Guizhou — Huangguoshu, Xijiang Miao Village & Guiyang

🛂 Do You Need a Visa for Guizhou? Two Visa-Free Routes

Short answer: whether you need a visa depends on your passport and itinerary. Check the 50-country list for 30-day visa-free entry and the 57-country list for 240-hour transit. Guiyang Longdongbao Airport (KWE) is on China's list of 240-hour visa-free transit ports, and it is Guizhou's only entry port on that list. The permitted area for Guizhou is the whole province, so Guiyang and every other Guizhou stop in this guide are inside it from the day you land. (The National Immigration Administration publishes its port table as an image. Its news release of 17 December 2024 states in words that Guizhou's permitted area is the whole province, and our visa pages read the table, checked 1 October 2026.)

Here are the two routes and their conditions.

Full details are on two pages: China 30-day visa-free countries and 240-hour transit areas by province.

If you are on the 30-day list, watch the calendar. The official notices do not say whether someone who enters before 31 December 2026 may stay on past that date. If your 30 days would run past it, check with a Chinese embassy before you book.

If you are a US citizen

You are not on the 30-day list. You can still arrive without a visa on the 240-hour transit. The word to focus on is transit: the country or region you arrive from must differ from the country or region you travel to next. A US–China–US itinerary does not qualify. The same conditions apply to you as to everyone else on the 240-hour list. Our guide for US citizens covers the rest.

You can come in through another city

You do not have to land in Guiyang. You can enter at any 240-hour port and then move between permitted areas, as long as everywhere you stay is inside its own province's area. Neighbors that fit a Guizhou loop:

• Chongqing: the whole municipality is open.
• Chengdu: on Sichuan's list of allowed cities.
• Kunming: on Yunnan's list of allowed cities and prefectures.
• Guilin: on Guangxi's list of allowed cities.
• Hunan, including Changsha and Zhangjiajie: the whole province is open.

Check your onward flight, too. For Guangdong the official table says you may leave by any open port, but for other provinces we found no exit rule, so confirm that your departure airport is on the table before you book.

Two small things before you fly

• Arrival card. Since 20 November 2025 you can fill in the foreigner arrival card online before you travel (Beijing foreign affairs office notice, 24 November 2025). If you cannot complete it online in advance, you can scan the QR code, use a smart device or fill in a paper card at the port. Our page has the steps: China arrival card.
• Registration. A hotel registers you. If you stay anywhere else, read accommodation registration.

🗓️ Best Time to Visit Guizhou

We have no monthly temperature table for Guiyang from an official weather source, so we do not print one. What we do have is enough to dodge the worst weeks and to pack sensibly. The weather figures below are for the province as a whole, not for Guiyang.

The Guiyang city government's English site adds one local note (16 September 2026): Tianhetan, at the end of metro Line S1 and about 24 km from the city center, is known for its cool climate. That is the city's own description, not a weather statistic.

Our read, not an official ranking: summer is the season the provincial weather service itself calls cool, so it is the easy pick if you hate heat. In autumn, carry a thin layer for the mornings and evenings. In winter, look at the forecast for freezing rain before you commit to a tight schedule, and leave a spare day around any train or long drive. With an average elevation of about 1,100 meters, a light layer is useful in every season.

Busy weeks need booking. Huangguoshu limits entry to 50,000 visitors a day and wants a time slot booked 1 to 15 days ahead (notice of 9 July 2026). Its price season is peak from 1 March to 30 November and off-peak from 1 December to 28 February. Xijiang has its own peak and off-peak hours (see Xijiang). The booking steps for each are in Part 3.

🚄 How to Get to Guizhou: Flights and High-Speed Rail

By air: fly into Guiyang Longdongbao International Airport (KWE). It is the one 240-hour transit port in Guizhou. The Huangguoshu scenic area's own site also lists a Huangguoshu airport (a November 2025 page gives about 40 minutes by taxi from there to the ticket center), but we found no flight information for it and it is not a 240-hour port. How to get into town is under Guiyang Airport to City Center.

By high-speed rail: Guiyang has three stations that show up in the airport's bus routes: Guiyang North Station (贵阳北站), Guiyang Station (贵阳站) and Guiyang East Station (贵阳东站). The Guizhou government site (a Guizhou Daily article of 26 December 2024) calls Guiyang North a "super-large high-speed rail hub". We found no official statement of which trains stop at which station, or how each station connects to the metro. Read the station name on your 12306 ticket, and do not assume. The lines that reach Guiyang are listed under Guizhou by High-Speed Rail.

Train times, fares and journey times: we give none. Look them up on the 12306 English website. For changes and refunds, read 12306 refund and change fees. Carry the same passport you booked with. If you plan to ride a train with a power bank, read the power bank rules first.

💴 Guizhou Travel Budget: What the Official Prices Say

We do not give a daily budget. Hotels and meals have no official price list, so any figure from us would be a guess. Below are the prices that do come from official pages. Most scenic-area prices are from the Guizhou Development and Reform Commission's "2026 edition" price list of government-priced scenic areas (published 21 January 2026). The list says its prices are current to the end of December 2025 and that, where prices have since changed, the local price authority's latest document rules. Treat the table as a planning guide, and check the scenic area's own channel before you pay.

