Where drum towers set life's tempo

The largely inaccessible region in China was praised as "authentic Chinese hill tribes without mass tourism - yet".

Yang's village hasn't received many foreigners.

Yet.

"Once, a blond, blue-eyed foreigner, who couldn't use chopsticks, ate at our restaurant," she recalls.

"I gave him a plastic fork from an instant noodle package because we don't have knives and forks."

Many of her customers are headed toward the Fanjing Mountains' UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, 3 kilometers away.

The range is the only habitat of the rare Guizhou snub-nosed monkey and a place of Buddhist pilgrimage.

Local temples host special blessing ceremonies during Spring Festival.

More efforts should be made to take full advantage of the unique local cultural and scenic resources to better develop the tourism industry, says Xia Qingfeng, Party chief of Tongren city.

Seasonal rituals illustrate that, while those who came before should be venerated, people living today need all the luck they can get.

It's a philosophy that marches to the beat of the drum tower.