Mountains of Rice!

(Alex)

February 21, 2010

Today was amazing! We got to wake up a bit later than usual (nice change of pace) and we had a pretty decent breakfast as well. Our hotel was also surprisingly awesome for a mountainside city. Being that we were in a very remote location, the city was relatively large and sounded like NYC at nighttime! The windows were not soundproof at all and during the day and parts of the night we could hear honking and loud conversations in Chinese constantly filling the ambient sound.

Yuanyang was full of awesome surprises including the Ocean of Clouds. Since we were so high up, when you look down the mountain and into the distance, the cloud layer forms an amazing sea-like spread that is beautiful. There was one mountaintop in the middle of the cloud ocean that looked like an island! After viewing this awesome spectacle of nature we traveled to the rice terraces and admired how much labor went into making these fields. We just kept seeing rows and rows of rice terraces that almost looked natural there were so many!

A few kilometers down the road from the terraces we visited was a local Hani minority village. The road was a half-mile of a pretty significant decline and the Hani people were coming up and down this road carrying wood and other supplies in a constant flow. Once we reached the village we saw that the place was under construction to help it become more of a tourist sight, so it was a real treat to see the village in its raw form. We toured the village for a good hour and visited the various rice and water mills along with a school that was constructed to help the local children with their education. The school seemed rundown, but also in use, which was good to know seeing how this area of China didn’t seem to have very many school areas. Also in the village were plenty of farm animals running around, but they all minded their own business. There were some very big pigs with their young just sunbathing on the path, which was extremely funny and adorable to see. We saw the Hani rounding up their chickens, tending to their rice fields, and playing basketball.

Now the fun begins; we began climbing back up the road we came down and it proved to be pretty arduous. Cassie raced up it pretty quickly with all four of us shortly behind her. Once back up top we spent twenty minutes browsing and bargaining at the local market for various trinkets and beautiful Hani scarves/handbags. Right across the street was a restaurant where we stopped for lunch, but compared to the other places we ate at, it was nothing special, but nonetheless good. At his point we were all tired from trekking all morning so we headed back to the hotel for a quick rest and nap to recuperate for a sunset photo shoot at Tiger’s Mouth Rice field.

This absolutely stunning rice terrace collection spanning whole mountains was a huge stop for tourists and professional photographers alike. Immediately after pulling up we were flocked by local Hani people trying to sell us everything and anything! It was crazy how persistent they were to sell us postcards! Despite all of this, it was still a great place to visit. There were awesome spots to take photos, but so many people flocked there it was really hard to find a place too, but we eventually did. The sunset was gorgeous overlooking layers and layers of rice terraces and the effect it created made the fields look like pieces of stained glass scattered everywhere. It was quite the view.

Trying to leave the fields was a whole different story…The traffic for a mountain road felt like the Mass pike during morning rush hour, but somehow our driver, Mr. Wang, navigated us out and back to the hotel safely. His driving skills have proved invaluable on the streets of China. Overall, today was one of our most enjoyable days and especially so for me because I am not at all jet lagged anymore and the rice fields are something that everyone should see at some point in their lives.

We head to Jianshui tomorrow and we are all looking forward to it, and the free internet access. We will get back to you soon.