The provincial 2026 discounts (free entry at state-owned A-level scenic areas for children under 6, people over 65 and students) are described as covering visitors "nationwide, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan". The notices do not name foreign visitors, and we found no official line either way, so ask at the ticket window or before you book.

What this tells you: the headline sights cost little. Huangguoshu is the big ticket at ¥160 plus ¥50 for the bus, and Guiyang's own sights are mostly free. The booking is the work, not the ticket price. Your budget swings come from your hotel, your meals and how many paid trips you add.

Do the first two things at home: get online, and get paying. Then you land with a working phone and a plan for the metro.

📱 Internet in Guizhou: Install an eSIM before you fly

Install a travel eSIM before you leave home, and keep your normal SIM for calls and texts. Many travel eSIMs send your data through servers outside the mainland. That is the usual reason apps such as Google Maps and WhatsApp work on them. Check the provider's own China page before you buy, because plans differ. We do not name providers or quote prices here. Our internet and apps guide has the full picture.

1. Buy the eSIM at home, on your own Wi-Fi.
2. Install it by QR code before the flight, and leave it switched off.
3. Switch it on when you land. Test one map and one message before you leave the airport.

You will want WhatsApp working on day one, because you will need it for hotel messages and for reaching us.

💳 How to Pay in Guizhou

Most people pay by phone, but cash is still legal tender: since 1 February 2026, staffed businesses must accept it. Read the detail in Is cash accepted in China? and the setup steps in our payment guide.

1. At home, install Alipay or WeChat and follow the app's own steps to add your overseas bank card.
2. Do it before the flight, so any identity check happens on your home network.
3. Carry a second card and a little cash as a backup.

We print no payment limits. The apps set the rules, and the rules change.

Why this matters in Guizhou. Many sights here take bookings through WeChat or Alipay mini-programs. Huangguoshu's official one is called Anlvtong (安旅通), and the Guizhou Provincial Museum books through its own WeChat account. Getting your payment app working at home is therefore not just about shops. The booking cheat sheet shows which sights you can book online and which have a different route for foreign passports.

🛬 Guiyang Airport to City Center: Metro, Airport Bus or Taxi

There are three kinds of option: the metro, four airport bus lines, and city buses. The airport's city-transport page lists five city lines; the table shows the two that stop at railway stations, 216 and 275. The airport bus and city bus times come from the airport's own website. Neither page carries a date, and the city bus page says its information is for reference and that the Guiyang Bus Group WeChat account has the latest. Read every time below as "as listed, confirm on the day".

What to take. If your hotel is on a metro line, take Line 2. If it is near one of the rail stations, the airport buses name those stations on their routes, which makes them the simplest match. Show the driver the Chinese station name. Pick your hotel area with this in mind; the where to stay section shows the districts.

What we could not read. The airport website's "rail transit" page carries only a network diagram made by a third-party account, with a note that it is for study and that the metro operator's version rules. We did not use it. For the airport station's first and last train, ask the Guiyang Metro WeChat account or call the metro service line, 0851-87166669 (the number is given in a September 2026 metro notice).

🚇 Getting Around Guiyang: Metro Guide

The metro is the simplest way to cross the city center. The network has four lines: 1, 2, 3 and S1 (Guiyang Metro notice, 1 September 2026).

Fares. The fare depends on the distance between your entry and exit stations. This is the rule from a Guiyang Metro reprint on the provincial transport department's site (4 September 2025), so it may be out of date.

Four rules in the same reprint make the fare easier to predict:

• Changing lines costs nothing extra. You pay by the total distance from your first station to your last.
• The shortest path sets the price. If there are several routes between two stations, the fare follows the shortest. So a route with one more stop can cost less than you expect.
• Leaving a station and coming back in restarts the fare. The fare is recalculated for the new start and end stations.
• Check a fare in advance in the "Guiyang Metro" WeChat official account, under "行地铁" and then "出行查询". The menu is in Chinese.

The airport trip on Line 2 is a ¥6 example (city English site, 16 September 2026).

How to pay. An April 2025 page on the city government's English site describes Line 3 and lists these: a single-journey ticket, a facial-recognition single-journey ticket, a QR code, and a stored-value card. It names the app "Yi Ying Qian Xing" (一应黔行). That page covers Line 3 only and is more than a year old, so treat the list as a guide.

Can I tap a foreign bank card, or open a ride code with a foreign passport? We found no official statement on either. The single-journey ticket is on the official list, so make it your plan if your phone setup fails. We found no official note on where those tickets are sold or whether the machines take cash.

Hours. We found no regular first and last train times on the official pages we read. Ask the Guiyang Metro WeChat account or call the metro service line, 0851-87166669, before you plan a late evening.

Stations you will use for the sights. Part 3 has the details; these are the exits the official pages give:

• Line 1: International Ecological Conference Center, exit B, for the Guizhou Provincial Museum. Hebin Park, exit A, for Qingyun Market. Penshuichi, exit G, for Taiping Road, a street of cafes and craft beer bars.
• Line 1 for Jiaxiu Pavilion: two official pages disagree. One gives Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital station, exit A (July 2026). The other gives Zhongshan West Road station, exit D, then a walk of about 1,400 meters (16 September 2026). Look at a live map when you go.
• Line 3: Qianling Mountain Park, exit C, which leads straight into the park.
• Line 2: the airport.

