Dragons backbone Rice Terraces

  Longsheng, China
Friday, June 16, 2006

From Guilin it was a two hour bus ride to a small town called Longsheng. This is not a tourist town, there is no reason to come here other than using it as an access point to the rice terraces. It has a population of about 170,000. The city is a colourful mixture of Dong, Zhuang, Yao and Miao ethnic groups. There are not a lot of choices for accommodation and certainly not much in the way of places to eat.

We stayed at a hotel we found for 200 yuan a night. This was pricey for a town like this, but we couldn't seem to find anything else. There was little to no English spoken here, so getting help was out of the question. We couldn't seem to find the places recommended in the Lonely Planet. We think we may have found one, but it was a complete dive. Our room was on the 4th floor of our hotel. They had done a renovation, but it was like they updated from the 60's to maybe an early 80's style. It was a huge suite and with a good view of the busy streets of town below. The outer wall of the room was curved and had 6 large windows.

We set out to try and find something to eat. We really tried to have an open mind here while seeking food options, but there was nothing for us. We could not find anything that came close to what we would call a restaurant. All we saw was small hole in the wall places with a few plastic chairs and tables that had bubbling pots of soup with meat and unidentifiable stuff on sticks. There was something that resembled a restaurant back at our hotel so we went back as it was our only option.

The restaurant was a strange set up. It was a big open floor area, kind of dingy looking. It was cram packed with big round wooden tables and chairs. They were so close together you could barely walk around the room. Off of this room were many small private dining rooms. It was about 6pm and we were the only ones there. We looked over the menu, there was not a lot of options. Everything had meat in it. We were going to have to try and get creative with our order. This was going to be difficult considering no one spoke any English. We pulled out our survival Chinese pocket book. We pointed to fried rice with vegetables and then to mixed fried vegetables. The waitress nodded and seemed to understand. Then we had to get up to the nearby cooler and point out our drinks.

The rice showed up and was fine, it had egg in it, which we eat so that was okay. It didn't have any vegetables, oh well. The plate of mixed vegetables was interesting. It was green leafy stuff with stems, sort of resembling spinach. That's all we got on the plate, no other vegetables. It was in some kind of watery and oily like liquid and had been cooked to death. We're pretty sure the rice had MSG or something in it, as we both talked about intense and vivid dreams the next morning.

The night proved to be an event. There was a storm in the distance, we could see the flashes of lightening. It wasn't too long before the power went out. Unfortunately with it also goes the air conditioning. It was quite warm for sleeping. The power ended up going off and on many times in the night. The air conditioning will not automatically come back on, so we would have to get up and turn it on each time. We had no way of knowing when the power was back on so we left a light on. The whole night ended up being repeat episodes of getting all sweaty, passing out, waking up to the light coming on, getting up and turning the air con back on, and repeat.

At about 6am we got another rude awakening. Some idiot was out driving in the streets below with a mega phone yapping at full volume about who knows what. They went around the block several times. At first we thought there was some kind of emergency and they were going around yelling at everyone to evacuate. After all at home this is the only viable reason we could see someone coming around with a mega phone at this awful time of the morning!

We decided we would only stay one night here. Basically go see the rice terraces and head straight back to Guilin. Otherwise we would starve! Even the poor food choices of Guilin were looking good by this time. In the morning we decided it would be much too difficult to ask if we could store our bags at the hotel while we went to the rice terraces. Taking them with us was not an option either. Our solution was to just pay for another night for the room. The bags would be safe that way. Another 200 yuan was not a lot for piece of mind that our stuff would be there when we got back.

The river going through Longshen, and scenery on the way to the rice terraces


At 7am we went back to the bus station to catch a local bus out to the rice terraces. It was about an hour bus ride to the town of Ping'an and cost us $1 Canadian. It was pretty funny and typical when the bus left the station. It stopped not even 50 meters down the road. We sat there for about 10 minutes while people sauntered over and boarded the bus. Several times people came and threw a bag or a box on and handed a few yuan to the ticket lady on board.

A big styrofoam box with the lid taped down and a large sack were two items placed up in front of us. We looked at them with curiosity. The rest of the trip we referred to them as the mystery box and bag. Finally we were moving again. The bus only made a few other stops along the way to let some people off. About half way through the trip Jack pointed out that steam was coming from the styrofoam container. Of course our imaginations were running wild about what was in it. A while after this the top of the sack started to make movements as if something was kicking inside. We think it may have been a chicken. Why it was still for most of the trip and just started to move now, we don't know.

The bus started to climb as we got closer to Ping'an. There were lots of switchback curves. The bus stops at a parking area and then there is a long hike up ahead to get to the terraces. Ping'an is an 600 year old village. It is a Zhoung minority village. The rice terraces are positioned on peaks as high as 1100 meters.

This area is also referred to as the Dragon backbone rice terraces. Each season produces different looks to the terraces. All of them give unique photo opportunities, whether the terraces are filled with water, covered in snow or green with crops. The climb up was long and strenuous on sets of random sized stone steps. We arrived at the first set of terraces and we were immediately impressed. The far distance views were covered in mist and fog at this time, but the views were still stunning nonetheless.

