Longji Rice Terrace

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Trip Start Jun 15, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Aug 03, 2008 Next
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  Dazi, Guangxi Zhuang, China
Sunday, July 6, 2008

This is so far my favourite place so far in China. It wasn't on my "plan", not that I really had a plan, but it really was a last minute decision. Another person from the Giggling tree was heading out and after seeing pictures, I asked if I could tag along.
I figured I had spent too much time at the Giggling Tree when I noticed the neighbour had finished chopping down their tree. They started on this tree when I first arrived and have been working on it the whole time, all by hand. Once the tree was down it was time for me to move on.
We were told it was only a 4 hr trip up there, so I thought if we left super early (around 8 am) we would get there with enough time to hike around, stay the night and head back. Well as I've learned here in China, you need a lot of patience and need to be flexible. We didn't end up getting there till closer to 3 pm, so two nights were needed. No big deal as I'm not in a rush. The bus ride up here was so much fun though. The first two buses we took were modern air conditioned buses, but even still there was a live duck on one of them. Then the last bus we took was a true local bus, no air con and if you weren't careful you could fall out of the window it was so big. This bus was carrying all the people back with their supplies for the day. It was such a neat mix of products. There were eggs, live chickens and ducks, beer, water, juice, rubber tubing and more people then I thought you could fit in a bus. Every time I thought the bus was full, we would stop and pick up a few more. If there wasn't enough room for their supplies on board, we strapped the supplies to the roof or to the back of the bus. To top it off nothing broke, not even an egg. Amazing!! The weirdest part was that we would just stop in the middle of nowhere and someone would get off with tons of stuff, it would take 3 or 4 people to carry it all. With nothing around and no one in sight, I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen. But I guess they must live around there and have it all worked out.
When we finally got to Dazi (where we were staying) we still had about a 20 minute hike up the hill to our guest house. The view was spectacular and we were the only people staying in the guest house, a nice break from the tons of tourist in Yangshuo. For dinner that night we ordered Chicken in Clear Water, which was a super good Chicken soup. It seemed to be taking a while for them to prepare the meal, so we peaked into the kitchen and saw feathers everywhere. They must've killed and plucked the chicken after we ordered. Considering that, it was a real quick meal. And we know the meat was very fresh.
The next morning we had bamboo rice for breakfast. Which I thought would be fried rice with bamboo in it, but it was rice cooked in a piece of bamboo. It looked very cool and tasted great. After such a hearty breakfast we headed out for a hike around the terrace. There are 3 view points that you can hike between. Its supposed to take about 4 hrs, so it's a good way to fill the day.  We hiked all the way up to the top of the terrace, where the view was even better then from the guesthouse. The amount of work it must've taken to build the terrace is mind boggling. Then the irrigation system they have with it, is very impressive. The have giant fields on the top that collect all the water, with small slits in it where the water can flow out of. The water flows down like a waterfall from level to level, filling each level on the way down. They also can block some slits if they need more water, or don't need any water in certain areas. Very manual, but very effective.
The hike was a great way to spend the day, it was a lite rain for most of the day, which was nice to keep the temp down. We also ended up losing the trail and sort of creating our own part of the way. Which was fun as we were doing some jungle trekking at one point, when we were furthest from the trail. But we eventually found our way back and in one piece so that's all that matters. As we walked through the terrace, we would see some farmers every once in a while. The manual back breaking work they do is unbelievable. Its all by hand, no machinery. Don't think I could that.
That evening, we ordered the duck for dinner. A few minutes later a guy came in carrying a live duck, quacking and everything. The woman running the place, had a discussion with him. Not sure what it was about, sounded like an argument, but who knows here. Anyways, a little while later that same duck was on my plate. You always knew the food was very fresh here.
The family that ran the guesthouse, were very friendly. The husband and wife didn't really speak English but their son is learning. So we were able to talk to them a little bit. Being the only people staying at the guesthouse we got all the attention. The husband, kept serving us the Country Wine. It was home made and very sweat. Seemed to be a rice wine of some sort, but much sweeter then any other rice wine I've ever had. The wife, in keeping with the traditions of the people in this region, has hair that goes down to her ankles. I guess they get their hair cut once, when they are a teenager and then never again. They wrap it around their head, so it doesn't hang down. Then depending on how its wrapped you can determined if they are married and if they've had their first child. They also make loads of hand stitched goods, they are just beautiful.
All and all, this is by far the best place I've seen so far.

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