China has a lot of minority ethnic groups and one of the largest is the Zhuang people of Guangxi province. As long as there is no overt political challenge to the CCP, China is happy to allow a thousand ethnic flowers bloom, so to speak. So the Zhuang have many villages in which traditional cultural practices co-exist with modernity. The Zhuang are famous in China for the mass production of an elaborate brass drum, thousands of which have been unearthed all over China.

Xiaoyu and I visited a few Zhuang cultural sites, one of which featured a beautiful example of a Wind and Rain Bridge. The bridge served as a meeting place (and had many other functions to boot)and is one of the most gorgeous structures I have every seen. Xiaoyu took this shot of a section of the bridge. Note the prominent New Years Lanterns.