In 2007, when China's renowned essayist Yu Qiuyu visited a Dong ethnic village in southwestern Guizhou province, he described it as a village of several hundred households harbored by a small basin nestled among lush mountains.

"The village's houses are all dark brown stilt houses, shrouded in a mist of gray-white fog and cooking smoke. Rising above this scene are five elegant drum towers, whose open ground floors are crowded with villagers and passersby, because on the bridge beside the drum towers, other villagers are singing, accompanied by lusheng (a traditional reed instrument)," he wrote.

Located in Liping county of the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, Zhaoxing Dong village, built during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), is one of the largest Dong villages in China with over 1,000 households.

It preserves the cultural heritage of the Dong ethnic group, such as the grand song, a form of a folk chorus, and wooden drum towers that embody the architectural skills of the Dong people.

When Yu visited the village in the early 21st century, Liping county was still poverty stricken.

"At that time, tourism was just beginning in Zhaoxing, a very peaceful and quaint place that many European backpackers longed for," said Tang Dacai, head of the bureau of culture, sports, radio, television and tourism of Liping county.

Tang said that back then, Zhaoxing had neither highways nor high-speed rail. It took tourists one day to travel from the capital city Guiyang to Kaili city, in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, then another day from Kaili to the village.

"The journey, only accessible by bus, was quite bumpy," he said.