There are two main viewing areas for these sets of rice terraces. You can also walk to the next village of Longji. You could see the village in the distance. We started to make our way to Longji on the skinny trail carved in the side of the steep slope, but soon gave up the expedition. The trail was really muddy and very hard to cross in many places. Plus we kept having to cling into the cliff side to let people go past with large baskets on their backs. Then it got worse, men with their cows would come to pass by us. Of course these people made walking the trail look so easy.

We made our way to view spot number 2. By this time the mist was clearing making the views magnificent. The terraces are literally works of art. Workers dotted the terraces in some spots, while other times we saw a man coax his cow to pull a metal tiller through the soil. Our guide book said the trails to the various viewing spots were well marked. We did not find this the case. Several times we were not sure if we were going the right way. We had also heard stories of other travelers losing their way in the terraces. When they asked for directions to get back to the village they would get pointed to go uphill from one person and then downhill from another.

Along the trails we got to pass through areas with small groups of dwellings. Some of them had been turned into restaurants and guest houses. There were old men sitting on porches smoking pipes and little old ladies carrying baskets along the paths. We came across a crying kitten outside of a house. It couldn't have been more than few weeks old. It was kind of muddy and just sitting on a sloped area. The mom was no where in site. We went inside and found a young girl. We motioned for her to come out and follow us. We pointed the kitten to her. She could understand a little bit of English. We asked if the mom was nearby and if she would come back for it. She said maybe and we realized that was about as far as the conversation would go. She picked it up, took a look at it and put it back down. It's hard for us to accept that the kitten will just be left to die if the mom doesn't come back.

The village of Ping'an and a young girl in traditional costume.


We came across another area for viewing. There were a set of terraces as well a large group of buildings nestled into the hillsides. This area had a lot of Chinese tourists that had come in buses. We were the only foreigners here and ended up being more of an attraction then the terraces! One man approached Jack. He wanted Jack to pose with his wife for a photograph. Jack said no and then the man said oh, sorry and seemed to now realize how weird of a request it was. Again Jack came to my rescue and while I snapped photos of the great view, he shielded my with the umbrella to stop the numerous people trying to photograph me.



One of the attractions of this area are the Yao women. They have hair that goes down to the ground. They wear it twisted and tied up with a cloth in a shape like a basin. They have turned their hair into a profitable business. They know people like to take pictures of it and will collect a fee for doing so. For a couple of yuan they will unwind their hair for you as you snap photos. You get to see it hang down to the ground and then watch the procedure of it getting wound back up and tied with a cloth. They have some of the longest recorded hair in the world.





We came across one of these ladies while making our way along the trail from view point 2 to viewpoint 1. We agreed to pay her for some photos. Soon after another lady joined her. They continued to follow us along the trail. We motioned for them to go past us and carry on, but they insisted on staying with us. They kept saying number 1, number 1, over and over. This was the view point they were talking about. We continued along the trail and stopped many times to take photos of the terraces. The views just kept getting more impressive as we made our way along.





It started to rain quite badly. We put on our ponchos and used our umbrella to shield the camera from getting wet. We finally made it to the top of the mountain we had been seeing in the distance for quite sometime. This was viewpoint number 1. We figured out what the ladies wanted from us. Their village was down over this mountain. They motioned to come with them to get something to eat. We did not have enough time to keep going. By this time we would have to move fast to get back and catch one of the last buses to Longsheng. The ladies were really upset when we started to walk away from them. They kept calling out to us to come to their village.





We made our way back to the bus with just minutes to spare. The ride was uneventful on the way back. No mystery boxes appeared this time. When we got back to our hotel we quickly gathered up our bags from the room and went to the front desk to check out. It was a little confusing for the girls, considering we had payed to stay the night and were now leaving at 4pm. We didn't expect any money back, but after very puzzled looks, chatting to each other and then looking at the clock, they gave us 50 yuan back. So we basically paid 150 yuan ( about $20 Canadian) for storage of our bags. Jack had noticed the last place we stayed at in Guilin had a charge of $5 per bag. Since we had 4 bags we were at the same price.

We got the 4:30 bus back to Guilin. We were not going to go back to the same place we had all the problems with last time. We checked into the Golden Elephant. It was an okay place, the staff spoke a bit of English. Our room was large and bright. It has a bit of a view over one of the rivers that runs through the town.

We had no time to waste as we wanted to be on a plane to Kunming the next day. We started to check out travel agencies. The main CITS agency recommended in the Lonely Planet was quoting us a price of over 100 yuan more than what we knew the tickets should be. We kept wandering down the street as it was riddled with travel places. The next one we came across also said CITS. This is supposed to be an official China agency that is registered with the government.

This place had just a small desk with a phone. A girl sat behind it. We asked her to tell us the price for tickets to Kunming. She could barely understand us, but finally got the idea. It ended up that everything we needed to talk about had to be done through someone she would call on the phone. It got way too complicated and we said sorry and walked out. A few doors down we came across another agency with a girl that we could communicate with enough to get the tickets purchased. We used our pocket dictionary a few times and managed to complete the task. We got all the details out of the way and then she told us to wait. About 10 minutes later a guy on a bicycle showed up with our tickets in hand. We aren't sure, but we have a hunch he came from the original CITS place that quoted us the higher price. It is probably the main agency where they print out all the tickets.

So next stop Kunming. An hour and 10 minute flight for 830 yuan each, instead of a 22 hour train ride to save a few bucks. That suits us just fine!