Tianlong Tupu

"Tunpu" are stone-structured villages dating back to the 14th century which are found in Guizhou Province. The ancestors of the inhabitants of the "Tunpu" were troops of the Ming Dynasty from the middle and lower reaches of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River who were sent to Anshun more than 600 years ago. The garrison forces turned the neighbourhood into farmland, grew crops, and constructed villages of stone houses for their own need and use.

TianLong Tunpu is one of such stone villages located in Guizhou's Pingba County near Anshun. It occupies a strategic position, guarding what was once an important passage to Yunnan Province. Today, over 5000 people in 1,300 households, descendents of the imperial Ming Dynasty garrison troops, continue to live in TianLong Tunpu, maintaining their traditional customs and way of life from the Ming Dynasty, in a kind of "lost world" environment. Because they wear traditional costumes (usually long robes of blue with loose sleeves, and cuffs embroidered with laces for the womenfolk), you may easily mistake them for ethnic minority people, but in fact they are Han Chinese.