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Published: July 20th 2009
Waouh....
From Malizhai village to Shencun village
We settled on Yuanyuang, on the south part of the Yunnan province next to the Vietnamese border. It is said to be THE paradise for photographers from all around the world, while somehow not being yet on the main tourist route.
Three days and half to discover absolutely breathtaking views over immense rice paddy terraces, sounds good! What else? Well, it had to be some type of insider trek during which we could as well discover the numerous Chinese minorities inhabiting the area!
So, on foot we went! To reach Yuanyuang Xinjie one has to take one of the two daily bus that leave from Kunming for a good 7 hours ride across the countryside...alright, that was kind of long but so worth it! Late afternoon arrival and we were just on time to be dropped by the entrance of a medium size path leading to the first village on our itinerary, Qingkou.
Our first stop: Qingkou, home of the Hani minority.
Famous for its
"mushroom-shaped houses", Qingkou is a good starting point for this journey. Although it is said to be the most touristic place in the area (most people would visit this village, go to one of the market and reach on car the three main viewpoints before heading to their next destination in Yunnan) as we arrived early evening the entrance booth where you are supposed to purchase a ticket (RMB 15) to visit the village was closed and the locals were back to their daily routine.
Walking around the village, we had our first encounters with local kids wearing traditional outfits and their mothers with most of the time a baby tied to their back.
Most of the locals were from the
Hani minority (one of the main one in the area) and the women easily distinguishable based on their outfit and headdress.
Hani women tend to wear a loose tunic or jacket over trousers, most of the time black, blue or green color with a kind of protective apron at the back. Tiny details such as whether the women wears silver coins on her jacket would indicate whether she is married or not,
As green as it can get !
From Malizhai village to Shencun village just like a colorful headdress would indicate that the lady is single. Overall, the Hani outfit truly contrasts with the one of the other minorities which is often bright and colorful and thus is easily recognizable.
The house we stayed at (easy to find at it seems that it is the only place where foreigners can stay) had bright brand new bedrooms with a tiny window opening up on the rice terraces surrounding the village and a roof top terrace allowing to chill out while enjoying the view, not bad for our first stop! After a local style dinner prepared by our host and a bit of "English/French lessons" to her kids, we were quickly back on the
roof top to admire the night by then filled with stars...love it!
8.00am. Intense discussions between men and the typical smell of the local "mijiu" (rice alcohol) were coming from the ground floor, both Chanh and I were trying painfully to wake up and while we were asking for some boiled water to make a well deserved instant coffee, our host was
already offering some of the local alcohol.. .well, would only be the first of many during
Our host for lunch, had an amazing time !
Dongbu village----picture taken by Chanh Vysavat this trip but before the coffee there was simply no way!
Anyhow, them enjoying some mijiu and a meal that looked more like a lunch than a breakfast and us going for a second round of coffee we started to chat about our itinerary of the day: Qingkou 箐口 - Quanfuzhang 全福庄 - Bada View Point 坝达观景台 - Malizhai 麻栗寨 - Shengcun 胜村 followed by a ride to Duoyishu.
No guide or detailed map but simply a rough drawing indicating the key villages/ stops we would have to go through to reach our destination as well as a few indications. 7 hours trek across rice terrace and paddy fields, couldn’t wait to get started!
Will we make it? mmm…
Our host kindly offered us to have one of the kids showing us where the trek path starts to reach the next stop although from their view without guide we would most likely not make it to the next village (very encouraging!). Well, somehow, they had a few really good reasons to doubt we would make it:
No signage of any sort along the way with plenty of cross roads and tiny villages & local minorities who do not speak mandarin but only local dialects…always like challenges!
Walking through those rice terraces is simply unforgettable.
As green as it can get while still having here and there a few mirrors like rice terrace.
Not surprisingly, we did lose our way at some stage while walking through the paddy fields (somehow remembered me another unforgettable trip this time to Xishuangbanna with my friend Cedric...which could only make me smile!! great memories)
After a good half an hour up and down the rice terrace looking for someone to point the direction to the next village, we managed to spot one farmer on the opposite hill, didn’t seem really surprised when we shouted the name of the village we were trying to head to and after a few try he pointed his finger toward the highest hill...
ok, time to go for some serious climbing! The entire day, walking in the middle of nowhere, meeting kids and local farmers along the way went just like that...
lots of smiles, some chatting, finger pointing directions and everywhere you look astonishing views over the countryside with here and there a spot of color coming from the outfit of
pffff....
From Pada view point to Malizhai village a local.
Lunch times were my favorites, human wise... (Ok with the dinner one too...) We would arrive in a tiny village, reachable only by foot, no hotel or restaurant here (or souvenir shop as a matter of fact) but only local minorities still leaving their own way. People were extremely friendly and we would simply ask to the first person we would meet where it would be possible to have some lunch which would most of the time end up with the very same person inviting us in his home and cooking for us.
