Guilin Day Trip: Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces & Ping'an Zhuang Ethnic Village

What's Included

Meeting and pickup

Itinerary

• 1
  Ping'an Village

  Ping’an Zhuang minority village is located high up in the mountains surrounded by spectacular Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces with about 80 Zhuang ethnic households. The village still maintains the traditional three storied wood buildings with hemp railing. Most of the buildings have a history of more than 100 years. Built largely from timber, the houses are typically rectangular and three stories high, with a high-foot railing style construction. The domestic animals live in the first level and the villagers live in the upper levels. The adorable village is stacked up in layers along the hillside. Stone paths and staircases twist in and out of buildings. Water flows everywhere in streams, rivulets, waterfalls, and channeled in bamboo pipes. The Zhuang people in Ping’an retain their ethnic features of costume and living customs. Men wear short gowns made of hand-loomed cloth; and women wear white shirts, black pants, and brightly colored cloth on their heads.

  1 hour • Admission ticket free
• 2
  Longji Rice Terraces

  Dragon's Backbone in Chinese is Longji and the rice terraces covers over 16,000 acres, with their creation beginning during the Yuan Dynasty, the terraced fields were mostly built during the Ming Dynasty about 500 years ago. Longji literally means “Dragon’s Backbone” due to the fact that the rice terraces look just like a dragon’s scales, while the mountain’s summit resembles the backbone. Terracing the fields like this not only decreases the chances of erosion, it also helps hold water in place as rice requires a lot of water to grow. The terraced fields are built along the slope winding from the riverside up to the mountain top, the highest part being 880 meters in elevation while the lowest part is 380 meters. The coiling line that starts from the mountain foot up to the mountain top divides the mountain into layers of water glittering in the sun in spring, layers of green rice shoots in summer, layers of golden rice in fall, and layers of silvery frost in winter.

  1 hour • Admission ticket included

Additional info

• Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
• Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels
• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Keep your passport on you constantly. It might be needed to buy entrance tickets.
• Halal Meals (lunch & dinner) are not included. Please feel free to ask your guide for suggestions and recommendations.

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