The village of Zhenshan is mainly inhabited by the members of the Buyi ethic group. It has convenient transportation and is 21 km from the city of Guiyang, 11 km from Huaxi, and only four km from the Huaxi Dam. It, covers a 3.8-sq-km area on a peninsula that just out into the Huaxi Reservoir, so it is surrounded by water on three sides. It was built during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, (AD 1573-1620) and has a history of more than 400 years. It contains 105 households of members of the Buyi ethnic group, 38 of the Miao ethnic group, and one household of Han people. The Li and Ban families are the largest in the village. These days, only elderly villagers speak the Buyi dialect, with most speaking mandarin, since the village is close to the Guiyang suburb area.

The dwellings in the villages are in two categories: those alongside walls and those alongside rivers. The former are mainly in the "sanheyuan" style, made of wood, with walls, roof and courtyard of slabs of stone. The latter have a row of stairs, no yard, and partitions. The structure is wooden. The main road in the village leads to a port and every household via valleys.