We shown up in Guilin as well as inspected in to our nice, big, clean space at The Backstreet youth Hostel. ideal away we started speaking with the personnel about organizing a trip out to the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces, a sight outside of Guilin that has made this area famous. therefore far no other tourists had subscribed for the trip we wanted. lots of people comply with the leader in a guided excursion around the terraces where you get shuttled around to different view points by the normal megaphone toting Chinese excursion guide. We were trying to just get a trip up there, hike the with some villages at the terraces, inspect out the view points ourselves, as well as then get a trip back to Guilin. thankfully it was Wednesday, as well as Wednesday is “dumpling night” at The Backstreet youth Hostel, so we would have ample time to chat with other backpackers as well as get together the 6 people needed to fill the ride.

learning exactly how to make dumplings

 

dumpling making at the hostel
Dumpling night is a prominent activity at lots of of China’s finest hostels as well as guest houses. This is the very first time we were lucky sufficient to show up on dumpling night as well as we swiftly comprehended why rolling out dough, stuffing rolls as well as chowing down, has ended up being such a prominent idea. We liked it. It provided everybody in the hostel a possibility to link as well as switch travel stories, it likewise provided us all a possibility to speak to the Chinese personnel at the hostel, who all seemed to like dumpling night as much as we did. We need to have made about 200 dumplings as well as after the personnel steamed them up, all of us ate them around a huge table as well as organized our trip for the next day. We ended up getting a quite great group together as well as we made a decision to leave the next morning at 8 am.

us enjoying the completed product with everyone
We awoke to the tip-tap of rain drops on the tin roofs outside. We looked outside to see a foggy, thick mist enveloping the town, however all of us told ourselves that it would vanish as we got higher into the mountains as well as better to the rice terraces. all of us piled into the tiny van, 2 Canadians (us), 2 Americans, 2 Italians, 2 Slovenians, 1 Austrian as well as 1 Chinese guy, Phoenix, who made a decision to take it upon himself to be our excursion guide, even though we organized this trip to prevent excursion guides. Anyway, when we shown up at the top the rain was pouring down as well as our possibilities of even seeing one patch of rice were looking dire. I understand it seems like we’ve had a great deal of poor weather condition lately, as well as we have, however in our luck’s defence, the Dragon’s Backbone sees a great deal of rain annually so our arrival wasn’t truly ill-timed. in spite of a fog that prevented us from seeing 10 feet in front of us, we got off at Pigan Village. The road to Daxai was closed because of land slides so we were not able to go to the most popular view-point, however we were told that Pigan was just as good, although as you can see by this photo, the views were less than excellent at the time of our arrival. 

haha, excellent background!
Phoenix promptly took control, anxious that if people don’t travel in packs then somebody may stray as well as get hurt. The Chinese just cannot fathom a world where people travel independently. He led us as much as the top view-point where we were rewarded with a lot more dense fog. A bit deflated, all of us sat at the cafe as well as took pleasure in some breakfast that we had packed for our hike, which was clearly not going to occur today. The rain poured down for a couple of hours, however every when in a while the fog would part somewhat as well as we might see about 10 square meters of rice so all of us rushed over to get a look as well as a poor picture before returning to the dry cafe. The Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces are much like the terraces we were indicated to see in Banaue, Philippines. large feats of human engineering that were carved out of mountain sides countless years back as well as utilized for the gather of China’s a lot of valuable grain, rice. We’ve seen lots of photos of this area as well as we were very ecstatic to see them with our own eyes, particularly after missing Banaue because of weather.

this was meant to be one of the very best viewpoints! totally covered in fog during the beginning of the hike
 

this view is getting much better now

 

the terraces are starting to showthemselves
Well, patience paid off, we hung-out at the top for about 3 hours when lastly the fog gods applauded our persistence as well as parted the mist to ensure that we might see what a incredible view we had been missing. These terraces increase as much as 1000m as well as are genuinely astonishing.  dazzling reflection shone off the glass calm waters which pooled in their spoon-shaped design. A sight well worth the wait. While the fog lifted everybody took as lots of pictures as their shutter speed would enable them, anxious that the blinding mist would return. After we were all satisfied that we had the pictures we had travelled right here for, we piled back into the bus as well as headed out for dinner. Our self-proclaimed guide, Phoenix, barked our food orders aggressively to the personnel at the restaurant, as well as soon we had a table full of tasty Chinese food, or “food” as it’s understood in China. all of us exchanged travel stories as well as Phoenix taught us a bit bit about Chinese culture. all in all the day was great, when the weather condition was poor the business was excellent as well as when the sun came out the views were sensational. The Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces absolutely lived as much as the hype as well as must be on everyone’s China itinerary.

a best view of the rice terraces
 

rice terraces snaking down the valley

 

stunning rice terraces
 

us at one of the lookout points

 

this feline wouldn’t leave his publish next to the snails as well as eggs being cooked
 

village home

 

local village lady doing some weaving
 

 

village lady cooking the standard rice wrapped in leaves
 

temples lit up at night on the lake in Guilin

 

fresh hot chilis being chopped up
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