The core of the guide. Guizhou's two headline sights, the Huangguoshu Waterfall and the Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village, are cheap by international standards and fussy about how you get in. One runs on a time-slot system with a daily cap. The other has given different official answers about foreign passports. Around them sit Guiyang's free museum, a pavilion on a river, a mountain park, an old garrison town, and a food scene built on sour soup and chili. Every hard fact below comes from an official page. Where two official pages disagree, we show both. Visa and entry rules are in Part 1; getting from the airport into town is in Part 2.

🎫 Booking Cheat Sheet: Huangguoshu, Xijiang and the Provincial Museum

Four things in this chapter need booking (at Xijiang, the booking rules we found come from holiday notices), through three separate booking channels (Anlvtong, Xijiang's own channels and the museum's WeChat account). Here is the whole picture before the detail.

Most of these work the same way: you book in your name, in an app, for a slot, and the gate checks your document against the booking. The booking channel and the process for a foreign passport differ by sight, so follow each sight's own notes. Setting up WeChat or Alipay is covered in the essentials page, and getting online in China in the internet section.

🌊 Huangguoshu Waterfall Tickets and Booking

Huangguoshu is not one waterfall. It is a 163-square-kilometer scenic area with three core sights, a loop shuttle bus and a booking system that caps visitors at 50,000 a day. The official notice of 9 July 2026 names the three: the Grand Waterfall (大瀑布), Doupotang (陡坡塘) and Tianxingqiao (天星桥). The official site calls the Grand Waterfall China's largest, 77.8 meters high and 101 meters wide. Doupotang is the wide, low fall upstream: 105 meters across the top and 21 meters high. Tianxingqiao is the third sight, which the scenic area splits into an upper half and a lower half.

Huangguoshu ticket prices, shuttle bus and escalator

• Entrance ticket: ¥160 per person per visit in peak season (1 March to 30 November), ¥150 in off season (1 December to 28 February). The dates and prices are on the official English homepage. The provincial development and reform commission's 2026 price list gives the same two prices but no season dates.
• How long the ticket lasts, two sources: the scenic area's own notice of 9 July 2026 says the ticket is valid for 10 consecutive days from the day of first check-in, counting that day, and, in a tip for the busy season, recommends a three-day itinerary for the whole area. Separately, the provincial culture and tourism department's 2026 discount campaign (page of 5 March 2026) describes a multi-day ticket scheme at participating state-owned A-level scenic areas: entry as many times as you like within 5 days with a reservation, for the ticket holder only. It does not say whether Huangguoshu takes part. We found no official page that reconciles the two, so confirm on Anlvtong or at the ticket window.
• Shuttle bus (观光车): ¥50 per person for the full circuit, valid for three consecutive days from first check-in (provincial 2026 price list; the scenic area's November 2025 guide also says ¥50).
• Escalator (扶梯): ¥30 one way, ¥50 round trip (provincial 2026 price list). The July 2026 notice says escalator tickets are good for that day only.
• Water Curtain Cave: free, but a separate slot (see below).

The price list says its prices were updated to the end of December 2025 and that the local price authority's latest document overrides it. If you are paying close attention to the yuan, check the official ticket channel on the day.

What to see, and how the shuttle links it

The shuttle loop is about 23 kilometers with about one hour of total riding time. The route is not a straight line, so the order matters. These are some of the shuttle distances and single-trip ride times printed in the 9 July 2026 notice (the "visitor center" is its "First Ticket Center"):

The official time for seeing each sight on foot, not counting the bus: Grand Waterfall about 3 hours, Doupotang about 2 hours, Tianxingqiao about 5 hours (it has an upper and a lower half). The notice's picture, which it calls the shuttle timetable, is a table of distances and ride times like the one above; it gives no departure times.

What this means in practice: Doupotang sits about 1 km upstream of the Grand Waterfall (scenic area intro, September 2025), and the shuttle from the Grand Waterfall to Doupotang takes about 6 minutes, so they pair easily. Tianxingqiao is on the far side and takes a big chunk of the day by itself. If you have one day, our suggestion is the Grand Waterfall and Doupotang, and leaving Tianxingqiao for a second day on the same ticket (check on Anlvtong whether the second day needs its own slot). The notice's busy-season tip recommends three days for everything.

How to book Huangguoshu, step by step

1. Open the "安旅通" (Anlvtong) mini-program in WeChat or Alipay. It is the scenic area's own platform. If you hold a foreign passport, read the next section first: the official booking center says inbound tourists book and buy tickets offline. The scenic area also lists Ctrip, Meituan, Fliggy, Amap, Yimayou Guizhou and Douyin, but it does not say how each handles a passport.
2. Book 1 to 15 days ahead. The notice says "请提前1-15天预约", with the 15-day maximum. Entry is real-name and by time slot, with a cap of 50,000 people a day. When it is reached, booking for that day closes.
3. Pick a time slot. Slots change with the season, so treat these as examples. For summer (the 9 July 2026 notice): 06:30–07:00, 07:00–08:30, 08:30–10:30, 10:30–12:00, then 12:30–14:30 and 14:30–16:00. For the May Day holiday (1 May 2026 notice): 07:00–08:30, 08:30–10:30, 10:30–12:00, 12:30–14:30, 14:30–16:30.
4. Tick the Water Curtain Cave box if you want it (next section).
5. On the day, enter in your slot. The notice says you enter by face scan within your booked time slot. Bring the document you booked with.
6. If you buy at a ticket window, note that the summer notice says windows sell from 06:30 and stop selling at 16:00, and that the three ticket centers stopped admitting people at 17:00 (July and August only).

