Longsheng
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Longsheng | |
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Long Ji Titian; Dragon backbone rice terraces |
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There are two main reasons to come and explore the region around Longsheng.
Firstly, you have the amazing scenery. For centuries, the local communities have grown rice on side of the hills here. They have developed a simple yet very efficient terracing and watering system allowing them to grow rice to be able to feed themselves.
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The second reason is the
people themselves. This area has a large number of Chinese ethnic
minorities. There are Miao, Zhuang, Yao and Dong people here. They still
preserve many of their traditional ways of life and it is possible to see
them still wearing their traditional clothes.
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Pingan - Walks and hikes - Where to stay - how to get here - History - Schooling
This village has great advantages.
It is easy to get to.
Has great sights.
Many nice places to spend the night in.
Makes a great base from where to begin hikes around the region.
Pingan is situated in Longsheng county.The landscape is very mountainous and the local people have had to adjust to this landscape for survival.
Over the years, they have terraced much of the mountain side and planted their crops. The main crop is rice, which is used for eating and for producing rice wine. Rice is eaten to supplement the few vegetables and meat that was available to eat.
Other crops are sweet potatoes, tea, taro, chilies and other vegetables.
They have developed an ingenious irrigation system using hollowed out branches or bamboo poles to supply water to each terrace (see our photo album).
Pingan is truly a special place visit
1) Viewpoint 1 and viewpoint 2. It is a 20 minute climb from the village to viewpoint 2. From this viewpoint it is a half hour level walk to view point 1. Back to the village takes about 30 minutes
2) Take a longer walk to Zhong Liu. 2 hours one way. This is a Yao minority village.
3) Two hours past Zhong Liu their is another Zhuang village, DaZhai. There are some guesthouses in this villages. Dazhai also has some very beautiful scenery.
Guided tours available from just about about anyone in the village.
Note: On weekends, Pingan is very busy with Chinese tour groups
PingAn
One of the longstanding favorites is Liqing guesthouse. This family currently operates 3guesthouses; the old one has basis rooms, hot showers downstairs, great balcony, and delicious food.
The new houses has even better views, and some rooms have private bathroom.
Don't miss out on the rice wine.
Contact details
Tel:+86 (0)773-7583048
Mob: 13878352092
email: liqing_gh@hotmail.com
There are now many other places to stay.
Their is a daily tour bus from Yangshuo to Ping An. It leaves Yangshuo at 7.30, arrivingat the bottom of the road to PingAn about three hours later. Please note that this bus carries on to Dazhai
This can be booked through any of the local agencies in Yangshuo.
Public bus.
Take a bus to Longsheng from Guilin Central bus station. Their are two or three buses every hour (2 hours). From Longsheng there are 6 buses a day to Pingan taking 1hour
You can changes buses in Longsheng, or get off the bus at Heping. Heping is about 20 kilometers before Longsheng and that is where the turn off is for Longji, Pingan and Dazhai.
Bus schedule
Longsheng to Ping an
7.30 9.00 11.00 13.00 1500 1630
Allow 30 minutes to get to Heping
Ping An is a village with about 700 people from the Zhuang minority group. In the village people speak the Zhuang language. Their language seems to be closer to Vietnamese than to Chinese. Most minority groups in China have been pushed into the mountains and during the Ming dynasty. The Zhuang apparently moved to this area some 500 years ago.
Foreign tourist have been coming here since the late 1980s. In those days Ping An was still a very remote village. There was no road from the valley going up. The road along the valley was is very bad condition and the trip from Longsheng to Guilin would take at least five hours by bus.
Since most of the farming is for their own use, there was very little money in the village. The only way to earn money was to go to a city and try to find some work, that would pay a few Yuan a day.
In the late nineties it was a group of villagers who decided to start to build a road. Later the government joined them and took over the building. A small part of the entrance fee to the village is given to the families that helped build the road.
The rice fields. Before communism every family had their own rice fields. Some family's had more than others. Since liberation , at birth, the community gives you rice fields. When you die they return to the community. Every family has some fields nearby and some fields further away. Some are small fields and some are bigger fields.
A family produces about 1000 kilos of rice, which is just enough to feed the family. Part of the crop is sticky rice, which is mainly used to make rice wine.
The fields around the house are used to grow vegetables. The fields higher up the mountain, which are to dry for growing rice, are used to grow sweet potato. Sweet potato is also used to make alcohol.
There is a small primary school in the village. From the age of 12 children have to go to Heping or Longsheng. The will go on Monday morning and come back Friday evening.
Most minorities in China are allowed to have 2 children. The Zhuang population is more than 15 million so they are only allowed a second child when the first born is a daughter. Due to this rule there are more girls than boys in the village.
The road has been in use since 2000. Much has changed since than. More and more tourist come here. With money coming in from tourism people have money to build new and better houses.
Future. But who is going to work in the fields?
Ping An is facing a huge dilemma. Tourism is a big opportunity to earn a good living. If one can make 10 times more money running a restaurant, guiding tourists or even carrying luggage, who is going to work in the fields in the future?
An other problem is that this fields are to small to be competitive. It will be easier to buy rice, than to produces themselves.
And what about today's children? With all the possibilities in new China, most of them probably will have no interest in working here.
But Everybody in the village realizes without the rice fields there would be no tourism.
Maybe in the future, they will employ people to work in the fields and the rice will be planted just for decorative reasons. The farmers would become gardeners.
