Guilin Day 2 - Rice Terraces and More

Prepare yourselves for photo overload.
Saturday we went to the rice terraces and it was easily in the top three most beautiful places I've been!
Before that, however, a quick note on safety and security. I am following very closely the global issues affecting traveling right now, especially for Americans. The US State Department has issued a Global Travel Warning which I have read through thoroughly.  The fact of the matter is that I am probably safer here in rural China than you all are back home. It seems that al Qaeda is targeting large groups of westerners and to put it simply, that doesn't exist here. We may be the only Americans for a couple kilometers in any direction for all we know. Being in a relationship with a US Marine means, by nature, I have to be a news junkie because diplomatic matters as we are experiencing now affect him more than most people and by proxy myself as well.  I am very up-to-date on current issues and receive regular updates from the State Department for the region of the world I am in. If you ever plan on traveling internationally I recommend that you enroll in STEP (Smart Traveler Enrollment Program). You give information about where you will be and when and if something comes up you will receive an email from the State Dpt. I've received them for typhoon warnings and the global travel warning. It is a handy way to stay informed with very little effort. Should tensions begin to rise in China, Taiwan, or Hong Kong, I have a number of options available to me.
With that business out of the way, back to the rice terraces.

 How's that for a view?
We hiked from the small mountain town of Dacia to Ping'an. It took us about 4.5 hours to hike close to 7 km. It was a marvelous hike, the only problem was that the scenery was so pretty all you wanted to do was look out and not look down at the uneven path.
We were hiking with a couple from Prague, Ivana and Pavel that had signed up for transportation through our hostel as well. The drive from Guilin took 3 hours and as we started to climb the mountain roads it began to drizzle slightly. In my last post I mentioned accidents. We saw 7 in total. This one was the worst.

Thankfully our driver slowed way down and was very cautious until the roads improved. When we arrived at Dacia, we worked out a plan with our driver to pick us up in 4 hours in Ping'an. He gave us his second cell phone so we could call him if we needed to and we were ready. The traditional woman of the area never cut their hair, when it is down it can fall to their ankles but usually they have it wrapped around their head ending in a bun at the front to the right. They wear comfortable but traditional looking clothes, have hats, and carry large wicker baskets on their backs. We had several women who really tried hard to be our guide to Ping'an but as we got out of the village they fell away because we refused to pay them. Armed with a very small map in Chinese, a minimal knowledge of where we were and even less knowledge of where we were going, we set off.
The views started off amazing and got better as we went. I have more than an appropriate amount of pictures of the rice terraces. I think I stopped to look then sighed, "wow..." a dozen or two times. Thankfully it was an overcast day and there was a slight breeze. The elevation changed regularly and we were sweating even without direct sunlight.

The terraces themselves are astonishingly pretty. The farmers use every nook and cranny they can. Unfortunately the rice wasn't turning yet, in a few weeks it will turn yellow and the mountains become a kaleidoscope of colors.

We encountered a few people along the way. One of them I have named the Bamboo Man. He was taking a little rest in one of the gazebos that were built periodically along the path. He had to be in his 70s or 80s, had very few teeth, and had clearly just harvested bamboo. I came upon him first of our party and I gestured to see if I could take a photo. He said yes, and then after staring stoically out at his fields he started laughing. A open-mouthed laugh like a child stuck in an old man's body. As each of the rest of our party came around the corner we each took a photo or two of him and the laugh repeated.

As we continued our journey I glanced back and saw him standing in his gazebo, looking out at the mountains, over the land that he and his ancestors have lived on, cultivated, and respected for centuries. It was a moment of realization of what kind of history these mountains have seen. It was a window into a time when harvesting bamboo and carrying it down the mountain was a full days work and a white woman would never have been seen on her own in the mountains of Guangxi, let alone one with blond hair.

Another reminder of this came as we hiked further and crossed paths with this mountain woman bringing down a basket of greens. She was old. And hunched. And weather worn. She walked with a short stick but she carried that basket with a back stronger than my own.

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Life in the mountains comes with inherent beauty but also hardship. Transporting building supplies seemed to be a big chore. We saw a couple of donkeys, one carrying bags of feed and the other bricks.

Much of the journey was just between us and nature. I could fill thirty blog posts with the photos I took but here is a selection of the views and wildlife we saw along the way.

At one point we had pair of pups who acted as our guides for a while. They trotted along with us for about 20 minutes. Occasionally cutting off to hunt in the bushes or to nip at each other.

The path was far from clearly marked. Often we just guessed which way to go and whenever we came across someone we would attempt to ask which was the way to Ping'an. With only minor back tracking we made it in the perfect amount of time. I asked this girl which way to go and then asked if I could take her photo.

I haven't any idea why she is wearing a jacket but I love her expression and pose.
We also saw these little fluffy ducklings. It seemed that the villagers would put out feed for them. I'm not sure if they were clipped so they couldn't fly away and would eventually become dinner but they sure were cute!!

We arrived in Ping'an in good spirits and climbed down a seemingly endless number of rocky steps and found our driver. As we were leaving the narrow parking area we encountered a dispute over a parking spot. All traffic in both directions was stopped and a crowd was growing as two people fought over the spot. Our driver, a man maybe in his thirties, threw the van in park and set out to get us home on time. I've heard that in particularly rural parts of china when such disputes happen and a crowd grows, onlookers can declare themselves a defacto jury and make the decision. I'm not sure if that happened here but it appeared that our driver summed things up pretty quickly and got everyone moving again with some loudly spoken words and we were on our way home again.
That night was a very easy, low key, air conditioning type evening. We planned on leaving for Yangshuo the next day.