The Dragon's Backbone

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I am writing this on April 12 from bed, because that is the warmest place I can find right now. I am exhausted and even though it is only 7:30 in the evening, I am nearly ready to go to bed. But I want to get all of this down before I forget it all.

For the past two days, I’ve been in the Longji Rice Terraces, which are a couple hours north of Guilin and which are sometimes called the Dragon’s Backbone rice terraces. As you can see from the photos, this is where isolated minority tribes have built rice fields on the sides of mountains or at least very big hills. The two tribes I’ve met are the Zhuang and the Yao, but I think there is one more. I just don’t remember right now.

I’m staying in the Zhuang village of Ping-An, which has turned itself almost completely to the tourism industry. That’s not to say that it’s a bad thing, as I’ve got a room to myself, although with a shared bathroom, but it does have electricity and hot water, and it’s only costing me 30RMB per night.

As you can see from the pictures all of the buildings in Ping-An, as with the rest of the villages in the area are built of wood, a relief and novelty after the concrete ugliness of many of cities. The smell reminds me of mountain cabins in Colorado and elsewhere, and they are just as basic. Bare wood inside and out. This area gets snow in winter and all of the buildings appear unheated, so they have to be incredibly cold.

As it is, it’s pretty cold right now, which is quite a change from yesterday and earlier today. I arrived in Ping-An at about 12:30 yesterday, but I was initially supposed to go to Dazai, another village in the area. However, the road between Ping-An and Dazai was closed due to a landslide, which is foreshadowing for a later event.

I haven’t really mentioned that I’m severely overloaded with luggage for what is supposed to be a low-budget, long-term journey. Along with my huge backpack, I have a very large fanny-pack where I keep my travel guide, water, the book I’m reading at the moment and a variety of other things including tissues, a cap, my malaria pills, an mp3 player and a notebook. Finally there is my computer and its bag. It’s important to imagine all of that because the bus stop for the village of Ping-An is a 20-30 minute hike…straight up. So, I lugged all of my things to the village on a very warm and humid day. The problem was that my reservation was for Dazai, not Ping-An.

So, I was a bit worried that I would be out the money I had already paid for my room, which I booked for two nights. Or else I would have to walk to Dazai…18 km by road, although there is a path to the village, which I think is about 10-12 km (more about that later). Luckily, the tour guide spoke English and more importantly, he was able to switch my reservation to Ping-An. So, after the whole tour group ate lunch, I went and dropped off all my stuff and then took a wander in, around, above and all over Ping-An (see all the photos). It was well worth the price of admission (50 RMB for anywhere in the terraces and for as long as you choose to stay).

Now the area seems to be dominated by the women and they are everywhere trying to sell their crafts and jewelry. I was persuaded to buy quite a few things including bracelets and assorted bags, which Jackie will have first dibs on…but don’t tell her that because she’ll take them all. Anyway, the Yao women are also called the “Long-haired Ladies” and as you can see from the photos their hair is very long…they also charge for the pleasure of taking their picture. It’s a bad precedent, but I paid because I was really interested, but also because I’m an easy touch, plus it was only 30 RMB.

The “ladies” caught me pretty soon after lunch, but after getting away from them, I made my way around the several view points for the village and the rice terraces, before heading back to my hostel, washing the sweat off, and having a nice dinner where I spent a lot of time speaking with a French couple staying at the hostel as well.

I planned to walk to the village of Zhongliu the next day, so I turned in relatively early and was on the path by 9:30. I had met a Yao lady the previous day that said if I met her at the first viewing spot at 10:00, she would take me to Zhongliu and make me lunch…for a price of course, but it sounded like an interesting idea so I did it. It took another hour and a half to reach her home in the village and along the way she would leave the trail every once in a while to pick vegetation, which is what the English call “rape,” and what Americans call…???. All I know is that it was rather bitter when I ate it later.

Her house was a traditional wood house. Now perhaps I should have taken pictures, since I was paying for lunch, but it seems disrespectful to go into someone’s house and start taking pictures, so I didn’t. I’ll try to describe it as best as I can. On the ground floor are the animals. She had a rather large pig and some chickens. The first floor was a long, open room that included the kitchen and other space which I assume was the living quarters, but I didn’t see any bedding or anything else for that matter…it was pretty empty. Above this long room was a loft. But it was the kitchen that was most interesting. It was built on a concrete slab, in the center of which was a metal stove about 20 inches (50 cm) high, heated with wood and over which she used the wok.

