China Guide
Guangxi and Guizhou
Kaili
KAILI, 170km east from Guiyang, is a moderately industrialized, easy-going focus for China's 7.5 million Miao people, though the town is more a service centre than a sight in its own right. The most interesting market area is along the eastern end of Ximen Jie, a narrow street packed with village-like stalls selling vegetables, trinkets, meat and even livestock. Paths head up from here to Dage Park, a tiny hilltop area where old men gather to smoke and decorate the trees with their caged songbirds – there's also a wooden pagoda on the summit, home to a mix of incense-blackened Taoist statuary smeared with bloody chicken feathers. The town's only other diversion is the museum (¥10) at the far end of Zhaoshan Lu, two dusty floors of bright festival garments and silver jewellery, with more of the same on sale in the downstairs atrium.
Practicalities
Kaili's bus station on Wenhua Bei Lu handles departures through the day to Guiyang (¥55), with frequent services as far as Liping, Rongjiang, Jianhe, Leishan and Taijiang, and fewer to Xijiang, Shidong, Shibing, Zhenyuan and Congjiang. You can also catch minibuses to Guiyang from the depot about 500m west of Dashizi on Shifu Lu. The train station is 3km to the north, where taxis and buses #1 and #2 meet arrivals, Trains run at intervals through the day to Guiyang (bus is quicker), and northeast to Zhenyuan, Yuping (for Fanjing Shan), and into Hunan.
The cheapest foreigner-friendly accommodation is near the bus station on Yingpan Lu, where the under-maintained Petroleum Hotel ( 
0855/8234331; Price: ¥80-139, dorm beds ¥40) has some doubles with air conditioning and bathroom. Otherwise your options are mid-range and include the Yingpanpo Binguan ( 0855/3833333, 
3837776; Price: ¥200-299); Lidu Jiari Jiudian ( 0855/8266662, 8266663; Price: ¥200-299), a well-maintained business hotel offering discounts on Beijing Lu; and the slightly worn Xin Guotai Dajiudian ( 0855/8269888; Price: ¥200-299), also on Beijing Lu.