Longi: Guangxi Rice Terraces
After spending a restful few days in Shanghou we set off with our guide and driver for Longji. A tiny mountain top village 50 miles from Guilin, in the Guangxi area,the village dates back to the 13th Century. The minority group of people who live there are the Zhuang, at that time they were one of the smallest of the minority groups in China and had been pushed by the larger minority groups further and further off the fertile plains and into the mountains but their staple diet was rice, which can’t be grown on the side of a mountain.
So they started building the terraces in order to grow rice in small terraced paddy fields perched precariously on the side of the high hills, they began in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and continued until the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) construction carried on until early 20th century when construction was completed but the ongoing task of keeping the terraces watertight is a constant job. So much so, that today the whole place is a conservation area and the government pay the Zhuang people to work there to keep it as it was.
Today the little village is expanding so quickly that, wherever they are allowed to build they do, so there are buildings hanging precariously all the way up the valley. With scant regard to health and safety.
As the area is now a Unseco word heritage site you can’t just drive up there, you have to leave your car quite a way down in the valley and take a coach up. We had been advised to stay overnight in the village as the place is very small and gets massively busy from mid morning to about five in the afternoon. So we arrived mid afternoon and missed the crowds.
Once you get out of your vehicle you are bombarded with locals offering to carry your suitcase, backpack, etc. We scoffed and said no, no we can carry our own. Our guide quietly suggested that it would be so worth paying the £10 it would cost as this was the main way that most of the locals made a living. So we agreed. It was the best thing we did. We had no idea that we would be walking up a vertical hill for over half an hour. The little old lady skipped up the hill in front of us leaving us way behind as we huffed and puffed our way up.
On the way up, we caught glimpses of the stunning views between the rain and fog.
The tradition for Zhuang women is never to cut their hair, which means for some ladies they are able to stand on the end of their hair which is as long as they are tall.
Our hotel was a wooden delight. Very eclectic and fascinating.
So here I am at the top of the hill, by this time it was chucking it down and you couldn’t see a thing. I got Jim to take a photo anyway, we’d made it. (Maybe I could superimpose the view in later!!). We hoped that we could have another go in the morning but the weather was just as bad. Such a shame. But never mind we did have Shanghai to look forward to.
Each season brings a different look to the terraces and when we were there in May the terraces are filled up with water ready to take the new plants. In the summer time the whole side of the mountain is green but come the autumn it takes on a golden hue as the rice becomes ready to be harvested. Come the winter deep snow covers the whole terrain giving it a magical quality. Take a Look at this link. if you’d like to see how it changes.
