enchanted. chasing the sun. terrace hopping in yuanyang. the rice terraces. yuanyang. yunnan. china. december 21st - 25th

what slowly began as a somewhat frustrating time trying to buy our bus tickets to yuanyang, quickly became one of the most incredible and inspiring experiences on our journey so far. after a slightly confusing time figuring out which bus to take to get to the old town of xinjie in yuanyang, we finally managed to purchase our tickets and boarded a bus to where we were hoping to go... to see the rice terraces of yuanyang. after some conversation with other tourists on the bus; two of whom have been to the terraces before, we were confident we would get to our ultimate destination. a slow, winding, scenic journey. carving our way along lush mountainsides, passing deep valleys, remote minority villages, orange tree orchards and often having to avoid the pigs, chickens, oxen, water buffaloes and dogs that share the road with the vehicles. we arrive some 7 hours later in the late afternoon and manage to find the chen family guesthouse relatively easily. we settle in and find a nearby restaurant for dinner (which would be our only dinner place the rest of our time in yuanyang), where our bus travel companions (from hong kong) are all eating as well. we join them and would end up spending much more time with them over the next few days in the terraces and eating dinner and drinking lots of beer! there is singing coming from outside. wonder whats going on?



for over a thousand years, these incredible rice terraces have been hand carved; like perfect contour drawings, out of the mountainsides by the hani and yi people. a self sustaining ecosystem. we are very fortunate to be visiting during the winter season, when the rice paddies are flooded with water and thus creating a reflective pool in the terraces. the best time to view them is at sunrise and sunset, when they reflect the vividly colourful sky above. later that evening, at the guesthouse, we easily arrange a driver and car to take us to the terraces the next day. we find two other guests to join us and split the expense. sunrise through to sunset. yes, a 5:30 am pickup at our guesthouse. going to be an early night indeed!

5:30am... ugh. we do manage to wake up on time. so sleepy, but excited. its still pitch black out. we meet the others and the driver out front of the guesthouse and depart for the slow and bumpy one hour ride to "THE" sunrise terrace, "duoyishu". we are only the 2nd van to arrive. its still very dark out. we wait in the van to stay warm. then, from out of nowhere, faces appear at the van windows. peering into the windows with flashlights. speaking... 'ji dan, ji dan, ji dan...'. they are local hani women and girls, selling hard boiled eggs for breakfast ('ji dan' means chicken egg). since we were still half asleep at that time, it was quite surreal. lights shining about. shadowy faces appearing outside. moving about. speaking. sometimes just standing there and staring at us as we sat in the van. and its barely 6:30am yet! a few more vans start to show up. we decide its time to venture out into the darkness and claim our post on the photographers platforms. we are followed closely by the hani women desperately wanting us to buy some eggs from them. we find a nice corner spot on one of the lower platforms. waiting patiently now for the sun to rise and awaken the terraces below us. the hong kong crew show up and slowly the platforms begin filling up. most with tripods and expensive cameras. the rice terraces of yuanyang thankfully do not attract a lot of tourists, just mainly avid photographers, both amateur and professionals looking for the perfect shot. i can feel a buzz in the air. the anticipation and excitement as the sun slowly starts to rise. the terraces begin to shimmer, reflecting the dim light of the sky above. we are fortunate, today is going to be a pretty crisp and clear day. the next hour or so is spent shooting photos and just standing in awe of the incredible scenery awakening before our eyes. never before had i seen such a stunning landscape. breathtaking. unbelievable. rich. intense. shimmering. i stood there in utter disbelief that people had hand carved these mountains into what i now saw before my eyes. incredibly hard working and tireless generations of people created these beautiful masterpieces in such harmony with their environment. oh, and yes, they still do work in these fields and grow rice crops every year!! i will shut up with my somewhat lame attempt to describe these rice terraces now. we hope our photos will give a sense of just how incredible these terraces really are.
...i'm slowly falling in love with this place and the best is still yet to come.
deep breath.






