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China: Longi Rice Terraces, Pingan
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It took us about 3 to 4 hours to get here. This area is populated by a minority group who work the terraces. The road way upto it was up some steep climbs with some great views around us. When we got to our final stop we were met by a few of the local women trying to sell their wares.
The women in this part of the country are famous for their really long hair and for a few RMB they would be only too glad to show you it.
For this part of the trip we had a guide called Farmer Tong, a tiny guy but really nice and ultra helpful. The poor man had no peace when it came to lunch and dinner time as we were trying to get him to translate what we wanted, and even with the chinese tranlation they still got the order wrong. Anyway he lead from the bus to the village or town where we would be staying. Because there are no roads to the village we had to hike the 20-30 minutes to get there. Again the views where beautiful. The work that had to go into carving out flat pieces of land on the mountains must have been immense.
The only way to describe it is a series of steps, each about 4 to 5 feet high going the whole way around the mountain. Pretty impressive.
Because the area is so hilly the villages are also built on stilts and are staggered up along the hill. We a few of the local kids running out and saying hello as we went along. The first guesthouse we stayed at was in a lovely location at the top of a hill looking down onto the terraces.
It was completely made of pretty light wood so the sounds insulation was nil, but the people were lovely and the peace and quiet was golden. It also only had squat tiolets so I had to use em for the first time. Luckily enough though these were clean so it wasn't too bad an experience.
There was a hike to the top of one of the terraces if you wanted to go, a few of us didn't bother and just sat where we were, having a beer or two and just enjoying the view. As we sat out we were able to view the locals doing their day to day business. It was really peaceful, well except for when they put on some bloody awful CD of some dodgy singer. A group of the lads headed off for the 2 hour hike and I decided to head off for a look around the river area. Twas great to walk up the river path for a while and just sit down on a big rock and hear nothing but the stream flowing past.
The next day we had a 4 hour hike through the rice valleys to our next resting place. The journey there wasn't too bad some steep climbs but nothing like what we faced on the Great Wall. The whole area has little stone foothpaths to guide ya through it, a pretty impressive piece of work when you consider the size its covering. Farmer Tong was leading us again and every so often along the way he would stop to explain the certain things about the area. It wasn't that easy to understand him all the time but we were able to get the gist of it. He started collecting what looked like long reed leaves. He had to collect a certain amount, based on the group size. He then folded maybe 3 or 4 into a knot and as we passed a certain point he gave each of us one to place down.
It was to give you good luck and everytime the locals pass this point they put an offering, ranging from lolipops to money here as well.
We got to our hostel/hotel thingy early afternoon and had a bit of lunch. Again there was an optional trek to another point but absolutely no-one wanted to go this time. So we were able to laze around for the afternoon, some went to bed, a few of us played ping pong. This place wasn't as nice as the one the day before but it was still good enough.
That evening we had dinner and were entertained by a group of local women doing some trafitional dances and singing.
Well the way it worked out is that they would sing, then get us to sing, ours was a pretty pathetic effort but good fun. The highlight was the wedding. They got us all in a big circle and one of the women blindfolded picked out someone, John in this case. Sorry it wasn't me, I know some of ye were wishing. Anyway he was then blindfolded and he had to pick one of the girls. He got Rebecca. Then he had to piggyback her and try and break out of the circle with her on his back while we tried our best to push him back in. When he did het out the union was blessed with the drinking of some rice wine.
After that we had some bamboo dancing. 6 of the local women, 3 facing 3 had two lengths of bamboo stick in their hands. They were on the ground and would open and close their hands. The idea was to jump in between the spaces. So the one local lady lead each of us through it, the longer you were in their the faster it went. It was a great laugh.
Some of the un-coordination was brilliant, in fact Jo did such a bad job of it that one poor girl wasn't able to finish her final song she was laughing so hard.
Anyway the next day we left about 12 to get a bus back to Guilin in order to catch our final 18 hour train ride to Hong Kong
Latest Comments (1)
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Wrap Up. (reply)
Feb 10, 2007 05:52 EST by pathoran
Good man Ned. Very interesting accounts. Sounds like a unique adventure. When you come back you should give the BBC a call. I think Michael Palin's job could be in doubt.
P.S. make sure to wrap up. You know you get a sniffly nose when it gets a bit cold. Adios amigo.
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| 8. | China: Longi Rice Terraces, Pingan - Pingan, China Feb 05, 2007 (  30 ) (  1 ) |
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