Sichuan Province. Its terrain is lush and mountainous. Fossils discovered in the mountain caves indicate that human settlers began to move here one hundred thousand years ago, and many Neolithic relics have been discovered.

Zhaotong has a plateau monsoon climate, which manifests itself as sunny and warmer in the summer months. Zhaotong also has great demographic diversity, among the 520 thousand minority people, Yi and Miao ethnic minorities dominate. Much of the trip will be spent working in these ethnic minority areas.

Much of the Miao area is hilly or mountainous, and is drained by several big rivers. The weather is mild with a generous rainfall, and the area is rich in natural resources. Major crops include paddy rice, maize, potatoes, Chinese sorghum, beans, rape, peanuts, tobacco, ramie, sugar cane, cotton, oil-tea camellia and tung tree.

As early as the Qin and Han dynasties , the ancestors of the Miao people lived in the western part of present-day Hunan and the eastern part of present-day Guizhou. In the third century A.D., the ancestors of the Miaos went west to present-day northwest Guizhou and south Sichuan along the Wujiang River. In the fifth century, some Miao groups moved to east Sichuan and west Guizhou. In the ninth century, some were taken to Yunnan as captives. In the 16th century, some Miaos settled on Hainan Island. As a result of these large-scale migrations over many centuries the Miaos became widely dispersed.

Such a wide distribution and the influence of different environments has resulted in marked differences in dialect, names and clothes. Some Miao people from different areas have great difficulty in communicating with each other. Their art and festivals also differ between areas.