Rice terraces in the mist

Rice terraces in the mist

Yunnan is the province that is ”South of the Clouds”, and today we’ve been in the clouds, literally (actually, two days ago — I’m posting this from Kunming, en route to Dali). Yuanyang is famous for its beautiful rice terraces that have been carved into the hills and mountains in this region of southern Yunnan. The terraces are filled with water during the winter for irrigation purposes, and the result is an intricate pattern of twisting lines and pools of reflecting water. The most famous views of the terraces are from high up in the hills, where a new brick road has been laid, viewpoints have been built, and an entrance fee of 60 yuan is now being charged.

Rice terraces

Yesterday we hiked from the village where we’re staying and out into the countryside, over winding dirt roads, stone paths and green fields, through tiny villages that were filled with babies of all sorts (piglets, chickens, baby cows, and adorable human babies). The weather was beautiful, it was incredibly peaceful, and there were almost no other tourists in sight (or shops for that matter, not even in the villages, so we were glad that we’d brought along plenty of water). There has been a drought in Yunnan this winter, and March seems to be at the tail-end of irrigation season, so a lot of the terraces were dry, which created a different but also very beautiful scenery.

One of the villages we passed through on our walk

Rice terraces in the mist

Adorable piglets

Less adorable pig coming out of the outhouse -- I don't want to know what she was doing in there

And then today, we booked a one-day tour of the higher and more famous views of the terraces. Unfortunately, the clouds that were high up the sky yesterday were today lying low over the mountains, and the higher we climbed, the thicker the fog grew. The tour was supposed to start with a view of the sunrise from trees, and even before we realized how thick the fog was, the day started badly.

The tour guide who convinced us to hire a driver for the day told us that the price would be 220 for the two of us and a third person who wanted to join the tour, and that the price would somehow include avoiding the 60 yuan entrance fee. We weren’t sure what this would involve, but didn’t ask any questions (always a mistake). The driver picked us up at 6am, and then snaked up the narrow road in the dark, thankfully driving very slowly through the thick mist. We reached a fork in the road, and she chose the road on the right, avoiding the toll booth. Then all of the sudden she stopped, turned the tiny three-wheeled minibus around, and starting waving towards the door with her flashlight. Between her half-local language half-mandarin explanations and my half-mandarin half-confused questions, we finally figured out that she wanted us to take the flashlight and walk down a tiny path through the trees that led into the darkness. So we obliged, and after 10 or 20 meters we reached another road, where we waited for her to pick us up. In our early-morning perplexed states of mind, we weren’t particularly quiet or discreet with our flashlight, so once we had figured out what was going on, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that as soon as we climbed back into the minibus, a guard came running towards us with a flashlight, which he shone menacingly into the car. We all sat there in silence, including the driver. Finally she asked us, “去不去？”, and we decided it was safest to buy the entrance ticket and go ahead as planned, hoping we would still be able to catch the sunrise.

(Even if we had been able to sneak through, there were more ticket checks later on, so it wouldn’t have been much use. Our group disagreed over whether or not we had been scammed. The others suspected she knew we would have to buy tickets and didn’t tell us, in order to make us believe the price was lower than it actually was, and that she knew it would be so foggy that we wouldn’t be able to see anything but took us around anyway, just to get our money. I think the driver really thought she would be able to sneak us through, and that she hoped the weather would clear up. I was the one communicating with her, and she was really sweet. Either way, this was money going directly into the local economy, so it felt well spent.)

But when we got to the top, the fog was so thick that we couldn’t even see a few meters ahead of us, let alone the view of the rice terraces in the valley below. So after an hour or so in the car, some rice noodles, and lots of driving around to other viewing points that were just as foggy, we finally returned to the village to regroup. We tried again for the sunset this evening, but by 5pm it was clear that seeing the sunset through the fog would be impossible. Instead we stopped at spots along the road where the view was particularly beautiful (and the view of the water -filled terraces disappearing into the mist was also beautiful, in a different way). And at the very last stop, a little bit further downhill than the most famous viewing points, a small road led down into a valley where the fog had cleared up a bit, and we finally got to see more or less the picture-perfect view of hills covered with water-filled rice terraces that Yuanyang is famous for, which made the day of driving through clouds to search for views seem worthwhile.

Rice terraces in the mist

Ducks bathing in one of the terraced fields

Tags: china , Kunming , my photos , travelling in china , yuanyang rice terraces , yunnan