Longsheng Rice Terraces

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Trip Start May 20, 2010 Previous
Entry Trip End Sep 05, 2011 Next
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  Longsheng, Guangxi, China
Friday, June 18, 2010

Kevin Here

Day : 29
Temp : 29 degrees
Weather : Rain at first

This was always going to be a special day, not just because the rice terraces was of the reasons we spent £300 flying down here for, but this was due to be one of the highlights of China.  

We were not expecting much however, as we have just had 6 days for downpours!  And at 7am we woke up to...  yes heavy rain!  We put on our wet weather gear, which by now was always placed at the top of our rucksacks and went out to meet the tour bus. As usual we seemed to be the only western people on this English speaking tour, however as the bus went around picking up the passengers, a German lady in her 20's joined the tour. We teamed up with her, and a British teacher working out in China.

It was still very heavy rain, but as we neared the mountains, some 2 hours later, we were more worried about the very low cloud level. You could not see anything.  Well after the bus stopped, we were informed that we would be expected to cough up another  £12 to pay for a "cultural show". Well as we stepped into the hall, we were not surprised to be shown a 30 minute play performed by the local women. The highlight being when one small boy insisted on coming onto the stage to grab his mothered leg, crying that he wanted to leave!.  We were however shown the length of the ladies hair, which can grow to 2 metres in length!
 
As the bus set off up the mountain, we were to have one of the scariest road trips of our life! The bus swerved around all the tight corners going up the hill, with sheer drop offs on both sides. You need to she how scared Dom looks in the photos. The bus headed up to 700 metres above sea level where we started our walk.  After walking up to 850 metres, the cloud level was still too low to see 100 metres in front of you. I thought about heading back down, especially as I kept asking those who were coming down from 1000 metres what the visibility was like, only to hear the reply of nothing!!  Well we decided to continue. It was only when to neared the top, when suddenly the wind got up and the clouds disappeared!  Wow what a sight!! You only have to view the photos to see what I mean.

We then decided to head away from the group, and try and get a even better photo.  So we walked around the side of the mountain, where no one else seemed to go. Here we managed to get even better shots!  It was well worth the walk, even though getting down this side of the mountain, was much harder then the side we came up. We had to wade through water falls and small rivers, but it was so worth it!!

Hope you enjoyed this blog

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Views from the bus	The bus	Dom terrified!	Precipitous drop off the side of the road
Landslide	Landslide	Driving conditions	Wooden bridge into local village
in the rain again!!	village houses	Kev in the rain!	Longhair women
Longhair women	Longhair women	Village	Village at the rice terraces
having lunch with new friends	village with fog!	clouds are clearing!	Longshen Rice Terraces
Kev infront of rice terraces	Dom infront of rice terraces	heading off for a wander away from crowds	Kev on the path
more rice terraces	the path on the rice terraces	Kev and the rice terraces	Longshen rice terraces
Longshen rice terraces	Longshen rice terraces   Comments!	Longshen rice terraces	Longshen rice terraces
Longshen rice terraces	Longshen rice terraces	Longshen rice terraces	Longshen rice terraces
Just to prove we were there!	Longshen rice terraces	mist rolling back in	Longshen rice terraces
Longshen rice terraces	Dom trying on touristy hats!!!	or maybe a more traditional one??!

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