Rain and fog over the terraces at Da Zhai

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To get to the rice terraces of Longshen ( more commonly known as the Dragon Back Terraces) we were expecting to have to go into Yangshuo, catch a bus to Guilin, change bus stations and then catch another bus to the gateway of the area before a final bus into the terraces themselves. We were really pleased when the friendly Belgian guesthouse owner advised us to take the daily Chinese tour bus which would collect us at the guesthouse door and drive us straight to the entrance gate/ticket office. It probably cost a bit more at 180yuan each (this price did include the entrance fee of 80 yuan though) but for the time and hassle saved well worth it.
The rice terraces rise from 300 metered above sea level to 800 meters at their highest point. They received their nickname as they supposedly resemble the scales of a dragon. The terraced fields were mostly constructed over five hundred years ago during the Ming Dynasty. They are home to the minority group of Yao people. One particular village is home to about 60 women who only cut their hair once in their lives. Today you must pay 80 yuan extra to visit their village - last time we visited the women were happy to show off their long hair and intricate hair styles for a small donation. We spent a long time with them in Dazhai in 2005 - this visit we were to see none, though I guess their home village must be nearby as we saw so many of them in Dazhai on our previous visit. The women living in Da Zhai twist their long hair into topknot which sits on their forehead (it somehow seems to be flat across the top of their heads as well) and as they appear to have deep foeheads presume they must shave their fringe area as well. They wear black turbans, embroidered hot pink tunic tops, black wrappings around their legs and black knee length skirts with pink waist ties. Plastic sandals in 2005 but today they wear much more practical Nike sneakers!

It had rained all night previously and was bitterly cold when the bus, running late, collected us at in Yangshuo at 7.40. Whilst waiting we watching the little village we were in waking up - locals doing their morning exercise routines whilst jogging passed by. Unfortunately the big bus we were promised had been overbooked and we were in an overflow mini bus with half a dozen other people. Not much we could do about it but it did rather spoil our final views of the pretty karst dotted countryside. Skirting Guiin we arrived in the car park at the entrance gates mid morning.The weather was miserable - very damp and foggy. We had reserved a hotel room in the tiny tourist town of Tiantuan, an hour uphill hike from our destination village of Dazhai the guide on the tourist bus advised us to leave our luggage in storage at the ticket area and just take what we needed in our day packs. However when we saw the storage area - an open bedroom behind a street stall - we made the decision to travel with our bags to Da Zhai and asked the guide to cancel our prebooked guesthouse reservation in Tian Tou, a smaller village above Da Zhai.The fog was getting thicker and we had no desire to climb a kilometre on slippery paths, with or without our luggage. It was a wise decision - we wanted to stay in that village for the views (you could see both sunset and sunrise from the guesthouse balconies) but the weather only got worse over the next twenty four hours, causing us to actually leave the region a day earlier then planned. Da Zhai is actually in a valley and you need to climb up the terraces to the ridge at the top to get the full impression of their size and depth.

Another small bus belonging to a private tour took us on the 40 minute trip ton Da Zhai - the driver pocketing the 20 yuan each we paid him as a bonus. In 2005 when we travelled to Dazhai (choosing to stay there as that village had recently opened to tourists) the road was very rough and quite scary to travel along. In fact at one stage we left the bus and walked behind it as we didn't feel safe staying on board. How things have changed! Even in 2005 we chose not to stay in Pingan - the main tourist town still - because it was very busy. Today it is full of big hotels and souvenir shops. Surprisingly Da Zhai was still pretty much the same as we remembered it. Though there was a large car park and a nearly finished large building which we soon discovered was going to be a tourist centre and the ticket office for the recently opened chairlift up to one of the viewing points. Comparing photos from both visits it's obvious that there are actually a lot more guest houses there now, most recently built but in the traditional wooden walls and terracotta tiled roofs. However only one or two tiny shops were selling souvenirs. In twelve months time once the chairlift is fully operational it may be a different story.

One thing that hadn't changed however were the clusters of colourfully dressed women wanting to carry our bags into the village. We remembered that there was a footpath and figured it would have been upgraded so refused their 'offers' which would have cost us about $10 at the quoted price! The footpath was there and though covered in mud at times it only took ten minutes to walk. We found a room in a guest house (Da Yao Zhai Tavern for 100 yuan) in the lower part of the village - very basic room, hot water, hard beds but a really strong wifi signal (unexpected) and went off to find somewhere to have lunch. After a bowl of soup we took our trekking poles and spent a couple of hours climbing, very carefully, around the paths. They were really slippery and you had to be very aware of where you placed your feet. The area was as pretty as we remembered it even though we only got fleeting glimpses of the higher terraces. At one stage we could hear people talking loudly and realised that they were in one of the cable cars above our heads. I think they wasted the 120 yuan it cost to go on it - though they may have enjoyed the novelty of the ride I guess. Eventually the weather chased us back inside before we huddled nest to a tiny charcoal fire in the guesthouse as they cooked us dinner.

An early night followed in front of the heater in our room. The walls were paper thin, you could hear everybody in the rest of the guesthouse. The buildings were made from stained wood, quite large, with tiled roofs. From our bedroom window we watched people walk across to a big pond, dip a large net in and withdraw a large fish. Fresh fish for dinner. We could only see a row of coloured fairy lights after dark over one of the restaurantS - the rest of the houses seemed to be without any bright lights showing. When we woke next morning the weather was even worse so we decided to cut our losses and head to Chengyang. Of course as we left the hotel in drizzling rain early that morning there was not one lady offering to carry our bags across what were now very muddy paths - just when we had decided to make a contribution to them! Sensibility they were all still home in bed. We plodded down the path to find the local bus to Longshen waiting. Sad that we had not been able to take our planned day long hike across the terraces but thankful that we had seen them previously. As we left the cable car started up - though there wasn't a tourist around. Or maybe we just couldn't see them through the fog. ...

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Comments

[RENanDREW]

red and green...
that's a very evocative photo :)