China - Guilin and the Longji rice terraces

Guilin is a city surrounded by beautiful karst scenery. There are a couple of major things to do within a few hours of the city and a relatively easy distance given China - the Longji rice terraces a good 2 and a half hours north of Guilin and Yanghsuo a couple of hours to the south. But first we stopped off in Guilin for a night.

The journey there was fine, if a little long at 26 hours on a sleeper train. We decided to book lower hard sleeper bunks as we would be on the train during the day and wanted to be able to sit comfortably and have a table to sit at. The journey was really interesting. Looking out the window at the towns, cities and countryside (consisting mainly of rice terraces) to the random Chinese who would come and sit, say hello and some stuff in Chinese, ask if we could connect with them on WeChat and then wander off again.

Cheers!

It was a great time to just reflect, read - something we have not really had time to do - and look out the window as the world went by.

We arrived into Guilin at about 5pm, and headed to our hostel - Wada Hostel - located just north of the railway station. The hostel was nice, and the shower was much needed! We arranged for our bus to Longji the next day (50 CNY) and booked our final train to Shenzhen before jumping on a bus to the city centre.

Padgodas in Guilin

The centre of Guilin was quite alive. It was dark and rather cloudy by the time we got there so we could not see the Karst scenery which surrounds the city, but the streets were full with people and there was a real buzz. We (eventually after missing our bus stop) found the main pedestrian street and a fantastic little area of cafes and restaurants with tables on the street. After looking around to see what was on offer we settled for a rather nice beef steak, egg and rice hotplate - yum yum. We also grabbed a deep fried corn on the cob which was surprisingly tasty.

Dinner in Guilin

The centre of the city is focused around two connected lakes. Both are lit 'Chinese style' at night with lots of bright colourful lights. In the centre of the southern lake are the Sun and Moon pagodas. They looked rather impressive under the lights.

Sizzle Beef

We wandered around the night market, but it wasn't that exciting and really only sold trinkets and tat.

Deep fried corn - better than you would think!

There are some caves and things in Guilin, which are a bit too much Chineseified for our liking, and Chris, having been here before didn't rate them too much, so we only stayed for the night.

Longji

We woke early to catch our 8.30 bus to the Dazhai village located in the heart of the rice terraces. We packed our day sacks and stored our large bags at the hostel (free), with the plan to pick them up on our return before heading to Yangshuo.

The rice terraces are some of the most famous in China and are spectacular. They were originally constructed in the Yuan Dynasty between 1271 and 1368, and continued to the extended until the early Qin Dynasty of 1644 to 1911. Longji translates as the Dragon Backbone's Rice Terraces, and many of the terraces have their own names. They are a true wonder of engineering and are firmly planted on the tourist trail. Also, there are a number of tribes and ethnic groups in the area, making it a very worthwhile side trip.

A very useful map of the Longji area

There are three parts to the rice terraces you can visit. We had read the best views were from Tiantouzai village in the Dazhai area, so we planned to stay there for 1 night and then walk to Ping'an and stay there for a night before heading back to Guilin. It cost 95 CNY to enter the Dazhai area (50% off with Chinese Student card) and 100 CNY to enter the Ping'an area. The benefit of walking between the areas if that you don't pass any ticket offices and so you do not need to pay again.

On the bus to Longji

There are two ways to get to the terraces. The first is by public bus and involves a change. It costs around 45 CNY per person to do the full journey and would potentially add an extra hour to the journey. The alternative is a direct bus for 50 CNY. which we booked at our hostel. The bus left at 8.30am from the nearby Hong Kong Hotel, which is just north of the train station and just down the road from or hostel. The bus was new and very comfy. We found out we could return on the same route or, so we discovered to our slight annoyance, there is a direct bus to Yangshuo (our next destination) for 70CNY leaving twice a day - ah well! 