Foreign passports at Huangguoshu: two statements, one gap

This is the part to plan for. The pieces of official text we found do not fit neatly together:

• The official booking center (hgscn.com, in Chinese and English) says: "Inbound tourists are required to book and purchase tickets offline."
• A 1 May 2026 notice, issued for the May Day holiday, says all visitors must make a real-name booking online in advance, and that on-site service is for special groups only, with the original document checked at the gate.
• The ticket-rules table (a picture on the safety page, uploaded 16 October 2025) lists adults, over-65s and students aged 17 and under, with the online channels. It has a separate line for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan visitors, who book in Anlvtong and swap for a ticket at a window with their permit. It has no foreign-passport row.
• The individual booking page asks you to bring your ID original and "other valid documents". The word "passport" does not appear on it. The English safety page asks for an original government-issued ID.

We found no official page that explains how a foreign visitor buys at the offline window, whether to book that window ahead, or how a passport is checked. Our advice: before you commit a day to this, call the scenic area's hotline: 400-800-9998 or 0851-33592136, daily 07:00–22:00, or ask at the window. If you are unsure which of the two official statements applies to you, that call settles it. We can help you plan the day and tell you how to book, and if you want someone to do the talking, a local guide can be arranged.

Water Curtain Cave (水帘洞)

The cave is on the Grand Waterfall, 40 to 47 meters up its height. It is free, but it is a separate real-name time slot with a daily cap of 6,000 people, and the slot is valid that day only (16 July 2026 notice).

• Where to book: Anlvtong is the only official channel. If you bought your ticket through Meituan, Ctrip or another platform, the notice says you still have to log in to Anlvtong afterwards to pick a slot.
• Is it full? A greyed-out booking page, or one with no slots, means the cave is full that day.
• Time: peak queues are about 60 to 90 minutes, and the walk-through is about 30 to 40 minutes, one way. The cave is 134 meters long, with 6 window openings and 5 halls.
• Closing: the 1 May 2026 holiday notice lists the cave closing at 18:30.

Opening hours: the official pages do not agree

Huangguoshu's own pages give different hours, so we do not give you a single time.

• The Chinese and English homepages show 07:00–18:30 for the Grand Waterfall and Doupotang, and 07:00–17:40 for Tianxingqiao.
• The July 2026 notice (for 1 July to 31 August) opens at 06:30, closes the Grand Waterfall and Doupotang at 18:30, and closes Tianxingqiao at 18:00 for the upper half and 17:40 for the lower half.
• The 1 May 2026 holiday notice opens at 07:00, with the same closing times.
• The Chinese safety page (undated) shows 07:30 to 18:00 for the Grand Waterfall and Doupotang, and 17:30 for Tianxingqiao (17:00 for its lower half). The English Travel Tips page (undated) shows a 07:00 opening, last entry at 18:00 / 17:30 and closing at 19:00 / 18:30.

What to take from this: opening between about 07:00 and 07:30 (06:30 in the July–August 2026 notice), and closing between about 17:00 and 19:00 depending on the page and the sight, with Tianxingqiao's lower half closing first. On the day, your booked slot in Anlvtong is the thing that counts.

Night shows at Huangguoshu

Two official pages mention night programs. The safety page (undated) lists two night shows, Journey West Again (《再回西游》) at Doupotang and the Grand Waterfall night tour, both starting at 19:30. A scenic-area guide dated 21 November 2025 prices the Grand Waterfall night light show at ¥200 per person, open 19:00 to 21:00, and says night tours are charged separately from the entry ticket. That guide is from 2025, so check the price and times when you book.

Rules on the ground

The July 2026 safety notice bans wading and playing in the water, climbing, open flames and smoking, bringing pets onto the scenic area's shared transport or into its public areas, and bringing drones into the park.

Getting to Huangguoshu from Guiyang

The official intro pages put the scenic area 128 kilometers from Guiyang and 45 kilometers from Anshun city (one other official page says 40 km from Anshun). The scenic area's own guide, dated 21 November 2025, lists these routes:

• High-speed train to Anshun West Station (安顺西站): from there, a taxi to the Huangguoshu ticket center takes about 30 minutes.
• Guanling Station (关岭站): taxi or the dedicated shuttle bus, also about 30 minutes.
• Bus: Anshun East Station to the Huangguoshu bus station, ¥22, with some buses stopping at Anshun West.
• Huangguoshu Airport: about 40 minutes by taxi to the ticket center.
• Parking lots: a free transfer shuttle to the shuttle-bus stops.

