Ping'An & The Dragons Backbone Rice Terraces

What better way to start a 6 day mini-backpacking adventure then with a good Foot Massage in Guangzhou? Yes, these are my footsies as they appeared about 45 minutes into a lovely evening with the young and talented (and I was told SINGLE) #13. I'm certain he had a name, but in the massage places, they all have numbers, and they proudly tell you, "I am number 13!" Great! We knew from experience earlier in the week that #7 was a master, but #13 was a complete unknown until this evening. My toes were feeling quite lovely by the end of the night & I was wondering what it would take to employ #13 full time in Oregon so that I could partake of a lovely and wonderful foot massage one time a week...

So after the foot massage in Guangzhou, the next morning I headed off to the airport bright and early and took a 9:30 flight to Guilin. The trip on the first day was rather a surprise. Lonely planet assured me the bus from Guilin to Longsheng took 4 hours. So- after arriving at the Guilin airport, I took the airport bus to the train station, then a taxi to the bus station, and bought a ticket for the 4 hour busride to Longsheng. 2 hours later, the bus arrived in Longsheng! I guess the roads have been improved since the 2003 edition of Lonel Planet China... I had planned to stay overnight in Longsheng, then go another hour north to Ping'An the next day...however as I arrived in Longsheng, I noted what an ugly little city it was, and opted to skip the town altogether and go straight into the bus station and check for the next bus to Ping'An. I found out I only need to wait an hour, so I turned around to find a seat, only to find another westerner coming in the bus station. He said hello & we started talking. I told him I was skipping Longsheng as it appeared to just be an ugly city, and was going straight to Ping'An (he had also just come from Guilin, but on a different bus)- he said it sounded good & would go along as well. HE ended up being Tamir, from Israel. One thing I learned on this trip is the word for Israel: Isari. As in, when people would ask me "ni shi meiguoren?" (you are an american?" And I would respond, (in Chinese) I'm American, my friend is Israeli.

Keep in mind that I am still heavily coughing up a lung with the upper respiratory-whatever infection at this time, so I'm drinking a lot of water. Now envision that this little town- Ping'An- is suddenly more accesible in the past few years because while it IS on the top of a mountain, the nice paved road goes almost up to it...but with lots of twists and turns. Back to me drinking a lot of water. I was talking in Chinese with the woman who collects the money on the bus- she told me her friend has a hotel in Ping'an. I told her "great, but now I really need a bathroom." She said "yes! the hotel has toilets! The sit down kind!" I said, 'great, but right NOW I need a toilet!" She said, Oh! Now!. So moments later we come to a fork in the road, she tells the bus driver to stop, sends me off the bus to a little cement shack down a little hill with a toilet! I was incredibly thankful, but even moreso when we arrived finally at the "top" of the mountain, only to find that from where the bus lets you off, you still have a 20 minute climb up stairs/up the mountain before you get to the town. That is when I was especially thankful of the mercifully located squatty potty halfway up the mountain!
We found the hotel & this was the view out my window (or part of it).
The entire city was under construction. They have been getting Chinese tourists in droves & are building hotel after hotel. We stayed in the conveniently located but LOUD 45 Yuan a night hotel. But, it had western style toilets. That was quite a bargian we found out. We checked out another hotel, but the rooms with toilets in them (squatty potties at that) were 120 Yuan, 80 Yuan a night for a shared bathroom (squatty and all) in the hallway.

This is Tamir- my travel companion. Until this trip I had never traveled on my own- not on vacation that is. Several people told me "you won't travel on your own, you always run into people & you always end up traveling with other people, even if you try to travel on your own..." Clearly this turned out to be true, as I met Tamir even before I got to my destination on the first day, and we ended up traveling together the entire time I was on holiday.

Now before anyone gets too excited about those lovely icy blue eyes or that adorable rugged look, I need to be absolutely up front & say that Tamir is best described as "Rabbi Tamir". This trip was fantastic because I saw some beautiful things, I ate wonderful food, I had a very companionable and agreeable travel companion, and he was incredibly interesting to talk to. Tamir is the first person I have met who is "very Jewish." I have met "very Catholic" and "Very Methodist" and "Very other things", but I have never known anyone who is "Very Jewish"- so I asked him question after question after question because he was first a fountain of information, and secondly incredibly patient with all of my questions! Clearly a good combination in a travel companion! He prays 3 times a day, doesn't travel on Shabbot, we had a lovely Shabbot dinner together, had a few good long hikes, traveled on busses together, shared some great meals, and just a very enjoyable time, overall. And at the end of the trip, we wished each other luck & went our separate ways. The whole "dropping in" and "dropping out" was quite reminiscent of the letter I typed in my blog several months ago from my Grandmother many years ago. Sometimes people just come into your life for a few conversations & then you never see them again, but your life is enriched for these moments. After several days of my incessant questions he asked something to the exent of "am I converting you" or something like that, I told him no, but as I had never met someone who was so devoutly Jewish, I had all these questions that I was so curious to understand. I told him it was so easy to ask him all of the questions because while it was clearly the center of his life and very important to him and the way he believed was best, he was patiently answering my questions without being 'preachy' or trying to tell me why it was the "only" way to believe. He laughed & said "well you can't be Jewish anyway so why would I try to convert you?" I think that's when I told him he had a big head & we had another beer. Anyway- it was all very interesting & I learned a lot!

