We woke up to total darkness and the bus hadn't moved since 1:00 a.m. I briefly remember Alicia saying, "the bus has stopped, there is no driver, and I can see nothing." Clearly, I wasn't too worried because I faded right back to sleep only to wake in the exact same spot six hours later. Apparently we'd arrived at the bus station in Yuanyang at 1:00 a.m. They just park and let you sleep until you wake. I woke to Alicia telling me we had arrived and apparently had done so at 1:00 a.m. when we'd stopped.
We walked out to darkness at 7:00 a.m., and a fog so thick we couldn't see the end of the bus or five feet in front of us. A man was going to take us to the first of the terraces but we needed a bathtroom first. We walked to the hostel with our new Israeli friends and freshened up. With our faces and teeth brushed we were ready for the day only to be informed by the man on duty that the fog wouldn't clear any time soon so we'd see nothing of the terraces today.
We had a coffee with the guys as they ate their porridge discussing their travels, our travels, roots, plans and and all the normal chit-chat between 20-somethings. Finally Alicia and I decided to get a room and hope the sky cleared by tomorrow morning. Originally we wanted to spend the day at the terraces straight from the bus and be back in town by nightfall to catch another night ride to Kunming. The terraces were high on our list so we decided to sacrifice a day in Kunming to stay.
We checked in and spent time reading and napping until noon. Still foggy, we tried to walk around and see something, if anything, of the village. The fog was still unbearably thick. It was so humid we had dew drops in our hair. We found some lunch then grabbed some beers and chilled in the hostel.
We were not down in spirits, just relaxing and staying optimistic that the fog would clear by morning. If not we were screwed because our tight schedule doesn't allow for time here past 6:00 p.m. Saturday.
We sat chatting and drinking our beers while the sunlight came in and out of the room in waves, all the while, still hidden behind the fog.
Like all the other miracles throughout our trip, at 3:00 p.m. I looked out the window and the fog had cleared 75% since I'd looked out the window 20 minutes earlier.
We practically ran out of the hostel and began trekking through the town. We headed up and passed a school and many fields and small gardens that had been invisible just minutes earlier. The sky was a clear blue with the fluffiest white clouds and the fog was drifting quickly to the west past the villages and gardens below, revealing the mountains in the distance. We walked for an hour and a half with no destination in mind. We walked through countless tiny villages. The mountains above and the valleys below us hold a million shades of green from trees to gardens of wildflowers where even the weeds surrounding them are beautiful.
We are in Yunnan Province in the southwest part of China. The rice terraces we plan to visit in Yuanyang County are considered to be the most beautiful rice terraces in the world. Yuanyang is home to numerous ethnic groups including Hani, Yi, Miao, Han and many more. The Hani people make up 53% of the 88% total ethnic population and are the dominate population of Yuanyang. They have been here since the Sui and Tang Dynasties; 1,300 years ago.
Today, you can see traditionally dressed Hani women in the colorful headdresses and black trousers and tops with colorful designs embroidered on them. You can see them walking through the villages, working in the fields and working in the streets in construction. The villages we walked through today were full of women in their fifties to seventies working like dogs. The women carry bamboo sticks across their shoulders with large baskets tied to either side. Other women carry the baskets on their backs like backpacks. They can be seen picking vegetables in the gardens below the main road. Many women are laying brick or shoveling dirt and gravel next to the men. These women work as hard as the men here. The men have no distinguishable clothing on, but they too are in their fifties to seventies with leathery dark skin and wrinkles from years of working in the southern sun.
The children play with nothing. They run through the streets chasing each other and playing with broken toys and they appear incandescently happy.
We saw a group of children in one of the fields below jumping up and down the hills of the paddies.
The sun was shining and it was a perfect 65 degrees now. We smiled and waved at everyone. Many appaeared happy to see us, as Chinese people often do, but some looked sour-faced.
As we continued walking up, we crossed a place called Artist Village, which was not yet developed. The signs along the outside wall showed this place would be luxury, five-star hotels with pools designed to look like the rice terraces and bar streets full of neon lights and tourist. Alicia and I are both upset by this. If you can't come somewhere so naturally beautiful, sleep in a hostel, or two-star hotel, run by locals, then you don't deserve to see such a magnificent place.
The Hani people literally live off the land and still trade goods to get buy. The villages themselves are still building and developing enough homes to shelter their people. They don't need this overly touristic place above their terraces reminding them of how little they have. I don't think they mind they live in such an underdeveloped community without proper plumbing or dinning and luxury buildings. Who needs those things when you can wake up somewhere so breathtaking each day and when all your family and it's ancestors, for the last dozen of centuries, has known is working and living in the rice terraces.
I have honestly, not even in pictures, seen something so incredibly beautiful, natural, functioning and simplistic as this community of Hani people.
After seeing the Artists Village and what it will turn Yuanyang to over the next several years with tourism, Alicia and I know why some of the locals were not as thrilled to see us.