This first day, the house had a pretty big courtyard and a few women and a man were busy preparing the
traditional zongzi using purple color glutinous rice and our host was prompt to offer us to give it a try. Shortly after a full meal was ready and we had our first sip of
local mijiu preserved in a traditional clay pot. Followed a long discussion with our host who just like the group of men we had chatted with during breakfast had serious doubt about us reaching our destination. Anyhow, he was kind enough to escort us up to the road
Love the view!
From Quanfuzhang village to Pada that we had to follow for a few kilometers to reach Bada view point, so back on track !
The remaining part of the day went well, somehow always managing to find our way and meeting really friendly people along the way although the last part (Malizhai to Shencun) felt like we had been on a dirt path for hours. Never ending track going through one tiny village (not on the map) after another and clearly sun burned (again), we were truly looking forward to reach Shencun and get a ride to Duoyishu where we had planned to spend the night.
Welcome to heaven…well, at least it is how it felt!
All about timing…just as we were arriving at the hotel it started to rain, pfff….got lucky on that one! (don’t really want to take the path we did that day when it is raining)
The places we stayed at got to be one of the nicest one I actually ever found while traveling in China’s countryside…I had read about the
Sunlight Guesthouse (Yangguang Kezhan) 阳光客栈 on a website dedicated to trekking and can only highly recommend this place. The food was excellent (most likely something
Hani minority
Qingkuo village ----picture taken by Chanh Vysavat to do with the fact that the owner/ manager is from Guangzhou) and the staff & management very friendly. What else…well the hotel had a huge roof terrace overlooking one of the most famous view points of the area for sunrise only a few meters down the official viewing platform…No fee and the room we actually stayed in was on the roof so in the morning you just need to open the door to see the view! Sweet!
“Candle light” (actually flash light…less romantic) diner that night due to a large storm but great chat with a 70+ Chinese retiree on holiday around China. Worked all his life without visiting any of the famous sites China has to offer due to the related costs (entrance fee) and thus decided that now that he doesn’t have to pay this fee anymore he would go around China on his own and get to see all those places.
Really nice person and very pleasant and fun discussion!
Part 2…the one from Duoyishu to Laohuzui…”anyone there???ok…guess we are lost…”
Itinerary: Duoyishu 多依树 - Puduo Upper Village 普朵上寨 -- Dongpu Village 洞浦 - Duosha 多沙 - Laohuzui 老虎嘴
6am, very early
Walking by...
From Malizhai village to Shencun village wake up hoping that the sky would have cleared during the night so that we can enjoy one of those magical sunrise over Yuanyuang rice terrace.
Lots of fog and mist but nothing even close to blue sky…ok, few pictures and
back to bed… 8am, quick glance at the weather…still raining but time to get out and ready for the second day of trek. Mmmm….
sounds already like it is gonna be an adventure. Huge breakfast and quick chat with the owner on the best way to reach Puduo (first stop of the day). He himself never went that far on foot but has seen some other tourists going there and back in the past.
The usual “two choices” followed: xiao lu (very small path) and mi lu (medium size path). Didn’t really felt like going through the shortest route (small path) under the rain as it would most likely end up in some kind of mud bath so on the mi lu we went!
Did I mention the fog? Well, it was still there and the more we were walking up the less we could see around us. Obviously, the only indication was
Happy Grandma ! :-)
From Pada view point to Malizhai village that at some stage we would have to take west in order to sight the two Puduo villages…Mmmm…knowing that we could barely see at 2 meters this was simply impossible…
So West we took, taking the wrong turn at one of the main junction (roughly after 20mn walking up, one should turn right at the main crossroad) and as a matter of fact heading to the wrong direction.
Deprived of the sight, our only other option (other than going back to the hotel…) was to use our hearing sense…
wherever you can here bells, there are bulls and thus someone to guard them…It didn’t take too long until we spotted a local in the middle of a field working under the rain just like normal. He managed to explain us that we indeed should have turn right at some stage but seeing our facial expression we clearly had no clue with regards to which one of the many junction we saw he was referring to…
He then exchanged a few word with his colleague and promptly offered to take us there.
No medium size path anymore but simply walking across fields, up and down the mountains and trying to
Hani minority
Quanfuzhang village keep up with our “guide” whose walking pace made us breathless…He seemed to be like a “fish in the water” until the moment where we nearly crashed into him when he
suddenly jumped back…snake…oups…and very much alive on top of it! Based on the reaction of our “guide” this was clearly not a friendly one and we got really lucky not to walk on it !
