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.