Day 4: Visit to Longji Rice Terraces

Monday 14 October 2013

Day 4: Visit to Longji Rice Terraces

This was a sightseeing day before catching the night train back to Hong Kong. Sherman recommended we went to visit the Longji rice terraces near Longsheng, about 80 Kms north west of Guilin. We did think about taking our bikes on the bus to Longsheng and attempting the 13 kms climb up to the terraces. In the end we decided against, and we discovered that the road to the terraces is very twisty and the tour buses sound their horns as they round each blind bend at speed. As cyclists, we would be able to hear them, but they would not hear us and see us very late! Hopefully, if we were able to cycle this road, the bus company could warn all the drivers to watch out for us on the road. Anyway it will have to await another visit.

This was the last day of our short trip to the Guilin area. We had some very good and interesting cycling. I think I preferred Yangshuo to Guilin for the cycling, where we found plenty of nice smooth concrete country and farm roads to cycle on beside the Li and Yulong rivers. Guilin is a big city and not as neat and picturesque as Yangshuo, but was still interesting to visit and explore.

For travelling to Guilin from Hong Kong, I definitely preferred the train to the bus, even though the bus had bunk beds to sleep on. The main advantage of the bus is it goes directly to Yangshuo.

After returning to Guilin after the rice terraces tour, we went back to our hotel to collect our bikes, cycled to the station, and boarded the sleeper train to Shenzen, leaving at 9.15pm. We arrived at Shenzen at 12.30 the next day, a trip of 15 hours. I did wonder why it took some much longer than the bus which took 12 hours. I discovered that there isn't a direct rail line to Guangzhuo and Shenzen (although one is being built), and the train had to take a 350 kilometres detour northeast to Hengyang before it could turn south for Guangzhuo and Shenzen. A total of 1000 kms compared to the direct road route of 600 Kms. Nevertheless the train was comfortable and afforded a full night sleep and had a buffet car in the next carriage.

Map of the Area: Yangshuo in the south, and the rice terraces to the northwest

The rice terraces above Ping'An village - the rice had just been harvested so not as spectacular now as in the Spring (covered in water), or wind (covered in snow)

Ping'An Village

A way to visit the terraces without walking

There are a lot more than 15 people on this bridge

The show by the long haired ladies
of Huangluo Yao Village

The short haired visitors
to the Long haired ladies' show

Food cooked inside bamboo wood

The rest of our tour bus went to the 'recommended' restaurant, and we had this restaurant to mostly to ourselves.

Friendly faces - and good food and service

The objective is to push on-coming traffic nearly off the road; no one seems to get angry - just a case of maximising the usage of the road space

The night train from Guilin to Shenzen

Me and Brompton all ready for the long night's sleep

Sherman and Birdy likewise

Dining Car - quite grand (Russian built?)

It was a long night!

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What are Karsts?

With over 70,000 karst peaks, Yangshuo is a paradise for climbers, and provides a stunning and distinctive backdrop to the area. Here is some more information on the formation of the karsts.

Karst topography is a three-dimensional landscape shaped by the dissolution of a soluble layer or layers of bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite. These landscapes display distinctive surface features and underground drainage, and in some examples there may be little or no surface drainage. The karstification of a landscape may result in a variety of large or small scale features both on the surface and beneath the ground. Mature karst landscapes, where more bedrock has been removed than remains, may result in karst towers or haystack/eggbox landscapes. Beneath the surface, complex underground drainage systems and extensive caves and cavern systems may form. A karst river may disappear underground a number of times and spring up again in different places, usually bearing a different name.

Yangshuo karst formation:
The entire region is surrounded by mountains, while the central part is covered with hills and plains. The karst geomorphy around Yangshuo is an area of irregular limestone formations in which erosion has produced fissures, sinkholes, underground streams, and caverns. This is wide-spread in the region, creating numerous natural scenic spots.

Two crustal movements of the earth took place about 200 and 180 million years ago, thrusting the limestone sediments out of the sea from its seabed, more than 200 meters below the surface to form a large expanse of land. The karst formation became the hills and rocks with the unusual shapes through many years of erosion by the wind and rain. There are many complete karsts, which are of high scientific and tourist value.

Karst caves and stone forests are a key feature of the natural environment of Yangshuo, and being located within the subtropical/monsoon zone, has a warm and moist climate.