its still early in the morning. next stop is 'bada' terrace. wow!! my favourite of all the terraces. its sheer size and vastness is unbelievable. seemingly going on forever before it drops out of view over the edge of the mountain. absolutely inspiring. my first thought. to run all the way down. stand at the bottom. in the middle. let myself be absorbed by its beauty. how can this be real? how can people have possibly made these? i quickly gained even more respect for the dedicated people of these rural communities and villages all over the world. even though i know it, its something i could never fully understand growing up in today's north america. snapping out of my daze, i begin to attempt capturing this inspiring place with my lens... a couple of more stops. each equally as breathtaking. more photos. we arrive back to town before noon. a few hours to get lunch, rest up before departing again later in the afternoon for sunset.








titian square is at the centre of the old town in yuanyang. while on the way to lunch, we discover that there is a large group of yi and hani women singing and dancing in the square. seemingly rehearsing for something. the voices, beautiful. the music, melodic. the traditional dress, colourful. what is this all for? its infectious to watch. hard to walk away from, but lunch is needed and we go for food. then rest before departing for the sunset terrace.






4pm. we all meet again outside our guesthouse. our driver/guide is excited to take us on the next part of our journey. sunset at 'laohuzui'. one of the popular sunset terraces. on the way, we stop at another terrace to catch a glimpse as the clouds begin to open up and the sun light breaks through in sharp brilliant rays. splashing on the pooled terrraces below. spectacular reflections and sparkles, glistening off the waters surface. we stay a little too long, seemingly mesmerized by the stunning view before us, and have to hurry to make sunset at laohuzui.





we arrive. the viewing platform is quite crowded by now. mostly the same group that was at sunrise this morning. the hong kong crew is there. already set up. i decide to just hover around and take photos from where ever i can find an opening. laurel finds her spot near the far end of the platform. she is quickly neighboured on either side by 2 excitable men with their big tripods and zoom lenses! they are friends with each other. talking to each other behind, in front of and above laurel, we think they are trying to annoy and crowd her out so they can stand beside each other. laurel doesn't give in and holds her ground. the sun begins to set. the shutterbugs happily clicking away at the beautiful and unbelievable scenery unfolding before their very eyes. oranges shimmers reflected amidst deep blue pools. moving. changing shape. brilliance. colour. surreal. the sun slowly descends through pockets of thick clouds. mostly hidden. but noticeably there. laurels' neighbour to her left looks at her. then at her camera. then at her lens. he points to her lens with a look of disappointment and says something to her in mandarin. laurel realizes that he was trying to tell her that she can't possibly take great photos here with that lens on her camera. she knows that already, but its the only lens she has with her. then after much broken english, broken mandarin and excited hand gesturing,he takes his memory card out of his camera and motions for laurel to use her card in his camera to take some photos for herself. what a nice guy. both cameras are canons. unfortunately, his camera uses a compact flash memory card and laurels, an SD memory card. oh well, thats too bad. he doesn't give up though. the grabs his backpack and pulls out 'another' camera (yes, he has brought two with him) with a long telephoto lens on it and proceeds to remove the lens from the camera and hands it over to laurel and tells her to use it to shoot some photos. wow. what a super nice guy. the lens fits on laurels camera!! she is both hesitant and nervous to be using someone elses expensive lens, but is excited with the opportunity to be able to capture the sunset at laohuzui with a new perspective. he wanders off for a bit, happy to be able to help laurel out. after about 30 minutes, laurel hands back the lens and is extremely thankful for his generosity. those two men (we think from beijing) brought quite a refreshing energy to the rice terraces. easily excitable. often humorous. they interacted with us as much as possible with our somewhat limited mandarin and their limited english. but we managed. it was quite a fun and exciting encounter. we would see then again over the next couple of days. always excited and happy to see us and sharing each others photos of the day. the sun set on a lovely day and we all made out way back to the town in our respective cars. plans for dinner with the hong kong crew at the usual place. great conversation, yummy food and much beer drinking ensues. and did we mention it was all very inexpensive? we say goodbye to some of the hong kong crew. dan and neve (really they are from shen zen, not HK, but its close enough) and joe and fleur, all of whom will be leaving yuanyang tomorrow morning for other destinations. its been a great last 24 hours meeting and spending time at the terraces with you. hope to see you again in hong kong. ron and eileen are staying longer. we will meet them again tomorrow and the next day. an incredibly exciting, inspiring and breathtaking first full day at the rice terraces. two more to go. we decide not to get up early for sunrise tomorrow. sleep in a bit. see how the day goes before deciding about heading out to the terraces again.