After a good half an hour we finally reached THE junction he was referring to and couldn’t be enough thankful…
He had put us back on the right path not asking for anything, just to help…as simple as that! Truly enjoy traveling in China…and doubt there are many places where someone would take an hour out to help out tourists without asking for anything.
The way from Puduo to Dongpu is quite straightforward as long as someone show you the beginning of the path (beginning behind the lower part of the village)
We walked a short while in the woods and then left the trail and walked down to the terrace fields along an irrigation canal. Amazing views along the way and lots of locals wearing minorities outfit.
Lunch break, local
Looks like a layered cake...:-)
From Puduo village to Dongbu village style !
Somehow, the more we walk toward Dongpu, the more people seemed surprised to see us…
doesn’t look like there are many tourists who keep walking passed Puduo! Just like the previous day, the first person we started to chat with as we were about to arrive in Dongpu invited us to his home for lunch.
This “grandpa” was leaving with his granddaughter in a modest wooden stilt house with one main room and a tiny outdoor terrace.
They clearly had not much but before we knew it we were treated like kings and he promptly started to prepare a full meal with dishes of meat, vegetables and rice.
Followed the now usual homemade rice alcohol and tobacco bang while chatting and trying our very best to communicate. His knowledge of mandarin was limited but somehow we managed to understand each other. He was a truly
kind and funny person with some “tricks” that still make us laugh when looking back. One of them was to pour the rice alcohol into the bowl we would then use to eat our rice…needless to say that without emptying the bowl of alcohol you can forget about rice…I
Yi minority
Bada view point was truly starving so I decided to cheers with our host and empty my bowl as fast as I could manage it (took a few tentative...). Unfortunately for me,
our host took that as a sign that I could drink… and before I knew it my bowl was full again with the very same homemade alcohol (not rice…)That was a long lunch break…
In the meantime, quite a few friends of our host started to come in, all bringing their own tobacco bang and more and more kids were gathering by the entrance,
half shy half curious. We didn’t carry much with us but the fruits we bought earlier seemed to made them really happy…they never had those before although locals sell them on the other side of the mountain, a few hours by foot - different minority, different culture.
Same with the cigarettes…got to be the first time that I meet someone in China who smoke but never had a cigarette before…they don’t have shops selling those in the area and most people smoke the bang, cheaper and more in synergy with their culture, so it was a very first for our host.
Felt like going back
in time and somehow those few hours spent in Dongpu
got to be some of the richest, human wise, of the entire trip offering us kindness at its purest form.
Up and down the mountain on the lookout for the “breathtaking panoramic view”
Alright, so far, this trip was truly rich in experiences and we had both been pushing back our limits (which was so worth it), so when we had read that
the “icing on the cake” would be that this trek would finish with (and I quote) “THE absolute breathtaking view over terrace rice fields” we couldn’t help but keep hoping to discover it at the next turn…
Alright…there was still quite a bit of walk all the way up to Duosha and then abruptly down as we started to head to Laohuzui but here we were.
Suddenly, the entire view clears up and yes, IT IS breathtaking… Simply huge…you are still quite high up so you get to see the entire valley, surrounding mountains and tiny dots that are nothing else than villages, and absolutely everywhere you look rice terraces…
Needless to say that we spent the next half an hour seated
Rice terraces
From Qinkuo to Quanfuzhang on the grass, simply enjoying the view… alright, that’s when we noticed that a few meters below the point we were seated, the local government had built a viewing platform made of concrete with a fan preventing (I guess) anyone from falling/jumping. Mmmm…well, if any of you end up going there, look for the tiny path going up behind the platform (on the other side of the road), so much nicer to be seated on the grass without man made structure to enjoy that type of view…
We headed back to Kunming the same day by the evening bus in which we managed to catch some sleep and lots of mosquitoes bite (especially for me…as usual) before heading back to a proper hotel to finish our night.
Didn’t see too much of the city as I was leaving in the middle of the afternoon back to Guangzhou and then heading the same night to France…but for sure, Yunnan still remains my favorite province in China with the Xinjiang so will be coming back!
Note: alright…I am way behind with updating my travel blog but getting to it…(this trip took place late May). As most of you
know already, the past few months have been spent on the road between China and Europe to organize my departure from China and my professional move toward non-profit work. So between two trips, spent most of my time in Geneva and seems that efforts are always rewarded as I have secured the position I was going for….Back in Geneva soon for training prior to my first in the field position…Can’t wait!
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever” (Gandhi)
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deleted_15735
Hello, top photos of the rice terraces! I also visited Yunnan a few months ago, it was interesting to read about that fascinating province from someone else's point of view. Sunrise at Duoshiu (or however you spell it!) must be in the top 5 memorable things i did during 7 weeks in western China. Awesome province, hey! :)