Getting to the LongJi rice terraces was interesting. The bus had to be parked down in the valley. The whole area is an area of special scenic value and access is restricted. We left our suitcases in our bus and just carried the minimum for overnight (plus camera gear, of course). We entered through a gateway to take a shuttle bus for about 1 hour to get to the LongJi valley floor. From there, because the roads were too narrow and rough, and no parking was available higher up, we used a set of local 4WD vehicles to get closer and then we walked the final few km to the hotel. There were local porters to carry baggage, but Jill and I created havoc by carrying our own bags.Our bags were especially heavy or the route particularly rough. The porters they’d organised for our bags got loaded with tripods from the other porters.

On the way up we had a photographic session in the home of a local family of Yao people. The Yao are one of 55 officially recognised ethnic minorities in China. They traditionally work the rice fields, and the porters were all Yao women. The women let their hair grow. It gets cut only once in their life, when they are 18, and they keep the hair (I think they use it as hair extensions). The women roll their hair up to make a sort of hair-turban. When your hair is a metre or more long that does keep it out of your eyes. We had a chance for portraits of the family, though it got rather crowded with 14 photographers in a small space.

After the Yao session, we headed further up the hill. The hotel was situated towards the top of the rice terraces on one of the ridges, so we had a fine overview of the mountains.

It was fascinating to watch the play of light change as the sun fell, and to see the local workers tending the terraces, spreading fertiliser etc. Sadly, since we had no tripods, we didn’t get fabulous sunset/night images. Mind you, there there was a decided lack of colour and excitement with the sunset, so it probably didn’t matter.

In the morning the organisers had arranged for 3 Yao women to wander along the terraces as models to add interest to the foreground. I found the local farm workers much more interesting though.A ga

A gallery of images can be found at https://photos.app.goo.gl/X8usRoiGhQngs7wM6. Enjoy.

We departed the hotel at the LongJi rice terraces with a 10 minute walk to a roadhead. On the way we passed various gourmet delicacies such as “100 year old eggs” and fresh snails.

From the road-head 4WD vehicles conveyed us bumpily down to the valley to the large car park to await the shuttle buses. It was evident that some celebrations had been going on, as the car park was deep with residue of fireworks. Locals were sweeping the mess together, and every so often there would be an explosion as an unexploded firework finally got the hint.

We also found a catydid insect. Very pretty.

The shuttle-bus rattled us down to the entrance gates were we resumed our journey on our own tour bus.

The route took us south via Guilin, where we coordinated with a taxi that had carried our lost bag from the airport.  And then on towards Huixiang to check in at our hotel for the night. As usual we got the 3rd floor – I was hoping for views, but all we got for the effort of lugging our baggage up 3 flights (lifts are uncommon here) was the wall of the adjacent building. Baggage deposited we headed for lunch.

As usual the food was heavily garlic contaminated, and the “meat”  might not pass muster in Australia. I stuck with rice and omelet.

After lunch we headed on to Huixian glass paddies. The ‘roads’ here are narrow. At one point close to our destination, the bus could not make a turn from a bridge to the road round the hill because there were large rocks piled up at the edge. A bit of diligent rock moving, and a lot of backing and forwarding and eventually the bus got past without even a cm to spare. Round the other side we climbed part way up one of the precipitous rock peaks by scrambling up a rough path to get an overlook with fine views of the flooded fields/fish farms below. We photographed there for an hour or so and then headed down. The bus had to share the track with farm workers, vehicles and drying rice, so we did not get through quickly. By the time we returned to our room with no view it was dark, and we were off at 4AM for our next sunrise photography session so the lack of view was not a great trauma.

I made a gallery of more photos at https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZeFpaogMS57Srgom7.

Dragging our weary bodies out of bed at 3:45 AM we dressed and headed down to meet the others in the foyer for our 4AM start. We reached our destination out in the paddy fields, with an ancient arch bridge, well before sunrise, and set up for dawn and the arrival of our ‘model’, a local farmer and his water buffalo. The lighting was very difficult, with very dark foreground and much brighter sky,but some of the photos seem to have worked.
Walking back to the bus, we got to see some of the farmwork – harvesting rice was fascinating. They had small harvesters that ran back and forth on caterpillar tracks, and disgorging the grain into sacks as their hoppers were filled.

From there we went on to Daxian Ancient village to meet some of the locals. Access to the village was a road too narrow for our bus so local transport had been organised – a farm vehicle that was comprised of a naked engine attached to a cart. So we clambered into the back and rattled along for a km or two to the village.

At the village we noted a family of children who were sitting on rocks outside a door doing their homework. They were tackling the work without complaint and with considerable concentration, though they allowed us to take photos whilst they worked. We also took photos of other people in the village. 

After our session photographing the people we had a few minutes of free time before gathering for lunch at a local restaurant.

