A taxi ride and two public bus changes got us from Guilin to Ping'an - a picturesque rural village set atop the rice terraces. Harvest time is the most popular time to visit this region as the myriad of terraces with their yellowing rice is a pleasing sight. This is yet another tourist mecca. We found a home stay by following a local Yao woman to her home. Meandering green slate paths led us up narrow alleyways to her multi-storied pine abode. Surprisingly the green slate is the same as the green slate we have used in our mud-brick home. It looks like it originated in this region.
Tourists are well catered for with numerous gift shops and eateries along the alleyways. New buildings rising from the hillsides reflect the injection of funding from tourism. The meandering slate paths are host to foreigners from many lands, sporting cameras. They also provide access to locals going about their daily bsiness, carrying huge loads of rice, carts, leading ponies, selling fruit etc. Harvest time sees the rice farmers hard at work manually or mechanically cutting then threshing the rice. We were privileged enough to witness this centuries old tradition. The paths provide a great insight into rural life, traversing creeks, bamboo groves, conifer plantations, crops of spinach, sweet potato, taro etc. planted on slopes that are too steep for rice.
You know tourists are well catered for when after a steep climb you can indulge in Belgian icecream, cool drinks or mango ice-cream!!
Air quality remains poor and we are unsure whether this is related to smog, agricultural burning of rice crops or industrial burning of coal....
As for the long-haired Yao women, they are expert at cajoling tourists into taking photos of them wrapping their metre plus long hair into rolls atop thier heads, selling trinkets and fabrics . No qualms are harboured about quadrupling their prices, but haggling with good humour is commonplace.
We enjoyed this beautiful location which gave us an insight into life in rural China. Next stop is Yangshao - the karst region.
