Hi All,
Dragon's Backbone Rice Terrace.
We decided to head out to Longsheng from Yangshuo on a day trip. It was an organised tour arranged through the cafe. 3hrs drive later and we arrived at Yangshuo and our tour guide told us that we needed to pay an additional amount for a bus up to the rice terraces and also to get entry to the village. We were quite annoyed as this was an undisclosed cost and might have changed our decision to visit. To make it worse the tour guide would not tell us the time to be back at the bus to return to Yangshuo so we really didn't have much choice but to pay the extra. Not happy. So the women of the area are famous for their long hair which when let down is up to 1.75m long! We entered the village which was very touristy and the locals were chasing us around with postcards, books and 'handmade' items. Quite persistent and annoying. Then we were led into a large area with a stage. Oh no. An authentic cultural show. Damn you tour guide. A bit of a dancing show with some crowd involvement then the performers let their hair down. We left the large area with bottom pinches from the local women. It is their way of saying they like you. Then back to being chased by more postcard holding locals. They chased us up to the swing bridge over the river before giving up. Luckily we got on the bus soon after and headed up to the rice terraces which were about 1000m above sea level.
Well not quite. The tour guide was in no rush and took the group to a restuarant in the very touristy village along the way. We just sat outside and ate vegemite sandwiches before heading up to the terraces only to get there and say 'your kidding. we came all the way to here for this?' It was an overcast day so we were glad that we got a good view of the area but it was less than stunning as it was off season. The pictures that we had seen only reflected a small section of the year.
We headed back down and got on the bus back to Yangshuo for the 3hr trip back.
Tick. Been there even bought the postcards...don't think we will be back.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
