Visit the Nu people, and you will find a warm, friendly people. Most of them live in homes which are either plank-houses or bamboo-slip houses. The downstairs is used only for storage of goods and animals, and the top floor is used for living. Divided into 2 rooms, one room is the bedroom, and the other is used for cooking and entertaining guests. Because the floors are often made of numerous planks or pieces of bamboo, their homes are literally called "house propped on the ground by thousands of legs."

Most Nu people practice animism, worshipping the sun, moon, mountains, rivers, trees and rocks. Traditionally, each clan had a shaman, who communicated with the spirits on the behalf of the people. The shamans also kept and passed down the people's folklore. Whenever something bad happened, no matter how small, the shaman would host an extravagant ceremony to appease the gods and spirits. This ceremony usually brought much hardship to the Nu people.

Their language has no written form, and like some other ethnic groups, they used to keep records by carving notches in sticks. Today, most educated Nu use Mandarin Chinese for official purposes.