Our bus outside the Hong Kong Hotel... in Guilin

The journey to Longji was straight forward, but just as we've settled down into the journey we came across a crash on the road, which had resulted in no-one being able to move anywhere. The problem was that one lane was effectively out of action due to the smashed car, but the two lanes of traffic would not wait for each other and so drove straight at each other on the one lane - this was not going to work. Our bus driver had got to the front of our queue but we were still going nowhere. He did some crazy reverse move to get out the way, but still no hope. The Chinese were just hanging around throwing their hands in the air, but not actually doing anything to try and remedy the situation, so Chris decided to jump of the bus and get at least us on our way!

To stop the traffic from creeping forwards he stood in front of cars (they didn't stop even then!) and created enough space for our bus to get around the smashed car and onto free road again. He received a great welcome back onto the bus from all the Chinese with everyone cheering and glad what we were finally on our way again! 

Chris directing traffic to get us out of the traffic jam

The rest of the journey was fairly uneventful, but the scenery was stunning. The road weaves along the valley, with lush hills soaring on either side. It was a lovely drive.

We arrived at about noon into Dazhai and walked the 30-45 minutes up to Tiantouzai village and our hostel. It had been forecast to rain, but we were lucky and the clouds broke up leaving behind wonderful sunshine.

Arriving in Dazhai

The walk was fabulous. As you walk up the path, jumping from stone to stone (no concrete here) you pass terrace after terrace, waterfall after waterfall - it was super.

We got to our hostel after about 45 minutes and checked in to our room. We had a super view of the mountains and terraces and grabbed some rice noodles for lunch.

Our room - with a great view

The village of Tiantouzai was practically empty of tourists and had a welcoming feel. The local ladies wore their traditional clothes and are known for their long black hair. We did get a little hassle from them for photos, but they didn't persist too much and were really sweet, with lots of hellos and smiles. Apart from lots of weaving and toiling away in the fields, they offer to carry your bags for 20-30CNY up to your accommodation... any bag... whatever size. 

Size doesn't matter

These women must be touching 70 in some cases and they carry the luggage in wicker baskets, with basic shoulder straps. They walk up and down all day - quite amazing. As we had only taken our day sacks we didn't need their services, but it obviously brings in a bit more money, and was used by all the Chinese (the westerners generally carried their own!).

A local tribe lady working between villages

The Dazhai terraces are made up of three main viewpoints. There are lots of maps and signage is okay, but you need your wits about you a little to figure out some turnings (our mantra of taking the well trodden path worked!).

Lunch with a view (noodles again!)

We decided to walk up to viewpoint 3 (Golden Buddha) first, followed by viewpoint 2 (Thousand Layer Terraces) for sunset. There is a track from viewpoint 1 to viewpoint 3 which would have been perfect, but this was not marked on the map and only a few basic pictures in our hostel, so we kept to the main tracks.

Directions...Longji style

The views are spectacular. Looking down all the terraces one after the other glistening in the sunshine - it was beautiful. 

View point 3

There is a cable car which runs up from the car park in Dazhai to viewpoint 3 (Golden Buddha), which ferries mainly the Chinese to the top. It does leave a scar on the landscape, but understand that people find it difficult to walk up - just a shame that this seems to be consistent with beautiful locations in China - a cable car, chair lift, concrete stairs. In any case, it didn't distract too much (apart from the loud speaker which echoed around the area saying when the cable car was built, by whom, how fast it went, how much steel was used, its safety record... and not to spit).

We headed back down, over a nice little bridge and back up to Tiantouzai to pick up a couple of beers and head to viewpoint 1, known as West Hill Music.

They carry big bags!

The walk was relatively easy, over large stones. We got to the viewpoint, cracked open the beers and relaxed in the fading sun.

The Chinese like to take photos of foreigners, particularly those from the west. We were asked by a very polite and well spoken chap, who actually took some lovely pictures. He even offered to email some to us so he gave us his business card.

Ta-da! At view point 2

Our photographer friend

As the light faded (take a torch) we headed back to our hostel to freshen up (hopefully the water was working) and find some food for dinner.

Earlier in the day we had got chatting to a lady from Israel and a couple of Germany, so we grouped for dinner and had a nice evening chatting discussing travelling and the EU vote in the UK.

