Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces and Dali
Trip Start
Aug 21, 2007
1
17
27
Trip End
Dec 20, 2007
Dali,
China
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
We took the bus out of Yangshuo back to Guilin, left our luggage save what we needed for 2 days of hiking at the train station there and took a bus to the sleepy town of Heping: the entrance point to the so-called Dragon's Backbone Rice terraces.
These are over 600 year old feats of agricultural technology. Over 800 meters of altitude sheer endless step-like terraces were constructed to all be flooded at the same time to grow rice and other crop. Depending on the season the appearance of the terraces varies greatly. In Spring the flooded terraces reflect the sunlight like fragmented mirrors, in summer they grow green and in Autumn golden with the different colours of the rice paddies. And in winter snow softly blankets them
Peasant cab
. Sadly we only managed to see the terraces right after the rice harvest, so for us the terraces were mainly bare earth. Yet it was still appealing (despite the light mist obscuring the grand views) and a wonderful place to stay for two days of hiking.We started by taking a cab out of Heping to a little bridge and sneeked onto the terraces by the back way. Like all major outdoor tourist areas in China, the government levies an entrance fee. The fee does seem to go into the development of these areas, so you can argue that cheating our way in is unfair. Fact is, though, that the money we saved fully payed for our accomodation. Fact is also that the beautiful villages on the outskirts of the park are practically untouched by tourism as few wander there. The villagers on this leg weren't interested in our presence, apart from maybe a few children and dogs. There were no sales stalls and noone trying to push anything on us. We could take in the rice, corn, chilis and tea laid out to dry in the sun. We arrived at the very top of Ping'An village (the touristic main town) where we found a hotel with a magnificent view and no other guests. The Cai Yun hotel was built in the traditional wooden way, like all buildings in this area. It reminded us very much of a Swiss alpine chalet making us feel very much at home. Our host was lovely and an excellent cook. She cooked us a very tasty dinner which we enjoyed with some home-brewed rice wine on the hotel's terrace
Not entirely sure what they smoke...
. The next day we explored Ping'An and went on a long hike to get away from the tourist bustle. That's relatively speaking, as it is the off-season now and the "bustle" was very sedate and nothing like the swarms in Guilin or Yangshuo. It was difficult to get away from the "Zhong Liu long hair mafia", though. The minority ladies from these parts are apparently in the Guiness Book for there long hair. Anke informed us that they only cut it once in their life, at age 18 and then weave these hair as well as any that should subsequently fall out back into their hair. The hair then effectively reaches their feet. Now there is a well organised mobile commando of pink Rapunzels in traditional garb cashing in on this by letting down their hair for dough. If you decline this offer vehemently they will then try to push the entire contents of their sales basket on you. It's hard to shake this flock off. I did have to get unusually abusive once. Shame really, because we did find ourselves on the run for some time. Interestingly, numerous pink ladies have been spotted by several fellow hikers with rather short hair, meters of thick hair extensions in their hands and rather embarrased looks. Judging by the volume of their hair we'd guess that about 70% of Rapunzels are faking it...
In the evening we met up with Anke and Markus again and had some quality time (and food) to catch up
two types of agricultural vehicle
. Gosh, it's been 13 years since graduation...Dali - ancient walled city in Yunnan Province
Our next stop was to be picturesque Dali. It's not easy to get here. First of all there's the distance: 20 hours on an overnight train, then another 5 on a bus. Then there's the confusion. Dali proper is a 3000year old walled town weged betwwen a 4000m high mountain range and the Er Hu (ear lake). The next big city, 20 km up the road, chose to just rename itself Dali as well to give it some character which it otherwise completely lacks. We could make a picture of this ourselves as the bus dropped us off at the "wrong" Dali, despite promises by the ticket salesman of the contrary. It wasn't difficult to get to the right Dali by public bus and then find a lovely hotel. The YuYuan Hotel comes highly recommended: quiet setting within the city walls by an artificial stream, a beautiful typical Bai minority enclosed court, a spacious room, free internet and free laundry. You can't complain at a price of 3 Euros per night...breakfast, by the way, costs 30 cents if you like noodle soups. That and dumplings are the traditional chinese breakfast. Here they also eat honey cakes for breakfast. I have them for all three meals
Harvesting weeds from Er Hu lake
. And I sure am smiling (there's a German saying about this...) Another reason we're smiling is that after 2 weeks in China we have actually seen the blue sky for the first time. It never rained so far (touch wood...), but it's always been stagnant clouds of mist/dust/smog, call it what you will. Here it's pure blue up above. Heavenly! We haven't enjoyed a sunny day this much since our wedding day. And the sun does soothe at 27 degrees C. Once the sun's gone it gets bitter cold in propper continental Autumn style.
Dali is heavily touristicised (tons of money from the government well spent). There are the usual, albeit largely very tasteful, sales stalls everywhere and there's even a "foreigner street". Half the old city wall is rebuilt/renovated, several streets are pedestrianised including some well designed potentially lethal (if you don't watch your step) canals. It's got a laid-back athmosphere. You can also feel the population starting to become Tibetan. Yak meat is tasty, but beware the Yak butter. We ate some Yak-butter buckwheat cakes the other day and they're still lumbering in our stomach.
Talking about food, our Chinese is obviously very basic
there are tiny fish in the nets
. Our "point it" book helps (lots of pictures to hold under bemused locals' noses), but Dali restaurants have it all sussed out. They display all their veg outside. You just pick a veg and they magic a delicious dish out of it. They let you look in their pots and - presto - you've got your meat dish. Taking it a step further, it pays off going to a place that's already occupied by several locals, not only because food is more likely to be fresh there, but you can also have an unashamed look around the tables and then just point-and-choose whatever dishes look tasty. And we have yet to find food in China that isn't absolutely scrumpteous!Dali is still very much a farming community. It's fun to watch locals of all ages gather in the evenings to practice figure dances on several public squares in the evening. The music is of horrendously bad quality, but the glee on the dancers' faces is so beatiful to watch while their twirling around.
We spent our first day here hiking along the Cang Shan mountain range. There is a cobbled road at mid-altitude (about 2600m height, Dali is at 1600m), just wide enough for a bike with side-car to travel along. That made for an easy 11km walk along the edge of the hills. On the way up by chairlift we passed over countless graves (Cang Shan is a Taoist holy mountain) and a military no-go zone (we were happily greated by a soldier we passed overhead)
A noodle factory
. On the way down we took a rarely trodden path (most people take the cable car down) forcing us to ford the Chingli stream several times. Good fun. There is a colourful temple and a few worthwhile scenic sites to visit while on the path. Today we took bikes out to a market town and watched the fishermen at work. We also spotted myriads of huge spider webs everywhere inhabited by very large spiders. You were usually right underneath a bunch of them whenever you looked up. Dali should not be on the itinerary of the arachnophobic.
Another thing worth mentioning is the resilience of the Chinese little old ladies. You will see them in the fields hacking away with their hoes, carrying baskets or loads of crop on their hunched backs or shoulders, pulling heavy carts, carrying babies about, squating for a lively chat amongst themselves in the market, etc. The list is endless. And the best bit for us is: if you give them a friendly greeting their wrinkled, weathered and wise face screws up into a joyous, youthful grin that touches you right in the centre of your soul. Hooray for little old ladies!!!
It's been great here in Dali. Next stop is Lijiang, 5 hrs up the road, to hike the fabled Tiger Leaping Gorge in the pouring rain. Sadly the weather report is dismal...
