It’s raining quite heavily as we wait for our pick up to go on a day trip to the rice terraces in Longshen county. But today we’re prepared – we have our ponchos with us! The rice terraces are about 100 km from Guilin and are one of the highlights of the area. The trip also combines a visit to a Yao village – the Yao are one of the many minorities living in the area (there are 56 ethnic groups in China) – where the women are famed for their exceptionally long hair. Fortunately by the time we arrive the rain has stopped and the mist has cleared. Getting to the rice fields involves transferring from coach to minibus to make the steep and narrow ascent up the mountain side, followed by a 25 minute climb to Ping’an, a small Zhuang village positioned amid the terraces, where we are having lunch. After lunch a further 15-minute climb brings us to the top and the breathtaking view of Longji Titian or Dragon’s Backbone – the evocatively-named series of steeply-layered rice terraces that cover the slopes.
The Yao village is traditional in its architecture; however, it is obvious that tourism has paid for a lot of new building here. After running the gauntlet of women dressed in traditional ethnic costume selling postcards and embroidered purses, and negotiating the rather scary (for the vertiginously-challenged at least) rope bridge we are entertained by the long-haired women in the village hall. The show includes traditional singing and dancing; highlights of a traditional wedding ceremony involving the participation of four hapless men from the audience. This is followed by the unravelling of the hair which in some cases is over 2 metres long, and a demonstration of their ‘updo’. This involves coiling the hair around their head and, if they have had children, fastening it in a bun which rests on the forehead. Apparently these women don’t wash their hair in the conventional sense, but rinse it in water reserved from cooking rice. And it clearly works because their hair looks incredibly healthy and sleek and, so we are told, no-one has grey hair.
This society is dominated by the women, and there are no men to be seen. Apparently they are kept at home looking after the children and doing the domestic chores (sounds good to me)! What’s more the women demonstrate their affection by pinching men’s (and in our case, women’s) bottoms!
The Zuang village houses hug the mountain side; there are no roads here only paths and steps which criss-cross the village passing stall after stall of local, and not so local, handicrafts, jewellery and other souvenirs. We stop for lunch and try the local speciality – rice cooked in bamboo – delicious! The climb to the top is well worth the effort – the view of the rice fields definitely lives up to its reputation.
The arrival of roads has opened up this area to tourism which has brought income to some of the villages but at a price: the Yao and Zuang villages we visited are overrun with tour groups (including us) traipsing through their narrow windy streets destroying the very environment we’ve come to see. On the other hand the villagers are benefiting economically. This is the modern traveller’s dilemma.