Zhaoxing is the largest Dong village in China, famous for its five drum towers — one per clan — and its wind-and-rain bridges, all built in timber without a single nail. Rice terraces climb the hills on every side, indigo cloth dries along the river, and the Dong Grand Song, a UNESCO-listed polyphonic choir tradition, is still sung here.
Compared with Xijiang it is smaller, flatter and noticeably calmer — the tour groups come, but the village absorbs them. Watch the grandmothers pounding indigo dye by the stream, climb to the Sage Eye viewpoint through the terraces for sunset, and catch the Grand Song performance under the main drum tower after dark.