Dragon’s Backbone (Longji) Rice Terraces
Ping’an, China, December, 2008
From Guilin we took an eventful bus ride up to the tiny village of Ping'an, where we stayed overnight to fully explore the Longji Rice Terraces, also known as the Dragon's Backbone, which is over 700 years old. Although it was winter and so all of the rice was harvested and the hills golden brown, the 500m terraced hillsides, sweeping vistas to the valleys, and age-old architecture all was still quite a spectacle. We even hiked along a footpath to a nearby village, about an hour in. Outside of tourist season, this area is serene and peaceful, and breathtakingly beautiful.