Blogs from Yuanyang, Yunnan, China, Asia

Jiihovýchod Yunnanu oplývá spoustou zajímavostí: krajina, tofu, rýžová políčka, hranice s Vietnamem, Haniové a další malé národy, úzkokolejka... Tomuto koutu provincie jsem si mohl dovolit věnovat čtyři dny - nejen tradiční pátek, kdy nemám soukromou hodinu čínštiny, a samozřejmě víkend, ale i pondělí. V Číně je totiž v pondělí podle tradičního čínského čili zemědělského kalendáře 5. den 5. měsíce, a takové pěkné datum se oslavuje jako svátek Duanwujie (端午节). U nás na západě je známý pod jménem Festival dračích lodí - na některých místech, hlavně při jižním pobřeží, totiž při této příležitosti pořádají závody dračích lodí. V Kunmingu ale po dračích lodích není ani potuchy, není tedy důvod tam zůstávat - naopak, tento víkend by snad prý Haniové, národnostní menšina roztroušená po jižních kopcích, měli slavit svůj nejvýznamější svátek zvaný Kuzhazha (苦扎扎), tak proč nejet právě ... read more

Hi all, Arrived in Yuanyang without a hitch it only took 30 hours give or take. After sleeping like a log I got hold of a map and strode off towards Niujiaozhai. It looked pretty easy on the map and so it was in the beginning. There is a cobbled road to Longshuba but after that you are out onto the mountainside amongst the rice terraces. There is no real pathway so you have to rely very much on the people you meet along the way to point you in the right direction. The people looked very surprised to see me emerge from the bamboo groves I can tell you. So it's thanks to the lady who left her work in the fields to take me along the pathway to show me the way to go. ... read more

We had a long day as we left Vietnam and headed across the border into China where we were to spend a few days in the highlands amidst the rice terraces at Yuanyang. This area covers 2200 square kilometres and despite its astounding beauty, due to it's distant location, the region has not opened to mass tourism as yet. One crop of rice is grown a year and after the harvest in September the terraces are filled with water until planting in April. Most of the women in the region still wear their colourful traditional dress and the terraces were first cultivated over 1300 hundred years ago. It was an hour by minibus from Sapa to the border town of LaoCai where our driver dropped us off at immigration. No problem there and we were soon ... read more

The time has come and after 5 weeks we have reached the end of our time in China! For our last stop on our adventure here, we chose to head to the Yuanyang rice terraces in South Yunnan, just a few hours from the Vietnam border. Although we had seen great rice terraces a few weeks ago in Guilin, we had heard that Yuanyang was extra special and somewhere we should not miss. Plus it was on the way to Hekou, the town on the Chinese side of the border crossing to 'Nam that we needed to leave from, so a handy stop over. The bus was supposed to take 6 hours from Kunming to Xinjie, the old town of Yuanyang and the starting point of the rice terraces, but as usual took longer and after ... read more

I was planning to leave Jianshui and catch a bus to Yuanyang straight after watching the NBA finals but I started talking to a Taiwanese girl, Carol at the hostel and before I knew it, it was almost 4pm. I caught a taxi to the bus station and then had to wait an hour before my bus left for the town of Nansha, at the base of the mountains which contain the rice terraces. The interesting trip through the mountains took about 2 and a half hours so I arrived in Nansha after 7.30pm and the sun was starting to set. I couldn't find any vans going up to Xinjie and the taxi drivers were asking too much so I decided to get a hotel for the night. The following morning I got lucky as a ... read more