the next day begins sometime after sunrise, but still well before noon. we decide to move from our guesthouse to a nearby hotel. the exact reason, we are unsure of. maybe the room was a little dingy and uninspired, although the family was very nice and hospitable and helpful. maybe it was the shower that hovered over the squat toilet instead of the usual beside it? either way, we moved to a newer hotel that was right off of titian square. meet up with ron and eileen to discuss the plans for the day. outside is dense fog. hard to see much at all. we are lucky to have decided to not venture out for sunrise. will there be an opportunity for sunset? we'll decide later. somewhat disappointed at the lost photo opportunity because of the weather, but its an opportunity to explore something new. shooting in the fog. we wander the small streets of xinjie town in yuanyang. much is alive here. such spirit and energy. a colourful history. back in titian square the hani and yi women are rehearsing their immense performance again. singing and dancing. the square is as dense with people as it is with fog! this time we find someone to ask what its all about. they have a big local celebration each year near the end of the year 'yuanyang night', in which the women and men from the villages perform for each other and for the people from the town and villages. then they celebrate with a huge 'long street banquet'. its not meant to be a touristy thing at all. we feel extremely fortunate to be here to witness the rehearsals. unfortunately, we won't be here for the main performance. we stand and watch as they run through their performance. sing, dancing and playing a traditional string instrument in one group and another group practicing their fan dance and song. bright coloured traditional dress fill the foggy square with intense splashes of colour. there is no pulling ourself away from watching all of this. well, atleast until hunger sets in. time for lunch.




after a late lunch, we decide to skip going to the terraces for sunset and save it for another full day tomorrow. the afternoon. more wandering through the foggy streets of yuanyang. exploring. then resting. at dinner, the women are back rehearsing in the square. there is no stop in them as they tirelessly run through their routine over and over. we watch and listen yet again. its dark out now. still foggy. the square is spotted with light from lamps and from neighbouring buildings. once again we have to pull ourselves away from watching and listening in order to get food. we eat dinner. drink beer. same restaurant. make plans for sunrise tomorrow morning. 6:00am. better then 5:30am. another early night as we have yet another early morning. hope its going to be clearer weather out tomorrow.








6:00am. our last full day here. we meet ron, eileen and our driver outside the hotel. its still foggy out this morning, but we are going anyways. with hopes that it'll be a little clearer at the terraces. 'duoyishu' again. definitely the most popular sunrise terrace. the one hour drive was spotted with clear patches. then dense fog again. we are unsure how it will be at duoyishu. the driver thinks it'll be a good sunrise though. we hope so. arriving a little later then the first day. we are once again surrounded my the hani women and their children trying to sell us hard boiled eggs. i'm hungry. will buy some later (5 to be exact!!). for now its time to find our spots on the platforms. our friends from beijing are there again. the fog stayed, but in patches creating an interesting effect in the terraces. the sunrise was still quite incredible to watch.








later that morning and into the early afternoon, we visit a few more terraces. as i've spent time observing them from the top. i decide to venture downwards into the terraces themselves. carefully walking along the piled earth ridges. not wanting to damage them and not wanting to fall into a pool of water. hopping down one terrace at a time. hoping that i can make my way back up. often encountering a pig or chicken along the way. how the hell do the pigs climb up these terraces? its amazing that they can be so high up with such short legs!! and we've seen water buffalo walking through the terraces as well. they are huge. with four legs. on barely a one foot wide path of sometimes soft, muddy earth. incredible agility! spotting a nearby village, eileen and i venture down down to see what its all about. a few people outside doing chores. its old. rustic. we wander and explore for a bit then as we are about to leave, we are pretty much chased out by a couple of nasty, intimidating sounding dogs, protecting their homes. i was getting worried for my ankle at one point, but we made it out unscathed. phew! more terrace hopping. its incredibly fun. somewhat challenging, but extremely exhilarating. by the end of the day, i ending up wiping out a couple of times climbing back up, but managed to stay out of the pools of water!! just got myself a little muddy.







lunch back in town. titian square is filled yet again. the women gathered for a big group meeting before rehearsing some more. then, the men finally decide to show up. sporting their drums. we hadn't seen them at all since we got here except as spectators. they practice as everyone else gathers around to watch. something new in the square.




