Where the Rice Rows Grow

So one amazing thing about China, and Guilin and Yangshou in particular, is how they grow rice. They have a lot of people to feed and not enough land, so they literally grow rice on the side of mountans. The thing is- rice grows in water, not just in the ground. Solution? Rice terraces! 

Rice terraces are like stairs of water, and so beautiful! Last time I was in China I was disappointed I never got a chance to go to Yangshou, so when I had the opportunity to go this year I was estatic! Yangshou truly lived up to my imagination, it was just so wonderful. When taking the bus to the rice terraces, I was surprised at how far up the mountain we had to go. It was a long, misty, and windy road to get there, but worth it!

One fun thing that happened while at the terrace was me getting separated from my group. I have asthma, so that combined with the high altitude made the hike up the terraces not particularly fun [or possible]. I decided to sit down and tell Brenna to go on without me, but after a few minutes I realized how worn out I was. Long story short, I was separated from them for about three hours before being happily reunited, bought six scarves, and made friends with a plenty of interesting people. I'll have to write up the long version of the story, or just put my video documentary of the whole even together… it's pretty impressive. 

The greenest place I've ever been!

Rice: up close and personal.