Girls dressed in Miao costumes offer us homemade rice wine to welcome us. [Photo:CRIENGLISH.com/Duan Xuelian]

To outsiders like us, the skill is incomprehensible, just like the lyrics of the Miao ethnic songs and dances that they perform for tourists. A large number of young people in the village are working as performers under a local tourism company. Long Faqiu's son is one of them.

Long Faqiu, a local villager, serves homemade Miao cuisines to tourists. Although he mainly works on his farmland, he is receiving more and more benefit from the emerging tourism in Miao People's Valley. His annual income has doubled from years before the village was opened to travelers.

On asking about whether he would go to live in big cities when he earned enough money, the middle aged man answered honestly that he wouldn't. What has drawn those city people here is something that you can't buy with money, as Long explained.

Indeed, the pristine lifestyles of Miao people here is admired by travelers and their loyalty to tradition is something city dwellers do not possess.

My wish upon leaving the village is not that I could stay longer, but that our visit, or any other tourist's visit in the future, does not taint the originality of Miao People's Valley and its residents.