Shanghaied Bob: Longji Rice Terraces part 1

The Longji Rice Terraces is the most beautiful place we have been to in China. Located 2 hours drive north of Guilin in a vast forest mountainous area. Built over 700 years ago by the Zhuang and Yao minorities who larboard for several hundred years to create terraced rice fields that run up and down the mountainside. Small villages are scattered in the high valleys where the folks work 100 days out of the year to grow rice for their own consumption. To my surprise none of it is sold outside the area.

Longji means 'Dragon Backed Mountain", when the fields are flooded with water in the spring it is said that the terraces resembles the scales on the back of a dragon. In early spring the rice fields are prepped, then flooded by the natural springs at the tops of the mountains and then the rice is individual planted. We arrived just after the planting. The fields will be flooded for most of the summer and then drained. As the rice dries, the terraces turn an amazing yellow and then harvested in the fall.

We arrived late in the afternoon at the parking lot below Ping'an the first and largest (700 people) of the three villages we were going to visit. There is no car/truck access to these villages. From the parking lot we had a 30 minute walk to our hotel which was in the center of the village. Everything in the village are either brought in and out by foot, by the Zhuang minority who live in this village or by small horses, everything! To help earn money the villagers transport your luggage to your hotel. They carry several pieces of luggage in a woven basket much like a back pack. We walked along a stone path along the hillside and then entered the village where we wound our way up and around the unique homes nested in the hillside. We twisted and turned on narrow stone paths as we ascended our way up through the village. Besides the wonderful panorama views of the rice terraces we also got a good glimpse of the rural life and the architecture style of the minorities people found in these forest-fringed villages. We had a wonderful dinner on the deck of this restaurant in the middle of the village with a wonderful view of the rice terraces and the valley below.

The next morning we meet our guide and started our walk. Our backpacks where taken down to the parking lot where they were transferred to the next hotel in Dazhai where we were staying that night. We went on a 1-1/2 hour walk around Ping'an to two different viewpoints with spectacular views of the town and the surrounding terraces.