#dragon's backbone

龙胜龙脊梯田田头寨。

这次去龙脊梯田的旅程与上次一模一样：先坐车到平安村，在那边住一个晚上。第二天徒步大约三四个小时到田头寨（也称为大寨），住在田头寨一个晚上然后又坐车回桂林。

以上的照片是在九龙五虎关景点拍的，那个村庄是平安村。我那天早上很早起床到七星伴月观景点（看上个帖子）看日出去，然后吃一碗桂林米粉、几个馒头，就开始徒步，刚过中午就已经到田头寨了。

This time my itinerary was identical to the last time I visited the rice terraces: firstly taking a bus to Ping'an where I stayed the night before hiking three to four hours to Tiantouzhai (also referred to as Dazhai), before staying there for another night. Finally taking the bus back from Dazhai to Guilin.

以上的照片是桂林市龙胜县的著名“龙脊梯田”。我2010年来中国的时候还不会说中文，电视只有两个频道我能看，第一个是个音乐频道，第二个是CCTV9英文新闻频道。新闻偶尔会播放一些关于旅游的广告或者短的视频，我还记得那个时候我看到最早关于中国旅游是个关于龙脊梯田的广告，我那时候认为这个地方超级漂亮，而从此就一直想去。

我快两年前，从四川漫漫地游到福建的时候终于去了一趟，但那两天云雾特别浓郁，使我什么也看不见。我时间紧，只好满心失望地坐车去桂林。

但我三个星期前再去了一次，这次除了到平安村第一个晚上之外，天气好极了。我上次在梯田其中徒步了四五个小时却没看到一个梯田，但这次我终于看清了这里为什么这么有名。

The above photo is of Guilin's famous Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces, part of Longsheng county. I first heard of this place back in 2010, immediately after arriving in China. In those days I could barely speak a word of Chinese and so there were only two TV channels that I could watch. One of them was a music channel, the other CCTV9's English News Channel. Occasionally there would be advert's for tourist hotspots and even short travel programs. I still remember the first such advert that I saw, it was a brief introduction to the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces in Guangxi and I remember thinking that this place looked amazingly beautiful. Ever since that first advert I had always wanted to visit this incredible place.

Almost two years ago now, whilst meandering around the Chinese countryside on my way from Sichuan back to Fujian I finally visited the rice terraces. Unfortunately for the two days I spent there the weather was atrocious, with so much cloud and mist that I saw absolutely nothing of the scenery around me.

Up at 6.30, to meet our pick up, for the hassle-free tour bus option of getting from Yangshuo to the Longji Rice Terraces. Perhaps slightly more expensive but, we decided, well worth it over a taxi ride into Yangshuo and navigating 3 public buses to get to there.

The Longji Rice Terraces consist of a number of villages dotted about a valley and the hillsides, of an area in northern Guangxi, where the villagers have carved rice paddies into the surrounding hills, some almost 1000m above sea level. Again, it’s a fairly touristy spot but supposedly stunning too. We broke off from our tour at the entrance to the area, where they went on to a village called Ping'an and we left our heavy luggage and organised transport up to Dazhai, another of the villages.

After a short walk and some lunch/breakfast, in Dazhai, we continued on up to Tiantouzhai, where we found a hostel for the night. Whether it was the early start or just our luck so far on this holiday, after a slow 40 minute walk up the hill, neither of us was feeling particularly sharp: me with a searing headache, Alexa with something sounding similar to what I’d had in Yangshuo; neither doing a very good job of enjoying the beautiful scenery.

After resting up, it took us no time to realise this place was worth at least an extra night, on top of the one we’d allocated it, so we decided to relax and book for another.

That meant we had all of today to chill out and explore a little. After a long sleep and a lazy start to the day, we got up and set off walking, at about 11, to one of the viewpoints close to our hostel. This was going to be a 40 minute round walk, to the viewpoint and back for lunch; in the end we decided to carry on and did a big loop, involving all the viewpoints, and weren’t back till about 5 in the evening. Most of the circuit was along stone tracks with signposts and frequent villages and stop off points. The final section, however, was a little less well-worn and took us through sections of pine and bamboo and up along the backs of the terraces, with birds chirping and insects whirring. We took a few wrong turns here and there but back-tracked and found our way.