The Sleeping Dragon waterfall is Huaxi Park's largest.
As far as Southwestern China's provincial capitals go, Yunnan's Kunming and Sichuan's Chengdu often eclipse Guiyang as a travel destination.
However, the Guizhou capital's unsung allure greatly resembles that of its two well-trodden western neighbors - majestic scenery, dramatic topography and fascinating ethnic minority customs.
Last year, more than 23 million domestic tourists, but only 120,000 overseas travelers, visited the city. It's hardly surprising then that it's possible to go the better part of a week without spotting a single foreign face.
In 2006, the Chinese Meteorological Society bestowed upon Guiyang the title of "China's No 1 Summer Resort" and a good starting point for understanding why is the Huaxi Scenic Area.
Located only 12 km outside downtown Guiyang, the 350-sq-km scenic area is a postcard-perfect sprawl of gardens that bloom year round, cavernous grottos and lakes fed by gushing waterfalls.
The most impressive cascade is the Sleeping Dragon, which, at 10-m-tall and 40-m-wide, has the honor of being China's largest calcified shoal chute. Visitors can cross the top of the fall on the 100 Step Bridge - a row of spaced out stepping-stones that trace the cascade's top ridge.
Arguably, the best view of the park can be had from its 400-m-long zip line. However, it's a short-lived pleasure, as the panoramic vista whooshes past at breakneck speed.
The park's network of waterfalls and pools eventually empties into the Tianhe Pool, which then feeds the Kongling River. This watercourse gushes under a natural bridge spanning two mountaintops, and then pours into the Shuanlong Cave, which can only be accessed by boat. Visitors can take a watercraft 1.4 km along the underground river.
Those looking for a spelunking experience that's a little less River Styx can explore Stalactite Cave, which is stocked with some of the odder stone formations geological forces can sire.
While Guizhou is known for its breathtaking landscapes, the people who inhabit them are what make the province truly wondrous.
Currently, 39 percent of the population hails from 49 of China's ethnic minorities. While several ethnic group villages constellate the city's periphery - the inhabitants of which love guests - it's helpful to first visit the Guizhou Ethnical Cultural Museum to become acquainted with local customs.
The 300 items on display here comprise the world's largest collection devoted to local minorities.
Most of the embroideries, statues and tools come from the Miao people, 49 percent of whom now live in Guizhou after millennia of migration.
The Miao is known for its ornate silver jewelry - used in ancient times to test the toxicity of questionable foodstuffs.
Miao are also acclaimed for tailoring elaborate and colorful clothing. A ceremonial outfit could take up to four years to complete but is seen as an investment in appeasing the gods. Miao deities' adoration of the colorful totems are believed to inspire them to heap blessings upon the wearers.
These totems are also a source of mystery, because Han people have also used many of the images at certain points in history.
Depictions of the ferocious mythical beast Taotie, Fuxi and Nuwa - Adam and Eve's Chinese contemporaries - and the Taoist yin and yang symbols suggest the Han and Miao peoples shared a common lineage or made contact earlier than believed.
Many travelers questing to experience ethnic minority culture firsthand start with Kaiyang county, which is mostly populated by the Bouyei.
From downtown Guiyang, it's a bone-juddering, 40-km ride on roads that snake among terraced mountains.
A narrow mountainside roadway coils up a particularly sheer mountain to Matou village, a 1,100-year-old Bouyei ethnic minority settlement founded in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). Matou is famed for a three-year uprising against Mongolian rulers and soldiers during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) in 1301.
Visitors here can see the traditional two-story houses in which people live upstairs and the first story accommodated livestock.
On the other side of the mountain is a viewing platform for the Jade Dragon Golden Basin, so named because it's gilded with yellow flowers in springtime and golden rice paddies in autumn.
This year, local farmers decided to celebrate the Beijing Games by sowing different colored crops in the shape of the Olympic rings, creating an emblem that is 45 m by 55 m.
About 10 minutes' drive from Matou is Shuitou village. The mostly Bouyei inhabitants of Shuitou are more accustomed to hosting guests than those from Matou. This means visitors can expect to be greeted by a delegation of singing women clad in ceremonial garb, bent on pouring several cups of rice wine down guests' throats.
The wine is a special local alcohol called Biangdang, so named for the sound you make when you fall down after drinking it.
Cups are served in pairs as per local custom. Drinking two represents "two legs, one of which drags behind you". Downing four means you will become wealthy within four seasons.
Guzzling six means "everything will be alright", while those who imbibe eight will become rich. Ten ensures good luck, and tipping back 12 means "your life will have a good ending".
Those still standing must then take on the gauntlet of the bamboo dance. This requires dashing across a series of parallel bamboo poles held a few centimeters above the ground by locals who rhythmically clack them together. The object is to make it from one side to the other without getting your leg pinched.
At the village's Sisters-in-Law Tofu Shop, visitors can use a gristmill to grind soybeans and then sample the eatery's doufu nao (brain tofu) - a runny bean curd dish seasoned with wild vegetables and spicy pepper sauce.
Local residents have for 1,000 years harnessed the hydropower of the Qinglong River to drive watermills, several of which still operate, although mostly for tourists.
Travelers looking to take a walk on the wild side can visit Guizhou Forest Wildlife Park. The 2,001-hectare park, 95 percent of which is forested, provides spacious accommodation for 5,000 creatures. It is home to 96 species, including 39 under Level 1 State Protection.
The park also features an elephant show, in which five of them perform tricks for audiences. These gentle giants dance, do handstands on the balancing beams and ride tricycles for cheering crowds.
The show crescendos when one lucky - or perhaps unlucky - crowd member plays goalie against the colossal creatures in a football match.