afternoon. another terrace. and more terrace hopping. i could do this all day. then sunset. this time to 'bada' my fave terrace of them all. a perfect place to end our time in the terraces. we arrive to a cloud filled terrace, but it slowly begins to clear as the sun begins to set, giving us some breathtaking moments on the reflective water pools of 'bada', before the clouds crept back in again for good. what a tease. still. it was a spectacular sunset. back in town. our final dinner in yuanyang before departing back to kunming in the morning. laurel is exhausted and decides to rest in the hotel and skip dinner. i meet ron and eileen. it completely slipped my mind, but its christmas eve. to celebrate we each have a glass of bai jiao (chinese rice wine), scooped right out of a huge jug. a small tea cup later and i was feeling the effects of this highly proofed wine. so much so that it would last until the next day! haha. we had a nice dinner. chatted with some other guests and then i said my goodbyes to ron and eileen. it was great to meet you here in the rice terraces of yuanyang. you've made this experience all the more incredible for us. hope to see you back in hong kong in the spring. the square is quiet tonight. no rehearsals. pity. was looking forward to one last performance.











its christmas day. if we still celebrated christmas, we couldn't have asked for a better present then our experience here at the terraces. we are extremely sad to be leaving here. this place is special. the people warm. friendly. the rice terraces. simply spectacular. our time here. just as spectacular. maybe we will see you again.



more yuanyang photos on flickr: click here

the kunming bus station. round two.

it is time to visit the kunming bus station again for our trip to the rice terraces, and although i had hoped to arrive at the bus with a note from the hostel to help us to board our bus without the difficulties we encountered last time, they weren't very sympathetic to the problem and wrote a basic 'where is my bus' note for me in chinese that didn't really convey the issues we were hoping to avoid. armed with this note and some thoughts as to how to handle another situation should it arise, we depart.

the usual bustle as you leave the taxi ensues, and after saying many ' bu yao's' to the solicitations outside, we enter the bus station. stephen inquires about our bus, gets directed outside, and my hopes that this gentleman only works at night for the sleeper buses to lijiang are quickly dashed, he is standing at the entrance to the bus to yuanyang with another man. i put up my hand to him in a very 'i'm not dealing with you' gesture, and stephen bypasses him to hand our tickets over to the second gentleman. we make it on to the bus and in to our seats, most likely without being accosted just yet as we have left our large packs at cloudland and have only our small packs with us this time. the bus fills up, and eventually this man comes on board to (of all things) hand out flyers to the foreigners on board for a hotel at the rice terraces. he abruptly says to stephen at this point 'japan!', to which stephen replies 'canadian' and brushes him off. the bus leaves shortly after, and it seems we have managed to avoid an encounter this time.

we quickly strike up conversation with another group of tourists traveling together to the rice terraces, and we discover why we weren't hassled, they were. there are six of them, some with fairly large packs, and our 'friend' tried to aggressively solicit money from them. luckily, two of them spoke pretty good mandarin, and as we discover, they all live in hong kong/shen zen, so are a bit more savy on the ins and outs of travel in china. in the end, only one of them paid, and it was a small amount, maybe 10-20 yuan. we explain our previous encounter to them, and all of us are fairly certain this is a huge scam. after our first stop a couple of hours later, the group tells us that they were talking to the bus driver outside, and he told them that the guy was not legit, and that they should report him. our suspicions are confirmed! round two over, we put it out of mind and are anticipating our arrival in xin jie. a bit more successful than last time!

kunming. yunnan. china. december 19th - 21st.

returning to kunming. a bit of a welcome moment, having finally left dali, but also overwhelming, the big city again after 3 weeks away from one! we return to cloudland though, and spend our two days relaxing, eating far too many meals in the convenient and super friendly guesthouse restaurant, catching up and planning the next part of our travels. a visit to another guesthouse, we bump in to aviv briefly, a fellow traveler we met in chengdu. other than that, we do nothing except get supplies for our next bus ride, hang out in cloudland, and plan our travels to yuangyang rice terraces, something that proves a bit challenging! (no one can clearly tell us how to get there, the info in our guide and online is vague at best). we'll see what ensues, round two at the kunming bus station, and our attempt to reach the city of xin jie!