Well I hadn’t been there long when neighbors started to show up including one incredibly bossy lady, who was a new grandmother (she left for awhile bring the baby back…probably to induce me to buy more stuff from her). But all of the ladies pitched in to prepare my lunch, which turned out to be a feast and cost 20 RMB. There were four dishes, not including rice, and most of which where vegetarian. One dish was the rape and as I said, it was rather bitter. Another dish was bamboo shoots with smoke and salt cured bacon (which is what I imagine the pig under me during the meal would become towards the end of summer or early fall). The third dish was green onions and egg, which was one of the best. The fourth dish was the best though…stir-fried sweet potato.

I stayed at her house for more than an hour, resting, eating and trying to get dry from sweating through the morning hike. The last was pointless. After lunch, she (and I never learned her name even though I did the whole pointing at myself and saying my name…just didn’t translate.) guided me up the mountain on which Zhongliu is perched and up and down and around the terraces to Dazai.

However, we were interrupted half way to Dazai by torrential rains. Luckily, we where near a shelter along the path and we waited for it to let up along with two men who had been working on the terraces. After waiting about 30 minutes for the rain to let up, we were underway again and finally reached the upper part of Dazai village at about 3 pm. At that point she left me after I had paid her for lunch and her guide service and I headed down to the bus stop at Dazai so I could catch a bus back to Ping-An.

So, how good a reader are you? Can you guess what happened next? Well? Of course there were no buses…another landslide had closed the road. I had three choices…stay in Dazai and hope the road opened the next day so I could go back and get my bags in Ping-An, but that would mean spending more money, and I’m much too cheap. The second choice was to turn around and walk back the same way I came, which would mean that I would probably still be walking and as tired as I already was, that wasn’t going to happen. The third option, and the one I took, was offered to me by a group of Chinese (with a Korean with them) who said they were going to walk the road until they came to the landslide area, where on the other side they would be met by the regular bus. I chose the third. However, I didn’t know how far away the landslide was and it was 12 kilometers to the bus stop where I could catch a bus to Ping-An or even if the landslide would allow us to pass.

However, we set out together and since they were able to speak very good English we chatted a bit. They all worked for the Gortex company, which I guess manufactures a lot of their product in China. Luckily, only a couple of kilometers down the road a car passed and the others were able to negotiate a ride for all of us to the landslide for 5 RMB…each. It was lucky too, because the landslide was probably 6 kilometers further along the road. Better yet, when it came time to pay, I pulled out my money and attempted to give it to one of the others and they wouldn’t accept it…they paid for me. Now that was truly a first for me in China.

This brought us to another problem. We were at the bottom of the landslide and it was still pretty wet, so it was dangerous to cross the area, but one at a time we each ran across the 40 meters of the slide and hoped no more would come down on us.

Just as promised, a bus was waiting on the other side and I was let off at the bus stop for Ping-An. I said goodbye and thank you to my new friends as they continued on to Longsheng, where I will be heading to tomorrow to catch a bus on to my next destination Chengyang. I only had to wait a few minutes to get another bus up to Ping-An and this time the hike up to the village wasn’t too bad, since I wasn’t loaded down with all my luggage, but it should be interesting going down tomorrow morning.

Anyway, I’ve had a good meal and since it’s nearly 9 pm now, I may head to bed in a few minutes. But like Yangshuo, I think the Longji Rice Terraces or the Dragon’s Backbone is a must see when you come to China. It is beautiful and despite people trying to sell to you everywhere you go, it has feels genuine although that’s liable to change as more tourists come. But most of the people remain very poor and the money I spent for my lunch and guide were probably enough to feed her family for at least a week and probably longer although I have problems living on more than twice as much most days. So, in the end, I really don’t mind spending the little I did spend over the last few days and I’ve actually stayed pretty far below the budget despite buying lots of little things.

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Photos

Hike from Ping-an to Dazai 20
You can just see my host and guide's house between the two in the foreground and towards the left.

Ping An 48
I met my guide on my first day and she tied this cloth to my head and I promised to meet her the next day so she could cook me lunch.

Ping An 20
The hostel I stayed at was the one with the red and white sign. Can you find it?

Ping An 35
Most of the rice terraces were still being prepared and only a few where filled with water.

The Long-Haired Ladies 4
My favorite of the long-haired ladies...she was always smiling.

Hike from Ping-an to Dazai 1
If you look closely, you can see a gray line running through the terraces which was the path I followed.

Hike from Ping-an to Dazai 40
My guide and cook. I never did get her name although I tried several times.

Comments

[taeyoung jeong]

hello joel~~
it was a pleasant surprise to see your pictures on the Internet!~ Were these pictures taken recently? or did you upload old ones? Anyway, I'm just wondering how you're doing, and wish you a good luck to you and your trip!~

[Hye Jung]

Hey---member of 71!
WOW Those pictures are awsome. I'm glad to see your picture and seems like you are having fun in China.

[younghye]

Hello!
I enjoy reading your travel journal. After you finish your trip, make a book. It would be nice, isn't it? Take care your health. I am in New York and doing o.k....