For Guiyang to Huangguoshu directly, we found no official page listing a direct coach or tourist shuttle. The guide's own sample itineraries start with "Guiyang to Huangguoshu" as day one and do not name a train or bus. For trains, check the 12306 English website for service to Anshun West. If your plans change, see 12306 refund and change fees. A private car with driver is the simplest option, and we can arrange that.

Longgong Dragon Palace, in one line

Longgong (龙宫) is listed in the provincial 2026 price list as part of the Huangguoshu tourism area, with its own pricing (see the budget table). Huangguoshu's Chinese safety page lists Longgong at 08:00 to 17:00 and its English Travel Tips page at 08:00 to 17:30. We did not read an official page on booking, so check before you plan around it.

🏘️ Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village: Tickets, Hours and How to Get There

Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village (西江千户苗寨) is a mountain village of timber stilt houses that you pay to enter, and one that is very much lived in. The scenic area's own page says it has 1,468 households and over 6,000 people, 99.5 percent of them Miao. It sits about 12 kilometers from Leishan county and 20 kilometers from Kaili, the prefecture seat.

Xijiang ticket price, hours and what is included

From the scenic area's "50 Questions" page (12 September 2026):

• Entrance ticket: ¥90 per person, valid for 5 days from the day you play. The provincial 2026 price list gives the same ¥90.
• Shuttle bus (观光车): ¥20 per person for 24 hours of unlimited rides from the first check-in, or ¥5 for a single ride. Bought separately from the entrance ticket. The 2026 price list agrees. The shuttle links the North Gate and Small North Gate, Bridge No. 1, the viewing platform and Changxiao, Changxiao and the West Gate, and the Yangpai–Dongyin loop.
• What the ticket includes: the Xijiang Miao Museum (temporarily closed for construction and maintenance), an "original ecology" song-and-dance show, the Gu Zang Tou house (鼓藏头家), an embroidery workshop, a batik workshop, a silver workshop, the viewing platform and the countryside sightseeing area, among others.
• Discount tickets need a document check at a window. The page gives no passport-specific discount rules.

Opening hours, by season (12 September 2026):

Spring Festival uses peak-season hours. Outside operating hours, the scenic area stops selling tickets and stops entry checks, but shops and businesses inside the village are not bound by those hours. An older January 2025 notice, written for the Spring Festival period, said the area was open 24 hours, so read that as a holiday rule.

The Twelve-Toast Welcome (十二道迎宾酒)

A notice of 29 September 2026 paused the Twelve Toasts Welcome (《十二道迎宾酒》) at the Great North Gate (大北门), which it lists at 16:00–16:45, for that one day, to improve the show and train the performers. It does not say whether the show runs every day, so check at the gate. The scenic area's phone number is 400-153-8866.

How to book Xijiang, step by step

1. Check the current booking rule first. A January 2025 notice (for Spring Festival) required online real-name time-slot booking, one person per ID, in these slots: 08:00–12:00, 12:00–17:00, 17:00–20:00 and 20:00–23:59, and advised booking a day ahead. It lists the WeChat official account "西江千户苗寨景区", the scenic area website, Yimayou Guizhou and Ctrip, and also mentions Douyin and Meituan. An older notice for the 2023 Mid-Autumn and National Day holiday required booking at least one day ahead.
2. Add the shuttle ticket. It is not included in the entrance ticket; the notice suggests booking the two together, a day ahead.
3. Foreign passports: two notices, two answers.
   • January 2025 (the Spring Festival notice): visitors with a passport or Hong Kong/Macau/Taiwan documents "can go to the offline window to handle ticket purchase".
   • September 2023 (a notice for that year's Mid-Autumn and National Day holiday, carried on the Guizhou provincial government site): foreign visitors use their original passport as their ID for the one-person-one-ID booking.
   • We found no official statement saying which one is current for ordinary days. Both predate 2026. Check the official account or call 400-153-8866.
4. Capacity: the 2026 management rules, in force since 1 February 2026, say the area must control visitor flow against its approved maximum and issue warnings as it nears the limit. Booking ahead matters more on holidays.

Getting to Xijiang

• By high-speed rail: to Kaili South Station (凯里南站), which is on the Shanghai–Kunming and Chongqing–Guiyang lines, then take the scenic area's direct shuttle or a taxi. The official pages do not give a schedule or fare for the shuttle.
• By bus: coaches to Xijiang run from Kaili South, Kaiyunsi and Leishan bus stations (January 2025 notice). A 2024 provincial guide also describes taking a bus to Kaili coach station and then a Kaili–Xijiang bus direct to the Great North Gate.
• From Guiyang: a 2024 provincial guide lists an express bus from Guiyang East coach station to Kaili about every 15 minutes. For the road, the January 2025 notice says ride-hailing from Guiyang Longdongbao Airport to Xijiang is about two and a half hours, while the 2024 provincial guide says the airport is about 3 hours by car. The two do not match, so do not plan on the shorter one. Train times and fares: check the 12306 English website.

Behavior in a living village

The official guidance is general: the 2026 management rules ask visitors to respect local customs and cultural traditions, and say serious breaches can be entered on a tourist misconduct record. We found no official page with specific rules on photographing residents, entering homes or Miao clothing and silver, so we do not state any. The simple rule is to ask before you photograph a person or step into a private courtyard.

