Post #33 – November 13, 2012 – Yuanyang (Duoyishu), China

What we did: rice terraces
Budget: 450 Yuan/$75; Spent: 270 Yuan/$45

Jeff here.

Today we had a beautiful and relaxing day in Yuanyang or, more specifically, Duoyishu. There seem to be many small towns that are collectively known as Yuanyang in the area, as well as a larger modern town. We were instructed by Lonely Planet to stay away from the modern town.

We woke up bright and early on the recommendation of our hostel’s staff to view the sunrise over the rice terraces. For those of you who do not know what the heck a rice terrace is, basically people have crafted step-like structures down the sides of hills where they plant rice and then flood the steps (or vice versa, I’m not sure). As you can imagine, light falling on countless terraces creates an amazing effect.

We wandered down a road in the direction the staff had indicated around 7am, but the sun was nowhere near sunrise. We reached a lookout point the staff had told us about, but we weren’t going to pay the 100 Yuan entry fee to just look over an edge. So we headed back to our hostel and decided to watch the sunrise from our hostel’s rooftop, which has a great view of the terraces. Here are some pics:

When we arrived last night, we had no idea we were actually walking next to these terraces because it was pitch black. It was pretty amazing to wake up this the morning to this sight. Unfortunately, the fog rolled in and we weren’t able to see much of the terraces during sunrise, so we headed down for breakfast.

When we were eating, the couple from Israel we had spent some time with last night came into our hostel for breakfast. They sat with us and they told us that they had found a really good spot to view the terraces from a little further down the road from where the tourist viewpoint is. We made mental notes to find that place later in the day.

The couple left to go on a walk while Patty was writing the blog and I talked with my mom on Skype. We sat in our hostel for so long that we contemplated ordering lunch! We decided that we would share a Snickers bar instead, and head into town. We had been recommended to go to the town square to check out the view of the terraces from there.

The town is very cool. It’s just an old little town. No cars can enter and there is a beautiful man-made stream running alongside the town’s main road. You can hear the running water from almost everywhere in the town. We walked to the town square and the view from there is truly beautiful. Here are some pics:

From here, our tummies were grumbling and we headed back to the hostel for some lunch. Our hostel actually makes pretty good food, so we are in no hurry to find any other place. We were also moved to another room today, which is a hundred times better than the other hostel room. We now have a western toilet! Yay! We also have a fantastic view from our room.

After eating we decided to head up the street to find the spot the Israeli couple had recommended to us. We were feeling pretty lethargic and wandered along the road pretty slowly. We got some weird looks for some locals and some smiles from some kids. Overall, this has been the least friendly place in terms of the local population. People here seem to dislike our presence, in general. Anyway we wandered through some interesting towns and caught some glimpses of the terraces along the way. On our way back, though, is when we found the little trail off the highway that led to the spot the couple had mentioned to us. I think Patty would agree that it was one of the most amazing sights we’d ever seen in our lives. The valley and the terraces spread out below us and it was just incredible. Truly breathtaking. These pictures just don’t do it justice:

Our way back to the hostel consisted of taking pictures of random fat pigs, beautifully coloured chickens, and some really cute kids. Patty started waving at three little kids along the way and this initiated a waving match between us and them. It was great. By the time we reached the hostel it was time to eat (again!) and we grabbed a bite with the Israeli couple who happened to be there. We again chatted with them for a little while and then they went off to see if they could find a nice sunset picture of the terraces. We were pictured out by this point and ended up just taking some pictures from our roof that didn’t turn out very well.

After dinner we met a very nice Dutch couple, Ires and Michael (I’ve turned his Dutch name into an English one), who had been traveling in China for 5 weeks. They have done China very different from us, deciding to stick to very small towns and travel between them by bus. It seems like they were moving between towns every day or two. They were also doing a trip around the world and would end up in South America for four months! We are very jealous. It was great chatting with them. We’ve met many great people here!

The rest of the night was spent relaxing. We did some more trip planning and making sure everything is in order. It’s really nice that we have been able to find the time to do these things here. We haven’t been forced to run around or commute huge distances.

All in all a great day. Our only regret is not getting the names of the Israeli couple! Not sure how that happened, especially considering how much time we spent with them!

Anyway, time for bed. Goodnight!