The village of Ping An is extremely old and has some beautiful wooden homes and buildings that rest on the side of some steep hills:
A grave immediately outside the town:
Like the karst hills that line the Li River, the rice terraces of the area around Longsheng have become an image immediately associated with China's landscapes. The terraces, which have been maintained for centuries, seem to be never-ending, becoming an inseparable part of the hillside.
We occasionally saw both women and men working hard in the terraces, up to their knees in mud. To maintain the terraces and provide water to the rice, locals also employ some ingeniously simple techniques, including bamboo water pipes, and miniature waterfalls carved into the terraces.
A man working next to a series of small waterfalls:
Besides being a great place to view the terraces, Ping An is also home to one of China's many ethnic minorities, which has its own unique traditions and characteristics. This is perhaps most clearly witnessed in the local clothes and jewelry, and for Chinese speakers, in the local dialect.
This woman was selling traditional shoes, and makes some darn good sweet potatoes too:
Unfortunately, many traditional aspects of the local culture are now overtly advertised as a result of the tourist boom. One example of this is the "long-hair women" who traditionally grow their hair five-feet long or more. The women now chase tourists, offering to take their hair out of its bun in exchange for a fee. In the process of running from the "long-hairs," Fang and I got really good at maneuvering through the terraces.
And next, off to Zhaoxing...
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