🏙️ Things to Do in Guiyang

Guiyang is the base for everything above, and its own sights are mostly free. These come from the Guiyang government's English pages (July to September 2026) and the museum's own site.

Guizhou Provincial Museum (贵州省博物馆): free, but book first

The Guizhou Provincial Museum is free, closed on Mondays except on holidays, and works on real-name booking.

• Address: No. 107 Lincheng East Road, Guanshanhu District (贵阳市观山湖区林城东路107号).
• Hours: Tuesday to Sunday. Opens 09:00, last entry 16:00, closes 17:00. Closed Monday, with holiday exceptions (museum homepage; holiday rules change).
• Metro: Line 1, International Ecological Conference Center Station (国际生态会议中心站), Exit B.
• Phone: 0851-84811809 or 0851-84811830, Tuesday to Sunday 09:00–17:00.

How to book (the museum's "online reservation" page):

1. Method one: follow the WeChat official account "贵州省博物馆" and tap "预约" in the menu.
2. Method two: search WeChat for the mini-program "贵州省博物馆门户" and tap "预约参观".
3. Pick a date and time slot, add visitors, fill in the details and submit.
4. After booking, the page says to bring an ID card or the booking QR code. It does not mention passports or other foreign documents.

The museum's notices of 26 June and 31 July 2026 say its booking system takes bookings up to 10 days ahead. The 26 June notice (for the summer peak) and the 22 September 2026 National Day notice both give a cap of 12,000 visitors a day. Check the account for your own dates. The 31 July 2026 notice says admission is free long term, real-name by reservation, and "in principle no entry without a booking". It allows some visitors to enter on a valid personal ID without a booking, and it does not say whether a foreign passport counts. Paid special exhibitions, when there is one, are a separate ticket.

Jiaxiu Pavilion (甲秀楼): the river pavilion

Jiaxiu Pavilion is free year-round, and the city's metro-tour page says it needs no reservation. It is a pavilion on the Nanming River first built in 1598, in the Ming dynasty.

• Address: No. 8 Cuiwei Alley, Nanming District.
• Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 9 am to 6 pm, with last admission also listed as 6 pm. Closed Mondays (Guiyang government English page, 23 July 2026).
• Metro: two official pages disagree. The 23 July page says Line 1, Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital Station, Exit A. The 16 September metro-tour page says Line 1, Zhongshan West Road Station, Exit D, then a walk of roughly 1,400 meters. Check a map on the day.
• At night: the English page describes the illuminated pavilion reflected in the river.

Qianling Mountain Park (黔灵山公园): a hill in the city

Qianling Mountain Park is free, open 07:00–20:00, and is reached from Metro Line 3.

• Address: No. 187 Zaoshan Road, Yunyan District.
• Metro: Line 3, Qianling Mountain Park Station, Exit C, which the metro-tour page says takes you directly to the park.
• Time: the official page suggests 3 to 5 hours.
• Cable car: the provincial 2026 price list gives ¥20 up, ¥15 down and ¥30 round trip. The metro-tour page says you can take the cable car up to Kanzhu Pavilion.
• Zoo and pandas: the park's zoo was built in 1958, with a famous macaque and giant pandas. The metro-tour page lists a free panda pavilion.
• What we did not find: whether the park needs a booking, the last entry time, and whether the zoo charges. We found no official visitor rules for the park beyond the hours and free entry, so follow the signs.

Qingyan Ancient Town (青岩古镇): a Ming-dynasty garrison town

Qingyan is an old fortified town, more than 600 years old, built as a Ming military stronghold on a branch of the Tea-Horse Road.

• Tickets: general admission ¥10 (does not include individual attractions), or a ¥60 combined ticket that includes all attractions. Both the English page (23 July 2026) and the Guiyang culture and tourism page (18 August 2026) agree, as does the provincial 2026 price list.
• Hours: 1 April to 31 October, 08:10–17:40 (last entry 17:40). 1 November to 31 March, 08:30–17:00 (last entry 17:00).
• Time: the page suggests 3 to 5 hours.
• Getting there, two answers. The English attraction page says take Metro Line 3 to Huaxi Park Station, then a bus or a tourist line to the town. The September 2026 metro-tour page says take Line 3 to Tongmuling Station, Exit C, then a taxi of about 10 minutes. They do not match, so pick one and check it on a map. The airport also lists airport bus line 4 (see the airport table).
• Reservations and passports: the pages do not say whether the town needs booking or how a foreign passport is handled.
• Snacks the official pages name: braised pig trotters (卤猪脚), fried tofu balls (豆腐圆子), rice tofu (米豆腐) and rose ice jelly (玫瑰冰粉).

🍲 What to Eat in Guizhou: Sour Soup Fish, Beef Noodles and Street Snacks

Guizhou food is sour and spicy, in that order. The sour comes from fermented tomatoes and other ferments, and the chili is everywhere. The dish names below are public knowledge. We name no restaurants, and give no prices, because we found no official or restaurant-run source for them.