I had fun wandering the streets looking at the people and their wares. Lots of people seemed to be sleeping. Given the mid-30s temperatures, that wasn’t a bad idea. There were lots of “food” items like local crabs about 2 cm across and tiny fish etc. Yum!

After lunch someone suggested we lay out some camera gear. We managed an impressive display of very expensive camera gear. Here are 23 cameras and lenses… and there were more (many) in the camera bags left on the bus. This was just a subset of lenses that our organiser suggested as suitable for the photographic challenges in the village.

WE then returned to the bus to get to our final venue for the day, Wuzhi Hill, which gives a fine view over the Li river and the mountains behind as the sun sets. Very scenic.

A gallery of photos can be viewed at https://photos.app.goo.gl/voanL2FCNkEL9m8y6.

Another busy day. 3:30am start to get to Xianggong hill. This hill has an amazing overlook to the east over the Li river, so is a famous place for sunrises. So, we were assured, we needed to be there early to get good spots for photography. We were there well before dawn, and it was interesting to see the light change and develop over the next few hours. Unfortunately there was very little colour in the sunrise, but it was pretty nonetheless.

After that we were bussed to a small village where a farmer posed with cattle on an old stone arch bridge. I thought the farmer and beast were not too exciting, but it was interesting to watch the locals go about their daily work.

Afterwards, we drove on to the town of Yangsuo where our hotel was located. We had a couple of hours free to sleep/sightsee as the whim took us. As it was stinking hot I had a short circuit of the town (a thriving tourist town) before taking a shower and siesta. We then had a quick tour of the local market – lots if fascinating things for sale – one section included crates with what looked like cane toads in small mesh bags. Yum!

Our final activity for the day was photographing cormorant fisherman. Two ancient brothers with their cormorants and bamboo rafts had been enlisted for the evening and we spend a couple of hours taking photos of them into the gathering dusk.As usual, there are more photos in a gallery at:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/kceziKjAVqPu5LLH8

Another early start, with a tuktuk to a wharf where we took bamboo rafts up river for an hour. We arrived well before dawn intent on photographing our cormorant fishermen in the dawn light and onwards. The location was lovely, with tall mountains reflected in the river, and the fishermen’s kerosine lanterns gave a lovely warm glow on everything around them.

Afterwards, we had a photo session with the fishermen at their home. We had lots of photo opportunities for portraits. See the online gallery for ore images.

After the photoshoot we walked down a riverside track to the local village where we took a local ferry across the Li river. We had chance to explore local markets before we headed off to Guilin – see those photos in the gallery at https://photos.app.goo.gl/cZePw8LJ6m14K5WS8.

Our final day and a half in Guilin. We have arranged to take one of the famous Li river cruises. A tour bus picked us up at the hotel and wound its way through Guilin picking up more passengers until all seats were filled, then dove another 25 km (40 min) south to the Mopanshan Passenger Wharf. Once we were filled, a lady took the microphone at the front of the bus and began a machine gun narrative. All in Chinese, of course. We were the only westerners on the bus. We assumed she was giving some narrative on the history, culture, geology etc of the Guilin area, but eventually we twigged that she was advertising things. She kept up her patter for the whole journey, gave away some free samples, sprayed stinky perfume on people, and even managed to sell some of the various items she was selling.Here is 15 seconds worth

At the wharf there were people everywhere. We were about the only westerners. Average local wage here is reported to be 75000 yuan (about AU$15000) per year but clearly some must earn more than average – the ferry cruise for a family would cost an average week’s wage or more. The cruise boats were lined up 5 or 6 deep at the wharf, and it was amazing to see them all fill up and cast off. The 9:30 sailing got about 60 boats, all holding about 100 passengers, underway within about 10 minutes.

We were on the 10:30 sailing so we waited around to the appointed time, found our boat and allocated seats and, spot on 10:30 off we went. Curiously, for most of the trip, Jill and I had the roof to ourselves, where we enjoyed the views of the passing mountains and river life. The other 98 passengers seemed to be happy indoors drinking tea. Lunch came at 12:30 on the dot (very regimented) as a prepackaged meal that turned out to be quite good, and very filling.

After 4 h on the river, the ferry left us at Yangsuo, from where we explored the local tourist trinket sellers, the West street shops and then, eventually, to the bus station where we managed to catch the correct public bus to get back to Guilin (AU$4 for the 85 km/1.5 h trip). Thankfully on this bus there was no advertising.

The bus station in Guilin was about 1.5 km from our hotel, but half way we were caught by a thunderstorm. We sheltered for a while, then found a restaurant for dinner, by which time the rain had passed.

After dark we had a look at the pagodas on the lake a few minutes from the hotel.

Next day we had the morning for sightseeing before heading to the airport, so we took a random wander along the river bank. Lots of people were out doing dancing, Tai Chi and other exercises. Down by the water, people were fishing, and a woman was doing her laundry in the river. We had fun, but the temperature and humidity were getting up so it was good to get back to the hotel for a quick shower before the noon checkout.