the village and the rice terrace

today we took a daytrip from guilin that turned out to be quite an adventure. we managed to rise with the sun to get a good early start on the day. the plan: to visit the 600 year old zhuang village of ping an and the longji rice terrace - some of the most intricate rice terracing in all of china. the lonely planet guide made the trip out to be relatively easy, consisting of a couple public bus transfers. we set out sans tour/guide to make the daytrip on our own.

we easily completed the first leg of the journey to an ugly city called longsheng. immediately after getting off the bus a lady tries to direct us to a local minibus that will take us to ping an village and the rice terraces. i tell her that all i can think about at the moment is peeing and that i must find a toilet straight away. she seems shocked that i don't speak chinese (a common reaction) and looks at me confused. as david and i walk towards the w/c sign we both agree that our liquid breakfast of coffee, oj, and water wasn't the best choice prior to the 1.5 hour bus ride. after yet another traumatizing squat toilet experience, we return to the lot to look for a minibus going to ping an. the same lady spots us in about 8 seconds and escorts us to an empty waiting minibus.

after a short wait, the bus departs with david and myself as the only passengers. the driver takes us only a few short blocks when the lady tells us to get off the bus and onto another. we do as she instructs, trusting that she is leading us the right way. we get on the bus full of locals and we are quickly on our way. about 30 minutes into the journey we begin to enter a small town. we figure the bus is making a detour to pick up other passengers along the way. i hang out the window with the camera, trying to capture as much of the small town as possible. i'm amazed when i see dentistry being performed on the sidewalk. only in china can you have your teeth worked on and smoke at the same time. we pull up to an intersection when the bus attendant motions us to get off the bus and get onto another. she says, "ping an, ping an" and points to yet another bus. again, we do as instructed, figuring we may as well roll with it. we get on the third bus and get stared down by the locals. we respond with our typical goofy smiles and begin to take in all the commotion going on around us. next to the bus on the sidewalk there are several sacks with baby squealing pigs inside. a couple of the pigs are rolling around in the sacks as they desperately try to get out. i'm a bit bothered. i mean, i love to eat suckling pig - but i really don't care to hear or see them suffering in the sacks next to the bus. we hear a couple of the pigs being put into the trunk of the minibus. oh great, i think. people and their stuff keeps piling on the minibus. i wonder...how much can fit on this little minibus? well... a lot. 22 humans with their baggage, a couple of baby pigs, a huge appliance box that looks like a tv, a new wok, two 100 pound bags of buckwheat flour, several stalks of sugar cane tied to the roof, and two large baskets of tangerines that are blocking the aisle. isn't that a fire hazard? unreal. we start heading up the mountain and we are finally on our way to the village. about 45 minutes later the bus drops us off at the entrance of the village of ping an.

as there are no streets (only sidewalks and stairs) in ping an, we begin the one hour ascent to the village that is positioned between 2 mountains and the rice terraces that are almost 2000 meters above sea level. the zhuang and yao minority peoples of the village created and have tended to the terraces generation after generation for hundreds of years. we arrived to the village and had a mediocre lunch at a restaraunt that had mouse on the menu for 90 yuan ($13.00). we thought it was pretty pricey for mouse. i mean, is it premium mouse? after lunch we headed up a few hundred more stairs to some of the most remarkable vistas we've seen in china. we both agree it was well worth the effort getting there. the photos tell the story... alina