In the natural environment surrounded by mountains and water, the people of Gaoqian have flourished for generations in their well arranged traditional buildings, and have inherited unsophitcated and rich local customs. The local life of Gaoqian can be roughly divided into three aspects. One is the production-oriented customs and traditions, which mainly include seasonal customs and trade experiences centered on agricultural production, and the inheritance of skills and spiritual support centered on traditional handicrafts. The second is the lifestyle-centered customs and traditions, which mainly include the general lifestyle customs represented by food and festivals and the ritual customs represented by weddings and funerals. In addition, there is also the aesthetic consciousness derived from production and life, mainly including folk literature and art in the form of folklore, proverbs, songs and music. The rich and colorful vernacular life gives a vivid picture to the ancient village of Gaoqian, where houses are built with black bricks and tiles.

Gaoqian traditionally focuses on agricultural production. Farming is the most basic agricultural production, and the traditional farming skills come from experience and are passed down from father to son, continuing from generation to generation. “Rice rakes to drive away the dew” is a ritual activity in traditional agricultural production. When rice transplanting season comes, before pulling out the first seedling, people use the rice straws to drive away the dew from the seedling and then pull out the seedling, so that the hands will not be swollen. Some people also light three pieces of incense and insert them at the edge of the rice plantation field to pray for peace. The rice straws used to catch the dew are used for tying the seedlings, commonly known as “rice rakes”. In fact, there are not many people who have edema in their hands when pulling out the seedlings, which may be a sign of dew allergy. Driving away the dew can effectively reduce edema. This ritual custom, which has been handed down to this day, not only carries the prayer for health and peace, but also brings together valuable experience of production and life.

Oxen are the most important animal power in traditional agricultural production. Teaching oxen to plow the fields is also an important activity in the agricultural production process of Gaoqian. The time for teaching cattle is usually chosen before the busy season, and the suitable site is one with sand or loose soil which has little resistance. When teaching the oxen, one person holds the plow, one person holds the nose-sheath rope, and walks parallel to the oxen, guiding them along the established route. At the beginning, the plow should be shallow into the ground and not last too long, so for several days, the oxen no longer need human traction and can move forward on their own. In this case, the oxen have learned how to plow. The oxen that have been taught must be put into service as soon as possible, otherwise they may forget.

Although the traditional agricultural business is mainly self-sufficient, there is still a certain demand for trade. The trading activities of farmers' markets are an important part of agricultural production and operation. The business scope of farmers' markets includes firewood, rice, oil, salt, vegetables, livestock and other direct agricultural products, but also includes straw shoes, coarse cloth and other handmade manufactured goods, sorted into stalls to facilitate shopping. The management of the traditional farmers' market is mainly undertaken by the agency, which is an intermediary organization of commodity trade, and the practitioners are called “middlemen”. Traditionally, they were considered to be an unkind occupation that made profits at both ends, and therefore were the ones to watch out for during the trade.

With its pleasant climate and rich production, Gaoqian has developed a rich variety of handicraft skills in addition to traditional agriculture. Lanterns, dragons, wood carvings, stone carvings, dough modelling and other handicrafts not only decorate and embellish the rural life of the people of Gaoqian, but also bring together the traditional skills, aesthetic orientation and moral values of the people of Gaoqian. The dragon is made by mounting the dragon's head, body and tail on wooden boards, which are perforated at both ends and connected by wooden pegs, and supported by wooden rods in the middle of the boards, so that they can be easily held by the dragon dancers. The number of boards determines the length of the dragon body, which can be up to 300 sections and at least 100 sections. The craft features of the dragon are concentrated in the production of the dragon's head and body. Similar to the board dragon, there is also a scrolling dragon made of bamboo pieces. The scale of the scrolling dragon is usually small, consisting of 1 section of the dragon's head, 19 sections of the dragon's body and 10 sections of the dragon's tail. The board dragon and the scrolling dragon are mainly used for the dragon dance, which is a festive event in the first month of the year. The dragon dance starts at the Lantern Festival and ends on the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar. It is a collective activity that connects people within the local community and conveys the desire for a peaceful and prosperous new year.

Dietary habits are the most persistent and fundamental part of Gaoqian's local life. The food of Gaoqian has the characteristics of both the north and the south, having both rice porridge and steamed buns. Because the daily diet is mainly congee paste with soup, Gaoqian people do not have the habit of drinking tea on a daily basis, but they will make fried tea with cinnamon as a flavorful drink. There are specific foods for specific festivals, which contain certain folklore and cultural symbolism, and are also related to the climatic characteristics of different seasons. For example, for the Spring Festival, cinnamon, eggs, carrots and other raw materials with white sugar and brown sugar are mixed to make “rich tea”, entertaining guests, expressing blessings. For Qingming festival，people have milfoil dumplings, which are made by picking the milfoil grass in spring. At the Dragon Boat Festival, people drink Xiong Huang wine (realgar wine) to enhance immunity.

The more ritualistic festivals gather between the winter solstice and the Lantern Festival of the following year, starting from the ancestor worship on the day of winter solstice and ending on February 2 of the lunar calendar of the following year, with a series of Spring Festival activities. This is the off-season for agricultural production, and people have more time and energy to devote to festive activities, making elaborate and sumptuous festival foods and props, participating in ceremonies held at specific times and places, etc. The main festivals in spring, summer and fall, however, require less dedicated time for celebration, with the exception of the Qingming ancestral rituals.

The rituals centered on marriage and childbirth, and the many taboos derived from them, are also an important part of Gaoqian's vernacular life. The formal marriage procedure includes marriage proposal, betrothal, bride-price, delivery notice of the wedding, carrying the dowry, picking up the bride, getting on the palanquin, bride crying, getting off the palanquin, performing the formal wedding ceremony, the bridal chamber, and returning to the parents’ home, etc., showing the grandeur with complexity. The marriage relationship derived from parents' childlessness, early death of husband, etc. is called to take in a son-in-law and take in a second one. For those who cannot get married due to economic difficulties or give birth to children normally, they realize marriage and raise offspring by means of pawning wife, taking each other’s daughter as daughter-in-law and child bride, which are the adaptations of the lower class people struggling for survival under specific economic conditions and have died out one after another after the 1930s. There is a wide variety of taboos in the Gaoqian tradition, including those for women during pregnancy and daily life, most of which are based on sympathetic witchcraft-type perceptions and have no basis. For example, pregnant woman cannot eat catfish during pregnancy, otherwise the child will be too slippery to hold; pregnant woman cannot go to the Buddhist temple, otherwise the child’s face will be like Buddha's; do not quarrel with people during the erection of the house, so that everything can go smoothly, and so on. Most of them no longer exist with the popularization of scientific knowledge. The few taboos of life that conform to the laws of science, on the other hand, still continue.

The experiences and habits of the local life are concentrated in folk literature and art. For example, the children's song “What to do to get up at five o'clock in the morning? To open the door. What do you do when the door is open? To pluck the rice straws. When the rice straws are plucked, what do you do? Make straw shoes. ......What do you do when the green dumplings are made? Send them to grandma. Where is Grandma? In the sky.” It is a natural blend of vivid portrayal of local life and remembrance of the ancestors, with a rhythm like that of “the Book of Songs -Binfeng -July”.