The dishes to know

• Sour soup fish (酸汤鱼, suān tāng yú): fish simmered in a tangy fermented broth at the table, with vegetables added to cook in it. It is the dish most visitors are told to order first.
• Huaxi beef noodles (花溪牛肉粉, Huāxī niúròu fěn): rice noodles in a rich, chili-red beef broth, named for Huaxi, the district that Qingyan belongs to.
• Changwang noodles (肠旺面, chángwàng miàn): noodles with pork intestine and blood tofu in a spicy broth. The Guiyang government's own English page describes the noodles as "springy alkaline noodles".
• Siwawa (丝娃娃, sī wá wá): thin rice-flour wrappers that you fill yourself with shredded cold vegetables, then dip in a sour, spicy sauce. The name means "silk babies".
• Braised pig trotters, fried tofu balls, rice tofu and rose ice jelly: the snacks the Guiyang government names for Qingyan (see above).
• Crispy duck and grilled hotpot: the two dishes the official English page for Qingyun Market names (see nightlife).

How to eat well without a plan

1. Start with noodles for breakfast. Changwang and Huaxi beef noodle shops are everyday food, and a noodle bowl is an easy first order.
2. Go to Minsheng Road for a snack crawl. The Guiyang metro-tour page (16 September 2026) describes it as "a street buzzing with local food stalls", about 854 meters on foot from Zhongshan West Road Station on Line 1.
3. Do sour soup fish as a shared meal. It suits groups, because you order the pot for the table.
4. Say how much chili you want. "Wēi là" (微辣) is mild, and "bú yào là" (不要辣) is no chili. A cook who hears "mild" may still bring a lot of spice.
5. Payment: carry a little cash for stalls as a backup to your phone. See How to Pay.

Without a name, "cheap" is the safe word for stall snacks and noodle shops, and "mid-range" for a sit-down sour soup fish dinner. We found no official per-person prices.

🌃 Guiyang Nightlife and Night Food Streets

Guiyang's official English pages point to a handful of night spots, all described as walks from Line 1 stations or the Penshuichi interchange. We name only places that the Guiyang government describes.

• Qingyun Market (青云市集): the metro-tour page calls it a "cyberpunk-style night bazaar". Its attraction page places it at No. 83 Qingyun Road, Nanming District, open all day, free, and presents it as a place for food, culture and nightlife. It lists a vibrant bar street and Maojie Street (猫街), and names crispy duck and grilled hotpot as snacks. Nearest station: Hebin Park Station, Exit A, Line 1, about 933 meters on foot.
• Minsheng Road (民生路): the food-stall street above, about 854 meters from Zhongshan West Road Station.
• Taiping Road (太平路): the metro-tour page describes cafes and craft beer bars. It is 263 meters from Penshuichi Station, Exit G.
• Jiaxiu Pavilion at night: the illuminated pavilion by the river (see above), which is free.

You can string these into one evening: lights at Jiaxiu Pavilion, snacks on Minsheng Road, the bazaar and bar street at Qingyun Market, and a craft beer on Taiping Road. We did not check opening hours for Minsheng Road or Taiping Road, and we do not name individual bars or give drink prices.

Getting home after dark

The Guiyang metro has Lines 1, 2, 3 and S1. We found no regular first and last train times on the official pages we read, and the station-by-station last-train tables we came across were pictures we could not use. Before you stay out, check the "贵阳地铁" WeChat account or call the metro service line, 0851-87166669. The metro itself is covered under Metro Guide.

Huangguoshu and Xijiang are the two names that bring most people to Guizhou, and you will have them covered from the sections above (Huangguoshu, Xijiang). This part is about what to do around them: three more big names on the provincial price list, how Guiyang connects to the rest of the rail network, two ready-made itineraries, and where to sleep. One honest note: for some of this, the only official page we could read was a price list. Where that is the case we say so, give you the numbers we have, and tell you which official channel to check for the rest. We do not fill gaps with guesses.

⛰️ Beyond Huangguoshu and Xijiang: Libo, Fanjingshan and Zhaoxing

Short answer: these three are worth knowing about, but we can only give you prices. The numbers below come from the Guizhou provincial Development and Reform Commission's Price List of Government-Priced Scenic Area Tickets and In-Park Transport (2026 edition), published 21 January 2026. The list says its prices were updated to the end of December 2025, and that where the local price authority has issued something newer, the newer document wins. It does not give the peak and off-peak dates for these three sights. We found no official page on opening hours, reservation rules or how to get there, so we do not write any.

Libo Large and Small Qikong (荔波大小七孔)

• Entry ticket: ¥120 in peak season, ¥100 in off-peak season (2026 provincial list; the list gives no season dates).
• Shuttle bus: ¥40 per person for the full route, valid for two days.
• What to do with that: the shuttle pass is good for two days, so do not plan this as a one-hour stop. For reservation rules, opening hours and how to get there from Guiyang, we found no official page. Tell us your dates and we can help you plan it and tell you how to book.

Fanjingshan

• Entry ticket: ¥100 in peak season, ¥90 in off-peak season (2026 provincial list; no season dates given).
• Cable car: ¥70 one way, ¥140 round trip per person.
• The trade-off: if you ride the cable car both ways, the cable car (¥140) costs more than the entry ticket. Decide before you go whether you want the ride or the walk.
• Shuttle buses: the list prices them by section, on an east line and a west line. The columns came out misaligned when we extracted the PDF, so we do not quote a bus price.
• Official site: we did not open the Fanjingshan scenic area's own website, so we do not give an address for it. Check hours and booking through an official channel before you go.

