Founded as a garrison town in the 13th century, Anshun grew into a prosperous trading post, mainly because of its strategic position along the overland trade routes between central and southwestern China. Today’s city survives on tourism, subsistence farming, and its traditional batik industry, which capitalizes on the highly-developed textile skills of the local Bouyi minority. The Bouyi number around 3 million and live throughout western Guizhou Province. A writing system for the Bouyi language was devised in the 1950s and is used to record their rich folk literature.

Surrounded by karst hills, Anshun has one of Guizhou’s most scenic landscapes, despite the frequent gusts of coal dust from nearby mines. It also has numerous bustling street markets, and offers easy access to several of the surrounding traditional villages. The busy town center lies at the intersection of Nanhua Lu and Tashan Lu. The Bai Ta (White Pagoda), one of Anshun’s two surviving Ming structures, overlooks the center from Xixiu Hill. The other, Wen Miao, is a Confucian temple and lies in the town’s northeastern backstreets. The 600-year-old temple was once embellished with superb stone carvings. Today, what survives are its front pillars covered in beautiful spiraling dragons and considered to be the finest in the country.

The area around the city center bustles with rural commerce. Rows and rows of shops selling beautiful batik products, including wall hangings and colorful banners, are displayed outside the Batik Factory on Nanhua Lu.

Environs: Lying about 15 km east of Anshun, Yunshan is a fortified village, founded by Ming-dynasty troops. It contains a scattering of old structures, including the elegant Qiyan Qiao, a seven arch bridge. Tiantai Mountain, 25 km northeast of town, is a 400-m hill with a cluster of thickly forested crags, whose summit is crowned by a Buddhist temple dating from 1616. Another 25 km southwest of Anshun, Zhenning County has a concentration of traditional Bouyi villages. The houses are built of skill fully laid dry stone walls, with roofs tiled in hand-cut slates, overlapping like fish scales. The village of Shishao, built almost entirely in stone, is known for its Ground Opera, a regional variation of traditional Han opera, brought here by soldiers from Nanjing during the Ming era.