Longi Rice Terraces (Dazhai Village)

Just wanted to start this entry by sharing with you that, the Chinese do things VERY VERY diffrent to the West.
Ok ok... you know all about the food (dogs, scorpions, starfish...) the spitting, the endless phlegm that these people can manage to conjure up from deep within their respiratory tracts..... but here are just a few more things-

They don't wear helmets on motorbikes and as you can see from the photo... neither do their kids. This is normal in China!



They go out in public in their pyjamas!!! I'm not kidding here at all even though i wish i was. This picture was taken in a supermarket and honestly, it was was not an isolated incident. And no, it doesn't just happen in the villages. We saw a girl in Shanghai coming down an escalator in a shopping centre (on Nanjing Rd! for those who know Shanghai) on a Saturday night. Definitely the fashion disaster of the century.


Anyway.... the pics were take in Yangshuo.. a town located one hour from Guilin and also approximately 2 hours away from the Rice terraces of Longi. We spent a few days in Yangshuo before making our way to the village of Dazhai to see (and walk amongst) the famous rice terraces.



This picture is taken from one of the lacoal market stalls in Yangshuo.

They have a delicious vegetarian restaurant in Yanhshuo where we actually ate at twice. Here is the mushroom wrapped in fungus, sounds gross to some....but as you can see from the photo... it looks (and tasted!) much better than it sounds.




And here is another dish ...... the tofu and mushroom. Looks and tasted!!! fab.







We hired bikes for a day and rode to some of the local villages. We stopped off along the way in this bamboo field. We also took a break from cycling along the way.. in a pomelo (very large citrus fruit found all over asia, simply delicious!) field and purchased ourselves one perfect freshly picked pomelo! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. it didn't last long. :)


As well as providing some exercise.... riding bikes gave us a great way to get away from the crowds... and go where (and when) we wanted to go. T'was great to ride amongst the little villages and have every local child say "hello" in english to us and shyly giggle afterwards (that's the only english they all know) along our way for most of the 30km.






Longi rice teerrace... village woman












This picture was taken right out the front of our guesthouse in Dazhai village. It is famous for it's Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces. We had this perfect view (would have been better withour the smog/mist of course) as we were eating breakfast on the porch. We stayed with a local village family who run the guesthouse for a living. The aunty (Pa-a-yee-ee) from the guesthouse offered (for a fee) to be our guide for the day and guide us through the rice terraces to another village 3hrs walk away.




The Rice Terraces of Longi

Pa-a-yee-ee is from the Yao tribe which is famous for the long hair their woman grow and wear piled upon their heads. Pa-a-yee-ee spoke no english at all but so far along our travels... she has definitely tried the hardest out of anyone at comunication and was an absolute delight.

She even showed us her hair she has been growing since she was 18 (or for 18 years.. we couldn't work that one out!)

Yao women selling their wares.................

Corn drying... local hoses are covered in corn like this.

Chillies drying.... also a local favourite