A view of the terraces

We woke to a spectacular view from our room, with the sun shining. This was going to be a good day. Our plan was to head up to viewpoint 1 and then walk the 4 or so hours over to Ping'An - another area of terraces. The sun was shining and it was soon hot and humid.

View from our room

After stopping on the way to grab some breakfast with another fantastic view, and some more photos with some Chinese we headed to viewpoint 1. The walking was lovely and not too strenuous - we were rewarded with some great views. If you walk past the Panorama Hotel you get on the track to viewpoint 3. We didn't have time to walk the full distance, but we walked a little way and found a super little view and a good spot for breakfast on the way. 

Making friends at the breakfast table!

Enjoying the sun at view point 1

Having taken in all possible views in the Dazhai terraces, we headed to Ping'An - a 4 hour walk across the hills.

After a little confusion with the start of the walk and some sketchy photos taken from from our hostel we were on the route. There is a lot of construction going on in the area, with new hotels and buildings so the route had changed a little and sign posts moved. But we figured it out!

Find the sign

The walk was really nice, as it takes you away from the tourists and it is just you with a narrow stone path, forests, rice terraces and a few farmers - it was super. 

Preparing the terraces for rice planting

There is a village half way called Zhong Liu, where you can pick up water, but apart from that water was difficult to come across (unless you have a water filter then it is easy to fill up as there are lots of waterfalls). The village of Zhong Liu also doesn't have any restaurants, from what we could see, but we were offered food and lunch from many locals, but we didn't take them up on their offer as time as getting on.

Walking to Ping-An

Sadly a road is currently being blasted through the town and the area. This will allow many more visitors and connect the local community, but again, it has scared the landscape, cutting through ancient rice terraces the small village and the mountains. I guess this is Chinese development for you.

Road building

After passing a cemetery and small reservoir we hit a road and found a sign. We had not seen a sign since we left Dazhai, so we were glad we were on the right route. There were some green tags along the way which must have been left after a run or walk, which also helped with directions.

Beautiful terraces

We entered the Ping'An area at the top at Nine Dragon and Five Tigers viewpoint and looked once again on some beautiful terraces They had flooded many more terraces here, so the view was quite beautiful, and we chilled out to take in the view on the purpose built viewing deck.

Walking along in the sun with spectacular views

There is no cable car in Ping'An, but it is the more touristy of the two areas we visited and was actually much smaller. If we only had one to go to we would recommend Dazhai.

In any case, the views were still lovely and there was a simple walk along the top of the terraces to another viewpoint looking back the other way.

Ping-An

We then headed into the village to find our accommodation and pick up some beers for a early evening drink. The town was clearly much more developed than Dazhai with shops and many more bars, restaurants and hotels. Having said that, it was just as empty as Tiantouzai.

We climbed back up to Nine Dragon and Five Tigers viewpoint and relaxed as the sun set, chatting away about the trip and what was to come when we got home.

Nine Dragon and Five Tigers

Heading back to the village with the light from our mobiles, we headed out for some food and see what the village had to offer - it was dead.

Apart from one or two restaurants there was no-one here. We settled on the most popular restaurant and a French group said the food was good! The French were right - the food was surprisingly good with huge portions and tasty food. We had duck with green beans and some noodles... and tea was free! After taking our fill Julia was falling asleep so we headed back to the hostel for a good rest (after a game of pool) ready for our morning bus back to Guilin to pick up our bags and another bus onto Yangshuo.

Our (rather leaky) bus back to Guilin

We decided to take the direct bus back to Guilin to save all the hassle with changing buses and gain a bit of time. It was again 50CNY - local bus would have been 12CNY + 35CNY so we were told by our hostel and the hassle didn't seem worth it. Ours left at 10am so we had a nice leisurely start and walked down the hill to the car park.

The calm before the storm

The bus wasn't quite as good as the one from Guilin to Dazhai, but we were on our way. The rain we had expected had finally arrived, so with lightening and serious heavy rain we drove down the mountain. After a few random stops and getting a little wet from a leaky roof we got back to Guilin at about 12:30, picked up our bags and headed to the bus station to travel to Yangshuo.