Hiking along the awe-inspiring Longji Rice Terrace
Day 1: Guilin – Ping'an Village
After 2.5 hours' drive from Guilin, we arrive at the foot of the mountain where ancient Longji village lies. The forest-clad steep-sloped mountains came into sight; and beautiful contour-map-like terraced rice paddies are full of water as the green crops grow.
In the Zhuang village we passed through, the local live as they did in old times – elderly people sit on the bridge all day watching people pass by...
After nearly an hour's hiking, we met a small wind and rain bridge on the way. Very lovely, right?
At about 6:00 pm, we arrived at the 600-year-old Ping'an Zhuang village. Different from Longji village, Ping'an village, with its spectacular terrace fields, is more touristed. Moreover, it has many hotels for tourists to rest, with the best facilities (internet, foot massages, even Karaoke!) Later, we checked in Liqing Hotel and Star Wish Resort respectively for an overnight stop.
At 6:00 am, our long hiking from Ping'an to Dazhai started in the rain. The mists veiled the distant mountains, and rains leave the rice seedling glistening with reflections. A 2.5-hour walks, through the pine and fir woods, up and down on the mountains, along the ridge of the rice fields, led us to a Yao village – Zhongliu village.