Rice Terrace Photos

I know I've put a lot of pictures up lately- I'm sorry. But A picture is worth a thousand words, right? And I definitely don't have the right words to explain this beautiful place. So enjoy!!

Village Pictures

It was so pretty here I just have to add more pictures! Enjoy!

More Village Pictures....

Couldn't resist... Picture 1: A shot of the misty mountains from the rock steps up to the rice terraces. Picture 2: A view of the village from the top of the mountain. Picture 3: Some of the local women climbing the steps to go to work. Such dedicated farmers.

Rice Terraces

 

The last part of our trip was taking a bus to the rice terraces! I've seen tons of pictures of the rice terraces growing up, so I was really excited to see them, and they most definitely did not disappoint! They were awesome!

 

We had to take a three hour bus ride out to the terraces, which wasn't too bad compared to any of our other transportation stories haha. When we got there we were able to walk around the villages and see how the farmers live and what their houses are like. Their houses are three stories high. The bottom floor is where all the animals live, the second floor is for bedrooms and "living" as they put it, and the third floor is for food, a.k.a. the kitchen. I thought their houses were really pretty, and had a nice rustic Chinese mixture, which was neat to see.

 

We also got to see a show demonstrating some of the local culture for us. In this village the ladies only cut their hair once- when they turn eighteen. So, as you can imagine, they had really long hair. They also have different ways of wearing their hair depending on where they are in life, such as single, married and a mother. In the show they demonstrated how they make their buns with over 4 feet of hair. I have no idea how they live with their hair that long. Can you imagine the up keep? Wow.

 

After the show we went to a different village that was higher up in the mountains, right up with the terraces. There we ate lunch, which consisted of "Bamboo Rice" which is a hollowed out bamboo stick filled with a rice and veggie mixture and then cooked in the fire. It was delicious. After we ate we started climbing the rock paths up higher into the mountains to get to the rice terraces. This village was literally on top of the mountains, and we were immersed in the clouds, and it felt like we were on top of the world. It was gorgeous.

 

There were a few places that you could stop along the path to take pictures of the rice terraces, which went on and on in every direction, with thousands of "steps" all over the mountains. They look sooo cool. Its crazy to think that people actually managed to make all these terraces, and then farm on them. It blows my mind. Its got to be so much work. They do get to look at one of the most beautiful places in the world, though, while they work , which has got to be a plus. It really is so beautiful there. You can just look at it for hours and not get sick of it. I was sad to leave, and wish we could have stayed a little while longer!

More Rafting Pictures

These mountains were so beautiful! I've missed mountains a ton since coming to China. It was nice to see some and feel more at home again!

Bamboo Rafting

On the second day of our trip we were able to take a bamboo raft tour of the stunning karst mountains along the Li River. It was soooooo cool. It was raining that day, and so there was a lot of fog and mist surrounding the peaks, and it gave a wonderful effect to the scenery. It was like we were traveling through the Misty Mountains in Lord of the Rings haha. Sadly, the fog made it really hard to capture the mountains on camera and still give them justice. They are so hard to describe. Just trust me that they are astonishing.

 

Our guide was really funny. He had laminated pictures of the mountains we were seeing, and every few minutes he would hand us a couple pictures and start going off in Chinese, like we knew what he was saying. He would just sit there, talking and pointing up a storm, while we just nodded our heads at him. And then he would light up a cigarette. I swear he went through a whole pack on our boat ride. It was gross. He was a funny old man though.

 

Another funny story on our boat ride: It was raining, right? And there were lots of other rafts going up and down the river while we were. We passed another raft going in the opposite direction, and one of the guys had put a plastic bag over his head to keep the rain out! A plastic bag! Haha! I thought it was common sense to NEVER do that, but... it seems like a good idea, I guess... until you pass out lol. Too bad he was going the other way.. I really wanted to see how that whole plan worked out for him.

 

But it was so cold! It was about 8 degrees Celsius (I'm not sure what that is in Fahrenheit..) and all we had were thin jackets. It was freezing in the rain on a raft in a river. We loved that bamboo raft, but it felt nice to get off and get warm and dry again. We all ended up buying North Face coats at a market that night, along with hats, gloves and scarves. We were really cold, if I didn't get that point across very well. But the next day we were all snuggly and warm in our coats!  

More Pictures!

Pictures:

First & Second: More of the beautiful mountains from the top of Moon Hill.

Third: A nice, juicy burger from Minnie Mao's!