See for yourself why National Geographic named this the most beautiful village.

Zhaoxing Dong Village, known as the "village on the edge of time" by National Geographic. Zhaoxing Dong Village was established during the Southern Song Dynasty, and has a history of nearly 1,000 years. Over the centuries, Dong people of different surnames have multiplied and expanded here, making it the largest natural Dong village in China. Zhaoxing has 5 drum towers, 5 flower bridges, and 5 theater stages. Together with the nearby Tang'an Dong Village and Jilun Dong Village, there are a total of 7 drum towers in the area, earning it the title of "Hometown of Drum Tower Culture and Art" by the Guizhou Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism. The drum towers in Zhaoxing are named after the five virtues of "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust", and are divided into five groups: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust. They are distributed throughout the village and serve as iconic buildings that you won't miss. Each drum tower has a dedicated architect, known as a master of ink. The drum towers are divided into two types: Xieshan and Zanjianding. They are all made of fir wood and are connected by tenons and mortises. The tower body is mostly quadrilateral, hexagonal, and octagonal, and the number of floors is generally odd (because the Dong people regard odd numbers as lucky numbers), and a large drum is hung on the top floor. Although the drum tower is a pure wooden tenon and mortise structure and does not require a nail, it can stand in the wind and rain for hundreds of years. The buildings here are very characteristic of the region: the houses in the village are stilted buildings, which are arranged in a patchwork pattern. The drum tower is divided into five major families, divided into benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust, and the five drum towers in the village are also named after this. In the morning market, the village slowly wakes up in the morning mist. The old people in the village sit under the tower and chat, smoke dry tobacco, and some do some light manual work with baskets in their hands. For "pure land" and "original ecology", people often expect it to be an undisturbed and unchanged culture, but most of the time, this is a wishful illusion. Rather than saying that such a place is no longer a pure land of the original ecology, it is better to say that the relationship between people and land established here over the long years is still in a more traditional order. The pattern of careful mutual giving and taking over the years has not been completely changed by the new world for the time being. It seems to be a mixture of old and new, and it is difficult to distinguish the truth. In fact, time and space have experienced special compression and concentration here, forming a unique rhythm of change. The delivery and change of this new and old order has become the real landscape of Qiandongnan today.