dali. yunnan. china. december 13th - 19th

i am writing this months later, and feel so removed from our time in dali that i think this will end up a very short, succinct entry. dali. a small town, easy to navigate, easy to linger too long in, somewhere we didn't end up doing the things that maybe we should have. we arrive from shaxi, and get to our guesthouse relatively easily, and after settling in to our room, we wander in search of food. dali is split up in to the old town and new town, we find ourselves in old town, and it is quite small and easy to walk around, so searching for one of my 'ever elusive' vegetarian restaurants proves quite easy here. after a nice meal, we wander to the west gate in time for sunset, then we wander south, and reach the south gate all lit up at night, so have seen the east, west and south gates already in our first few hours here. after dinner, some random wandering. we stumble across a square where a performance of traditional instruments is about to take place, and we are among few who stay to watch the whole thing. in all, our first night here the vibe seems pretty chilled, and like a good place to unwind from the intense experiences of the past two weeks.





the next day is much the same, aimless wandering through the old town, eating, chilling out. we visit the north gate today, and now have been to the four cardinal points of the old town. not much to say, it is nice here, but not as alluring as the two previous places we have been. for some reason we are unmotivated to make it out to erhai lake today, one of the main attractions of dali, the other being cangshan mountain. details and days blend a bit, and the events that ensue are a bit hard to seperate. first disappointment seems trivial, but it actually ends up absorbing alot of our time. long story short, this turns out to be the most difficult, and expensive, city yet to get our laundry done in. i end up at a guesthouse on the other end of the old town where i am charged 3X as much as we have been paying elsewhere in china to do our laundry. there are two pluses to this though, we bump in to angela (from shaxi) at the guesthouse the first day when i am inquiring whether or not i can bring my laundry here to have it washed, and when i go to pick it up the next afternoon, i run in to mei from panba guesthouse who is in dali for the afternoon from lijiang! days spent wandering the old town snapping photos, catching sunset, eating.








at some point, stephen gets sick, not sure if it's food related, but after a night of visits to the bathroom, the next day is spent entirely in bed recovering. at some point also, we have changed rooms in our guesthouse, from a very large airy room with lots of windows, to the nice enough but smaller room that doesn't compare where we find ourselves when stephen gets sick. he recovers slowly, only to have it hit me two days later. the same story unfolds for me, but somehow inbetween the two events we make it up to cangshan mountain for the afternoon. it begins as a lovely respite from the city, the air is cool and clean, the view lovely, the quiet and isolation peaceful, but for some reason my mood shifts and the day ends on a bit of a lower note. nice enough afternoon though overall with a spectacular cable car ride up and down the mountain, and a really needed break from the old town which is wearing thin for me.






in all of our wanderings we travel back and forth on ren min lu many times a day. our hotel is at one end of this street, the restaurants at the other. this is the part of dali that wears on me the most, each day i am progressively exposed to more and more sights that i wish i had never had to witness. as in most of china, this road is lined with restaurants which display their meat in the form of raw animal carcasses hanging from the front. i have come to learn to accept this as part of our travels, but avert my eyes and avoid it in any way possible, something a bit difficult in this narrow lane. what i hadn't learned yet, and quickly figure out, is that these animals are freshly processed daily, and if you get up early enough in the morning, it is happening right in front of the establishments in question. this began with me seeing slumped animal hides, ears, hooves and all, from the freshly skinned animals, just laying on the ground, just tossed aside. it made me sick to see, and after a short walk, i start using my umbrella as a shield to block my view. i had already begun to try walking a different route as well, but i hadn't fully learned my lesson yet when on one of our last days here i glance up quickly to witness (for 1 second) a stage of processing the animals that i will not describe and i have tried very hard to erase from my memory since. it was the final thing for me, after being worn down by this day by day, i am ready to leave dali.




in hindsight, we should have probably stayed on the mountain, or on the lake, somewhere we didn't even end up seeing! but we didn't know what to expect upon arrival, and getting sick sort of made it difficult to move locations, both physically, and on a motivational level. in it's defense, we visited dali after lijiang and shaxi, two places where our experiences were exceptional, so it had alot to live up to, it is not hard to see why it fell short. neither one of us would suggest that it is not worth a visit, but for us, it did not sit well, and we wish we hadn't lingered so long. under different circumstances we may have seen more of the beauty of dali, but for now, it remains a bit of a disappointing experience for us, not one that we regret, but one we wish we could have experienced differently.