Bama of Guangxi, China — Villagers in a remote part of southern China claim to have discovered the secret of long life: rice wine, snake wine, and cannabis soup. In fact, most of the villagers are long lived. The old Chinese saying that people rarely live beyond 70 is becoming outdated as an increased number of Chinese are now living longer and healthier lives. Data from the nation's fourth census in 1990 revealed that there were 69 centenarians in the Bama County, 30.8 per 100,000 populations.
Bama County is so cut off by the hills that surround it that the motor car has yet to penetrate. It has a population of just over 300,000, yet it has 73 centenarians, one of the highest ratios in the world. Scores more nonagenarians display the carefree air of people who know their time is not yet up, while octogenarians toil under the Chinese burden of deferring to their elders. In 1991, the county was ranked among the world's top five countries renown for their long-lived people. The Bama County of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China set up a Longevity tour program which has attracted a number of people to their villages, where they can sample the local food and discuss the secrets of their longevity with centenarians.
Because of most of Bama people being long lived, many researchers come to this palace for studying their longevity secretes.
