The Miao New Year (苗年) is the single biggest festival of the Miao calendar, and Leishan County in Guizhou is where it is celebrated at full scale. The 2026 edition runs from November 1 to December 2, and its centrepiece — the opening ceremony together with a 10,000-person intangible-heritage parade — takes place on Thursday, November 12.
The dates that matter
Nov 1 – Dec 2, 2026: the full festival window, with cultural, sports and tourism events across the county.
Nov 10 – 12: the heritage stage programme runs three days — Nov 10 is the dress rehearsal, Nov 11 the preview, and Nov 12 the main and most elaborate day.
Nov 12: opening ceremony plus the 10,000-person costume parade — the one day you should plan around.
Nov 11 and 12: the 10,000-seat long-table banquet (万人长桌宴) in Leishan county town.
What is new in 2026
Organisers describe this year in four characters — 高、新、技、数 (higher status, new content, live heritage craft, more shows). In plain terms:
Higher status. The ceremony has been upgraded from a county-level event to the winter showcase of the national “Four Seasons Village Gala” (四季村晚) programme.
New content. For the first time the parade formations are arranged around the four classic Miao song genres — children's songs, ancient songs, flying songs and love songs — instead of the usual silver-costume themes. A 1,000-person “high-mountain flowing water” toasting ceremony also debuts this year.
Living heritage. Fifteen of Leishan's national-level intangible-heritage items — silver forging, Miao embroidery, lusheng making among them — are woven into the performances rather than displayed behind glass.
More shows. The stage programme expands from one day to three (Nov 10 – 12), so more people can actually get a seat.
What you can do there
Eat at the 10,000-person long-table banquet. Nov 11 and 12, tables run down the streets of the county town: sour soup fish, fish-pickle sour, Miao cured pork, and rice wine poured to the sound of flying songs.
Spend the New Year inside a Miao village. New this year: an entire village can be booked out for your group — kill the New Year pig, pound glutinous rice cakes, prepare festival food, visit relatives alongside local families.
Wander the new folk-market zone. Miao costume photo studios, the “high-mountain flowing water” toasting experience, and local produce and food stalls at the main venue.
Try Miao medicine. A dedicated zone with local Miao practitioners offering consultations, medicinal-diet explanations and hands-on herbal experiences.
Go to Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village. For 2026 it has reworked its visitor routes into two lines — “Scenic Trail” and “Ancient Path” — linking the Dreamy Starry Sky Camp, the live Yang Ousang show and the Thousand-Household Miao Banquet.
Take home the “Miao New Year gift box”. Yin Qiu tea, fish-pickle sour, Miao rice wine and Miao embroidery products, packaged together.
About the Miao New Year
Miao New Year is the most important festival of the Miao year — a celebration of the harvest, an offering to ancestors and a thanksgiving to heaven and earth. It is recognised as national-level intangible cultural heritage in Leishan. Leishan welcomed more than 12 million visitors in the year to date, up over 11% year on year, and tourism is now the county's core industry.
Getting to Leishan
Leishan County sits in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou. Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village — the largest Miao settlement in the world — is 12 km from the county seat and home to 1,468 households and more than 6,000 people, 99.5% of them Miao.
By air: Guiyang Longdongbao International Airport (KWE) is the main gateway, about 190 km from Xijiang — roughly 2.5 hours by road.
By high-speed rail: Kaili South station is the nearest HSR stop, about 40–48 km from Xijiang, roughly an hour's drive.
Because the festival draws very large crowds, arrange your transfer in advance rather than counting on local taxis.
New to rail travel in China? Our China train guide for foreign travelers covers tickets and station procedure, and this guide to booking domestic flights and trains on a foreign passport explains what to bring. November is late autumn in Guizhou — see our complete autumn travel guide for what to pack and where the colour is.
Booking
Seats for the opening ceremony and the long-table banquet are limited and released through the Zhiyou Leishan (智游雷山) WeChat mini-program, which also handles homestay bookings and tour packages. Hotline: 0855-3337960. Prices and times can change at short notice, so confirm before you travel.
Want this built into a trip? We plan private itineraries across China from our bases in eleven cities — tell us what you want to see and we will put it together, or get in touch first if you just have questions.
Sources
2026 Leishan Miao New Year events announced (Oct 16, 2026) — CNR (in Chinese)
Leishan Miao New Year product launch, Guiyang, Oct 15, 2026 — Guizhou Network Radio & TV Station (in Chinese)
Leishan County People's Government — official site
Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village — official site (village facts)
Guizhou Provincial Sports Bureau — official distances to airport and rail stations