Zhaoxing Dong Village (Zhaoxing Dongzhai)

• Entry ticket: ¥80 (2026 provincial list).
• Shuttle bus: ¥10 one way.
• Everything else: we found no official page on opening hours, booking or the route from Guiyang. Tell us your dates and we can help you plan it and tell you how to book.

If you are choosing between the three, price is the only comparison our sources support. Zhaoxing has the lowest ticket (¥80), Fanjingshan has the cable car that can cost more than the ticket, and Libo is the one whose shuttle pass the list marks as good for two days.

🚄 Guizhou by High-Speed Rail: Guiyang to Chongqing, Chengdu, Guilin and Kunming

Short answer: Guiyang North is the hub, and the provincial government names a line for most of the directions you care about. What we cannot give you is train numbers, fares or journey times, because the official pages we read do not list them city by city. For all of those, search the 12306 English website for your date. If you need to change or cancel a ticket later, read 12306 refund and change fees first.

The Guizhou provincial government's website (a Guizhou Daily piece of 26 December 2024) calls Guiyang North a "super-large high-speed rail hub". It lists these lines as open: the Shanghai-Kunming, Chongqing-Guizhou, Chengdu-Guiyang and Guiyang-Nanning lines, plus the Guiyang-Guangzhou line, which opened in 2014. It also says Guiyang has 2-to-8-hour high-speed links to the Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster, the Yunnan-Guangxi region, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the central China city cluster, the Yangtze River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. That is the article's wording, not a timetable.

Which Guiyang station? The airport bus page shows lines 1 and 3 stopping at Guiyang North, line 3 also at Guiyang East, and line 2 at Guiyang Station (see the airport section). We found no official page on how the three stations connect to the metro, and none saying which of them handle high-speed trains. Your 12306 booking tells you which station your train leaves from, so read it before you plan the ride there. The rail stops for Huangguoshu and Xijiang are under Getting to Huangguoshu and Getting to Xijiang.

A route that stays inside the permitted areas. A loop like land in Chongqing, rail to Guiyang, then on to Guilin or Kunming uses only places on the lists in the visa section. So would Chengdu to Guiyang to Kunming. The clock runs from midnight after you arrive, and you still need an onward ticket to a third country or region and the other conditions. We could not verify word for word where you may exit when your last stop is in a different province from where you entered, so check the 240-hour transit areas before you book the flight out.

🗺️ Guizhou Itinerary: 3 Days and 5 Days

How these plans are built. They use only opening hours and durations we could source. We give no door-to-door travel times, because we have no official figures for most legs; read each leg off your map app or 12306. Times are written as "opens" or "last entry" so you can see where the day has to bend.

Book first. The Guizhou Provincial Museum, Huangguoshu and the Water Curtain Cave all need advance reservations (steps in the booking cheat sheet). Everything below assumes your slots are in hand. Mondays matter: Jiaxiu Pavilion is closed, and so is the Provincial Museum unless it is a holiday.

3 days: Guiyang, Huangguoshu, Xijiang

5 days: add the rest of Guiyang and a second Huangguoshu day

Swap-in if you pass through Guiyang with a spare evening: Qianling Mountain Park. The city's English page (July 2026) says open 7:00 to 20:00, free all year, with a recommended 3 to 5 hours. It lists the 1958 zoo, a free panda pavilion and a cable car up to Kanzhu Pavilion. The 2026 provincial list gives the cable car at ¥20 up, ¥15 down and ¥30 round trip (half price ¥10, ¥8 and ¥15). Reach it on Line 3 to Qianling Mountain Park station, exit C. The city page mentions no reservation requirement.

🛏️ Where to Stay in Guiyang: Best Areas for First-Timers

Short answer: stay near the Penshuichi, Dashizi and Qingyun Market area unless you have a reason not to. We have no hotel names or rates to give you, and the only official recommendation we found is the city culture and tourism bureau's autumn guide (August 2026). It points people toward that area for convenience and for the metro and shopping district, and toward Guanshanhu for quiet.

Is it worth sleeping at Huangguoshu or Xijiang? At Huangguoshu, the scenic area's own sample itineraries start with a night in a scenic-area hotel (November 2025 page), so one night there is normal for a 2- or 3-day plan. At Xijiang, we found no official recommendation either way. You can sleep a night; the scenic area runs into the small hours in the April-to-October season, so the evening is part of what you are buying.

Our pick: Penshuichi, Dashizi or Qingyun for the first two nights. You trade some noise for being in the middle of the food, the metro crossing and the Qingyun night market. Choose Guanshanhu if the museum is your main reason to be in the city and you want somewhere quiet. Hotels register foreign guests; see accommodation registration.

🧠 Etiquette, traps & health — the fine print

Money is under How to Pay, prices are in the budget table, and weather is under Best Time. This part keeps only what is left.

❓ FAQ — straight answers to what everyone actually asks

📣 Plan it with us