C & C globetrotting around the world…

After our last overnight train ride in China, we arrived in Guilin. We were disappointed about the city of Guilin because we thought the Li River is nice here as well, but for that you need to go to Yangshuo, so we’ll have to wait a few days. The reason we stopped in Guilin is to go see and hike in the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces. In the morning we hopped on a bus and went to Dazhai, the village in the valley by the entrance. We hiked to the Golden Buddha Hill, which was a detour on our way to Tiantouzhai village. The scenery was really nice, but the weather was cloudy and pretty cold. The Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces are an incredible feat of farm engineering used for over a millennium where the terraces rise 1000m high and the area is dotted with minority villages. We were greeted by the Red Yao women, with their super long hair (they never cut it) and nice costumes. While we didn’t catch a good season, it was still cool to see. The terraces are at their best either after the summer rains that leave them glistening with reflections, in the fall just before harvest when they turn golden or in winter when they are coated with snow. We saw them in between season, just after harvest but before the first snow, so we have a reason to go back some time in the future. On our way to Tiantouzhai village, we hiked between rice terraces, through some bamboo groves and along little creeks. It was really nice and peaceful with great views of the surrounding villages. Tiantouzhai is a hilltop village made of wooden houses and we witnessed one being built while we were there. The entire village was participating, some up on the scaffolding, some sawing while others were just watching and giving their opinion. The houses are built on a concrete platform, but the beams are not anchored to the floor and there are no nails used in the construction. Really interesting to see. After dark we went to bed, since there is nothing to do there and it was also cold. There is no heating in the houses and it was below 10 degrees, so we hid under double blankets. What a disappointment on the second day! We were hoping to do a 4 hours hike through the rice fields to Ping’an village, but we woke up to lots and lots of fog and rain. Not really weather conditions conducive to hiking, so we slept a little longer and then headed down to Dazhai to catch a bus back to Guilin. Bad timing, but still a nice place.