The village of Lang De climbs a south-facing hillside above the Bala River in tiers of wooden stilt houses — pen-and-ganlan construction in dark timber, with carved balconies and tiled roofs, packed close enough that the upper stories of one row of houses look directly onto the balconies of the next. The overall ensemble, seen from the rice terraces below, presents as a single organism — roofline behind roofline climbing the hill.
What distinguishes Lang De from more heavily visited Miao villages is the completeness of the traditional streetscape. Almost every structure in the main village is traditional timber construction; the concrete intrusions that mark most villages that have received sustained tourist attention are largely absent here. The village square and the paths between houses are stone-flagged. The welcoming ceremony — musicians with lusheng pipes, rice wine offered in curved ox-horn cups — happens when tour groups arrive, but it is peripheral to the actual village, which continues to function around it.
The best view of the village requires going below it, to the terrace level, and looking back up. The terraces are worked rice paddies, not a decorative element, and in planting and harvest seasons they add a layer of colour — bright green in spring, golden in autumn — to the dark wood of the houses above.