The court at the gate
The dates below are the ones used in 2026. Festivals set by the lunar calendar will move in 2027. In 2026 the basketball finals and the international football fell in the National Day week, in early October. In 2025 the basketball finals ended on 17 October. Check that year’s notice before you book.
In Taipan, the basketball hoop stands at the village gate. In Rongjiang, halftime belongs to Dong grand song and Miao dance. In Dafang, the audience sits on the banks of the town’s flower terraces. In Kaili, the runway is a covered corridor about 50 meters long. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, villagers walk it in festival clothes of their own, or in a set rented beside the runway.
You will see the names Village BA (村BA), Village Super League (村超), and Village T (村T). The names are new. The days are old: Eating the New Rice, the Sisters’ Meal Festival, the dragon boats, Miao New Year, and Dong New Year. The game and the runway are what those days look like now.
Taipan
Taipan is a Miao village. At Eating the New Rice, on the lunar date called the sixth of the sixth month, people taste the first rice of the year, play the lusheng, and play basketball from dark until daylight. A lusheng is a bamboo mouth organ. In 2026 that festival fell on 19 July. Taipan’s own basketball ran through 26 July, with village teams, a women’s division, and a youth division. The crowd keeps time on metal washbasins.
The national finals were added later. In 2026 they ran from 28 September to 5 October: 23 teams from 16 regions, including one from Hong Kong and one from Macau. The champion receives prize money and also takes a cow home. The cow is the prize people in the village talk about. The team is paid as well. A dirt court stood here in 1936, beside the drying ground. Official games have moved to the main court. The old court is still in the village, as a landmark. The lane called 1936 Street is a row of old houses opened as shops.
The women who come home
In Leishan, a guma is a daughter who married out and has come back. The women sing, play the lusheng, dance, and then play basketball. A player may run while holding the ball. In 2026 the county league ran from 2 July to 9 August: 33 village teams, mostly on weekends. On 3 August a written set of rules was published. Players are grouped by age: 20–30, 31–45, and 46–60. The opening still includes festival dress and the lusheng. The point of the rules is to keep the game easy to join.
Rongjiang
Rongjiang’s football began in the summer of 2023. Butchers, barbers, and village officials play. At halftime, Miao and Dong performers come on. From 30 September to 6 October 2026, the third international tournament used the same pitch: 551 players from 36 countries and regions, 16 teams in the cup and 9 in the friendlies. At the touchline you can buy rolled rice noodles, sticky rice, and niubie (牛瘪), a sour soup of beef, offal, and the juice and bile from a cow’s stomach. Skip it if that is not for you. Across the county, 20 townships and subdistricts, with 29 villages, put on 32 themed events that week: work in the paddies, cycling, village banquets, and a night market. The football is one part of the week.
Horses, volleyball, and fishing
In Sandu, the horse races come from the Shui people’s Duan Festival. Clans hold Duan in seven rounds, and the races move from hill to hill. In 2026 the season ran from 1 October to 15 November. Women’s mounted archery was on 2 and 3 October. The opening day had long-table feasts and an evening by the river. In Libo, volleyball is played beside the karst peaks of a UNESCO site. In 2026 the county league ran from 1 January to 19 April. Other matches continue. There is no single weekend worth moving a flight for. In Luodian, fishing follows the warmer winter water, mostly on weekends. The dates change every year.
A terrace, then a corridor
In Dafang, Shexiang Ancient Town (奢香古镇) held its terrace concert on 7 and 8 August 2026. Entry was free. The seats were the banks of the flower terraces. Arrive early. The town fills, and parking goes first.
In Kaili, the Miao and Dong customs park hosts Village T. The large show on 13 June 2026 was tied to the national summer “Four Seasons Village Gala.” The regular show is Friday to Sunday, 19:00–21:30. Visitors can join those weekend walks. The covered corridor is about 50 meters. At Congjiang’s Jiabang terraces, the runway goes into the fields with the start of rice planting, in spring, not in the same week as the ball games. In Anshun’s Tunpu villages, the mountain songs belong to the third lunar month, out in the tea gardens and on the hills. Around the middle of the seventh lunar month, when the rice is in flower, the villages stage masked ground opera in the paddies and the courtyards. That follows the harvest. Nobody keeps score. It is not a fixed weekend.
The older festivals
At the Sisters’ Meal Festival, young Miao women are the hosts. At the village gate they stop you with a song, offer rice wine, hang a colored egg on you, and give you sister rice, sticky rice dyed with plants. In 2026 the county program in Taijiang ran from 30 April to 10 May. Shidong’s main days were 2 and 3 May: a drum dance, a bonfire, a market, a tug-of-war, and catching fish by hand in the paddies. The long-table feast is a separate bill. Ask the price before you sit. Shidong’s market runs on its own cycle: one market day, then five days off. Silver, embroidery, and sour fish are at the dock. You do not have to wait for the festival. During the festival, Taipan also puts on a basketball invitational.