If you want to see a part of the world that is amazing, you need to see it like we saw it today, not commercialized and built to comfort tourists like it will become in the next several years.
We walked out to darkness at 7:00 a.m., and a fog so thick we couldn't see the end of the bus or five feet in front of us. A man was going to take us to the first of the terraces but we needed a bathtroom first. We walked to the hostel with our new Israeli friends and freshened up. With our faces and teeth brushed we were ready for the day only to be informed by the man on duty that the fog wouldn't clear any time soon so we'd see nothing of the terraces today.
We had a coffee with the guys as they ate their porridge discussing their travels, our travels, roots, plans and and all the normal chit-chat between 20-somethings. Finally Alicia and I decided to get a room and hope the sky cleared by tomorrow morning. Originally we wanted to spend the day at the terraces straight from the bus and be back in town by nightfall to catch another night ride to Kunming. The terraces were high on our list so we decided to sacrifice a day in Kunming to stay.
We checked in and spent time reading and napping until noon. Still foggy, we tried to walk around and see something, if anything, of the village. The fog was still unbearably thick. It was so humid we had dew drops in our hair. We found some lunch then grabbed some beers and chilled in the hostel.
We were not down in spirits, just relaxing and staying optimistic that the fog would clear by morning. If not we were screwed because our tight schedule doesn't allow for time here past 6:00 p.m. Saturday.
We sat chatting and drinking our beers while the sunlight came in and out of the room in waves, all the while, still hidden behind the fog.
Like all the other miracles throughout our trip, at 3:00 p.m. I looked out the window and the fog had cleared 75% since I'd looked out the window 20 minutes earlier.
We practically ran out of the hostel and began trekking through the town. We headed up and passed a school and many fields and small gardens that had been invisible just minutes earlier. The sky was a clear blue with the fluffiest white clouds and the fog was drifting quickly to the west past the villages and gardens below, revealing the mountains in the distance. We walked for an hour and a half with no destination in mind. We walked through countless tiny villages. The mountains above and the valleys below us hold a million shades of green from trees to gardens of wildflowers where even the weeds surrounding them are beautiful.
We are in Yunnan Province in the southwest part of China. The rice terraces we plan to visit in Yuanyang County are considered to be the most beautiful rice terraces in the world. Yuanyang is home to numerous ethnic groups including Hani, Yi, Miao, Han and many more. The Hani people make up 53% of the 88% total ethnic population and are the dominate population of Yuanyang. They have been here since the Sui and Tang Dynasties; 1,300 years ago.
Today, you can see traditionally dressed Hani women in the colorful headdresses and black trousers and tops with colorful designs embroidered on them. You can see them walking through the villages, working in the fields and working in the streets in construction. The villages we walked through today were full of women in their fifties to seventies working like dogs. The women carry bamboo sticks across their shoulders with large baskets tied to either side. Other women carry the baskets on their backs like backpacks. They can be seen picking vegetables in the gardens below the main road. Many women are laying brick or shoveling dirt and gravel next to the men. These women work as hard as the men here. The men have no distinguishable clothing on, but they too are in their fifties to seventies with leathery dark skin and wrinkles from years of working in the southern sun.
 |
| Just working from a storage unit. |
 |
| Traditional Hani housing |
The children play with nothing. They run through the streets chasing each other and playing with broken toys and they appear incandescently happy.
We saw a group of children in one of the fields below jumping up and down the hills of the paddies.
The sun was shining and it was a perfect 65 degrees now. We smiled and waved at everyone. Many appaeared happy to see us, as Chinese people often do, but some looked sour-faced.
 |
| A sneek peek of the rice terraces |
As we continued walking up, we crossed a place called Artist Village, which was not yet developed. The signs along the outside wall showed this place would be luxury, five-star hotels with pools designed to look like the rice terraces and bar streets full of neon lights and tourist. Alicia and I are both upset by this. If you can't come somewhere so naturally beautiful, sleep in a hostel, or two-star hotel, run by locals, then you don't deserve to see such a magnificent place.
The Hani people literally live off the land and still trade goods to get buy. The villages themselves are still building and developing enough homes to shelter their people. They don't need this overly touristic place above their terraces reminding them of how little they have. I don't think they mind they live in such an underdeveloped community without proper plumbing or dinning and luxury buildings. Who needs those things when you can wake up somewhere so breathtaking each day and when all your family and it's ancestors, for the last dozen of centuries, has known is working and living in the rice terraces.
I have honestly, not even in pictures, seen something so incredibly beautiful, natural, functioning and simplistic as this community of Hani people.
After seeing the Artists Village and what it will turn Yuanyang to over the next several years with tourism, Alicia and I know why some of the locals were not as thrilled to see us.
If you want to see a part of the world that is amazing, you need to see it like we saw it today, not commercialized and built to comfort tourists like it will become in the next several years.
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