Yuanyang rice terraces and another market

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Yuanyang's rice terraces stretched away below us, covering mountainsides in all directions. In comparison to these, the famed ones in the north of the Philippines dwindle into insignificance. Here you could drive for over an hour and still be among the allotments of land that varied from the emerald green to the mud brown to the golden to mere watery reflections of the sky.

Right now these ones were bright white as if covered in snow, reflecting the early morning pre-sun sky. Looking at my photos of them they looked almost surreal and I wondered whether anyone would be able to tell what they were of just by looking at them. As the sun came up it cast its light onto the pools of water held in each allotment, giving the whiteness of some of them a golden shine.



Click this link for advice on independent travel in Yunnan Province


Further down the same road a market was taking place. We had been told by someone from Yuanyang that this one took place not on a set day of the week, or at least not the week as we know it in the West, but on the day of the dragon. Locals have their own way of keeping track of days, naming them after 12 different animals. Traditional dress here was even more colourful and commonly worn than at the previous Market we had visited, Menghuan, but there were not as many different ethnic groups here so the clothes were less varied.



This will be the first of five mainly photographic blogs. I apologise for my laziness, but the experiences at each were almost entirely visual as we had no ability to communicate with the people.

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