We met up for breakfast the first morning at a place serving eggs & toast with a lovely view of the terraces. On leaving the restaurant I saw this in an alley:

While this looks like a lot of trash, it's good to know that the Chinese are actually quite good at recycling. All of these plastic bottles they will turn in for cash, and they will be recycled. Boxes, paper, plastic- at least in the interest of money and profit, the Chinese are good at recycling, which is a very GOOD thing.
The story behind the terraced rice fields is that many many (MANY) years ago, the various minority groups in this area were all trying to stake their claims on the land. Warring minority tribes took over land, lost land, back & forth, until finally some of the minority groups were forced up the mountains, while the stronger minority groups maintained the lower/flatter areas. Those in the mountains (the Zhuan Minority) needed to find ways to continue to live and thrive, so they started to form rice terraces in the hillsides. As they were gradually pushed further and further up the mountains, the mountains were gradually terraced all the way to the top. Because they are on a mountainside, the entire village is covered in stone stairs & stone paths. Generally no more than 2 houses are on the same level, with the next house being anywhere from a few steps higher or lower, to a dozen steps higher or lower, in some cases, much more. The byproduct of this is that nearly every house, at least on one side, has an amazing view of these beautiful mountains that spread out below them. Ping'An rests right on the ridge of a few of the mountains, so you can see these terraced mountains all around you.
The Rice season has passed, so the fields were mostly brown, but here and there we could see water in a few of the terraces. There was rice laying to dry everywhere, also a lot of red peppers.
China's population is getting wealthier and wealthier- as a result they are starting to discover their own country and flock to places like Ping'An, Yangshuo, Beijing, LiJiang, etc in droves. Be it good or bad, they are discovering their own country. I think that's very positive because it's THEIR country- it's a shame to think they don't all know of the vast array of amazing things their country has to offer. Now that more of the population is becoming wealthy enough to be mobile and tour in their own country, it gives them another thing to be proud of. That's great. From my very western ideals, the downside is the style of tourism is not quite what I value when I travel through China or any country for that matter. When I am in China, I LOVE going to Markets- Vegetable and meat and medicine markets. I like to get into the countryside and see the natural beauty, I like to go through small villages where families are living their lives & maybe wave as I go through, but that's it. The vast majority of Chinese prefer to travel in large tour groups, and the tour groups arrange "cultural experiences"- which are a bit like forced exposure to the culture. For example- arranging local minority groups dancing- imagine walking into a small village & suddenly 20 women appear & start dancing just as your tour group with the yellow flag and matching yellow hats appear with your cameras. Oh! How did that happen?! SO GREAT! We saw minority dancing! While certainly there is the likelyhood it was beautiful, it's not exactly an accurate picture of the country. It's a bit like turning these tourist locations into mini versions of disneyland. Of what I've seen of the bulk of Chinese tourists (and I don't want to say this is "all" by any means)- is they like the group experience, and they want it packed into a tight, organized event, with every bell & whistle possible, and a bag full of souviniers to match. There are PLENTY of Americans who want the same thing! I'm only observing the chinese method of travel and would not attempt to say there are not a LOT of Americans who do the same thing, I just don't tend to be one of them!
The downside of these tour groups coming & encouraging this 'forced culture' is that it then changes the culture. When we were in Ping'An, we were ruthlessly chased by the Long Haired Zuang Minority women who wanted to show us their Long Hair. It's a show. You pay money, they un-do the long hair that is wrapped around their heads, they comb it out, you take pictures, they hold it, they all pose holding their hair various ways, you take pictures, they smile, you take pictures, end of show. One day, two of the women followed us hiking for 2 hours! Long hair? Want to see long hair? YES! WE GET IT! YOU HAVE LONG HAIR! NOW PLEASE GO AWAY!! Seriously, once you've seen the pics, that's all their is to see. it goes down to their ankles. Great. What I'd really like to see is where you plant rice, how you work in fields that are so small & so steep. How you hull the rice or store the peppers. But no, I really, and TRULY, do not want to see your long hair.