Shidong’s dragon boats race on the Qingshui River. Each boat is hollowed from three logs, one larger and two smaller, with ox horns on the prow. The rowers stand. In 2026 the festival ran from 8 to 11 July, in Shidong and Laotun together. The boats raced from 9 to 11 July. The 8th was market day. A basketball court by the river was in use from the 8th through the 11th. After the boats, Taipan is a short drive. Elsewhere, dragon-boat crews sit and paddle. Here they stand.
Miao New Year and Dong New Year come in autumn and winter. In 2026 the prefecture’s Miao New Year holiday was 15 November. Leishan’s program ran from 1 November to 2 December, with a large parade on 12 November. The Dong New Year holiday was 9 December. In Liping, Zhaoxing adds its own days: a parade, a ritual for Sama, the village’s protective grandmother, and the pounding of rice cakes. In 2025 those village days were 20 and 21 December. Read the notice for the year you travel. Drum dances, lusheng, and water-buffalo contests stay in the villages. Two buffaloes lock horns. This is not a Spanish bullfight.
Around the game
The opening and the halftime bring the lusheng, bronze drums, festival clothes, and Dong grand song. The food is sour-fish soup, sister rice, and the long-table feast. In Rongjiang, add the noodles and the niubie. Nights add a bonfire and a market. In Kaili, the Xiulitao market (绣里淘) sells silver and embroidery beside the weekend runway.
You can join the outer ring of a drum dance, a tug-of-war, an hour of catching fish in the paddies, and the weekend Village T. The championship roster and the seats on a dragon boat belong to the village. Do not stop inside the drum circle for a photo. Do not ask to board a boat at the last minute.
When to go in a year like 2026
Chinese New Year. Mid to late February. The host village changes. A village gala, and Village T. Put it with: A weekend runway show in Kaili.
Late April to early May. 30 April–10 May. Shidong on 2–3 May. Sisters’ Meal: wine at the gate, sister rice, drums, a market. Put it with: Taipan’s basketball invitational, a long-table feast.
Mid-June, and later weekends. 13 June for the big show. Otherwise Fri–Sun, 19:00–21:30. Village T in Kaili. Put it with: Xiulitao, for silver and embroidery.
Early July. Races 9–11 July. The festival runs 8–11 July. Dugout dragon boats in Shidong and Laotun. Put it with: Basketball by the river from 8 July; market day on the 8th.
Mid to late July. New Rice around 19 July. Games through 26 July. Taipan’s own basketball, the root of Village BA. Put it with: Lusheng, buffalo contests. Fewer people than the finals.
July into August. 2 July–9 August, mostly weekends. Guma basketball in Leishan. Put it with: Xijiang, or another Miao village. Do not stay only in the county town.
Early August. 7–8 August. Terrace concert in Dafang, free. Put it with: Dinner in Shexiang Ancient Town. Arrive early.
Late September to early October. Taipan 28 Sept–5 Oct. Rongjiang 30 Sept–6 Oct. National basketball finals and the international football, same week. Put it with: One of them. Leave the other for another year.
October into November. Sandu from 1 October to 15 November. Duan Festival and horse racing. The hill changes. Put it with: Two nights. One afternoon is not enough.
November. Leishan 1 Nov–2 Dec. Parade on 12 Nov. Miao New Year. Put it with: Guma basketball, a long-table feast, lusheng.
December. Holiday on 9 Dec. Zhaoxing’s own days come in that year’s notice. Dong New Year. Put it with: Zhaoxing’s gates and drum towers.
Winter weekends. The dates move. Fishing in Luodian. Village T still runs Fri–Sun nights in Kaili. Put it with: Do not hold a week for the fishing.
Libo’s 2026 league ran from 1 January to 19 April. Other matches continue. Do not move a flight for one weekend of it. Badminton in Jinping, and the road races in southwest Guizhou, are real and hard to pin to a week. Leave them off this route.
Choose one weekend
For the loudest week of the year, take late September or early October, and choose. Taipan is the cow and the basketball. Rongjiang is the football and the Dong songs. They fall on the same days.
For the festival the basketball came from, go to Taipan in mid-July. The crowd is smaller, and the new rice is the reason for the game.
For women coming home, silver, and the lusheng on one ground, go to Leishan in summer, or to Miao New Year in November.
For the river, go to Shidong in early July. To sit and listen, go to Dafang in early August, or to any Friday night in Kaili. For horses, go to Sandu in October and stay the night. The races do not stay on one hill.
Before you go
Most of these events are free. You stand. There is no English ticket page. The lanes fill. Stay in the county you are visiting that day. Kaili is a workable base for Taipan, Shidong, and the weekend runway. It is a poor base for a night match in Rongjiang. Xijiang and the Libo scenic area charge admission. The name on the ticket must match your passport.
Rain turns the court to mud. The drums go late. Let people pass before you lift your phone.
