A day at the Longji terraces

As mentioned in the previous post, I came to Guilin in part to go to the Longji rice terraces. Famous for the excessively large number of terraced rice paddy fields on its mountain, which have created an intricate pattern on the hillsides, the Longi terraces also house the villages of minorities of the Zhuang and Yao people.

Longji means 'Dragon Backed Mountain'. When the paddies are full of water in spring, it is said to resemble the scales on the back of a dragon. The fields are beautiful all year round, in the early stages when filled with water, and as the rice grows and matures, changing colours as it does so.

The Longji terraces are comprised of two separate but closely located areas: the Ping'An terrace fields, and the JinKeng terrace fields, each with their own villages and hamlets within easy walking distance. My tour was of the Ping'An fields.

Local sellers of minority handmades. This photo shows a girl actually knitting one of the products.

Chicken and her chicklets in a rice field

Local houses with some small rice fields.

Hey there cutie. In these houses animals are on the first floors, people second floor.

Inside the house. We're right above the pig's room.

dried rat.

A covered bridge with fruit sellers as we traverse our way up the peak.

Bamboo cooking. Inside is either rice or chicken. For the rice dish, the rice is stuffed inside the hollow core of a bamboo along with some meats, vegetables and spices. The bamboo tube is sealed and placed on the fire to cook. Chicken is basically the same technique.

Bamboo chicken and bamboo rice. Sounded and may look tasty, but was as bland as the day is long.

Original minority farmer houses, now restaurants and guest houses.

For the right price you don't have to walk at all up the hill.

The rice terraces from above

Rice terraces

the hero and the rice terraces

farmers working on harvesting the rice.

rice terraces

rice terraces

I met a nice Israeli father and son while on the terraces. The dad bought us ice cream, a welcomed treat on the warm day.

rice drying on the steps of a building.

a portion of the rice terraces up close

This was local honey. I bought some as I was getting a little bit of a cold. It was very sweet and crystalized.

Not the best shot, but this was a cobra with some other snakes living in a cage. Cobra's are a bit expensive, but I'm curious to try them.

This was sort of neat. It's stone meat. All the items were made from stone and shaped to look like various meats. The one on the far right is supposed to be a pigs foot and hock.