I have seen the most beautiful sunrise yet in my life in this place! However can you do justice to a sunrise using words I don't know..so I promise pictures (which are also a cheap imitation)..but I will try. When we arrived at maybe 7:30am at the lookout (on a hill overlooking a steep valley covered with rice terraces) we were surrounded by thick white mist, and doubted we might see the sun at all. The mist got brighter but we could still not see a single rice terrace. Some other people left, but there were enough professional looking photographers hanging round, setting up their tripods to keep us somewhat optimistic that 'something' would happen...
and then suddenly the mist started clearing below and you could make out glimmering terraces, filled with water reflecting the light so that they looked silver and gold. It was amazing. Below there was still a thick cloud layer, settled in the valley, we could see the mountain tops on the other side of the valley poking up. That cloud didn't clear the whole day, and in the evening (which was Chinese New Year's Eve) we saw fireworks coming from beneath the cloud- some of them coming all the way through and exploding above the cloud, and others exploding beneath the cloud so that all we could see was the cloud lighting up in different colours sort of like the way storm clouds light up with sheet lightning.
We shared the sunrise experience with the pro's, each with enormous lenses, trying to get the best spot, with the best angle- luckily there was plenty of space for everyone. These are meant to be the most beautiful terraces in China, and perhaps Asia- they cover the whole hillside- which is a pretty steep valley. They all left at around 9-10am when the lighting was changing and perhaps not as photogenic. We stayed in the area the whole day and overnight as well- the tops of the hills were so sunny and beautiful, and we could see the cloud sitting down in the valley so we didn't want to go back to Xinjie- the main town which just sits in the middle of the cloud and you can't see anything! I even got sunburnt (didn't realise till the evening).
That day we wandered around a few villages, and watched the new years preparations...It was hard to decide which was more disturbing- the fear of having a fire cracker thrown at you by a 6 year old boy being silly, or the half dozen or more pigs we saw being, or in some stage of being slaughtered. :(, Every family seemed to be killing their own pig, and some of them were not dying quickly as they drain the fresh blood out of the neck and coagulate it for eating. (yes we saw this.. :( ). Then they burned the hair off the skin and smoked the ouside of the pig a bit (dead by this stage). We could hear the screaming pigs from other villages from hundreds of meters away.
All the pigs were dead by the end of the morning though, and in the afternoon the noise coming from all around the valley- kilometers away was astounding. People let off alot of bangers and crackers in the countryside in China (in the cities there are more restrictions), and you could here was sounded like machine gun fire everywhere! "How's the Serenity" we thought as we sat on the terrace of the only guesthouse in the villages looking out.
The evening was great fun! There were about 9 other guests staying, well off people on holidays from east coast cities, who created a very "renao" atmosphere (hot and noisy). We had hotpot, cantonese style as the owner was cantonese, Mum and I tried to avoid the chicken head, feet and pork intestines (was a bit turned off pork that day!) that went into the pot! We were drinking beer and ganbei'ing (toasting), and pretty soon the chinese started to sing some songs. I knew it was coming, it didn't take them long to start shouting at us to sing something too- with everyone egging us on, we decided to sing Waltzing Matilda, everyone clapping along and cheering at the end (we only did one verse!). Then the guest house owner- a lady of about 65yrs or so jumped up and started pointing at us and falpping her arms chicken dance style. Oooooh Nooooo, that afternoon some village girls had been playing with us and getting us to do the chicken dance which they learnt off some French people some time ago. Now we were being dragged (literally, the lady was pulling Mum off her stool!) up to do the chicken dance in front of all these people!! So we did the chicken dance, making our own music singing Na nananana... That certainly got the blood rushing to my cheeks! Then the lady got everyone else to stand up and we all did it together, with much hilarity!
At midnight we all rolled/made dumplings- some of us more beautifully than others, and then cooked them in water and went back to the dining room to eat them. It was a great night!
The next day (yesterday) we saw the sunrise again, then went on and lokked at some different places, different villages with terraces, eventually hitching a ride with some Chinese tourists with their own car and three spare spots (we were with a Chinese American Peggy- she grew up here and did here high school here, but has been in New York for 20years or so). Stopped at a village that had been 'zoo-ified', had a ticket gate to go in and people dancing in the square, and the houses were all traditional (unlike the one's we'd been through) but it felt really uncomfortable and wrong, and we didn't like it at all. Would not have gone in at all if we weren't sort of attatched to these Chinese people and following them.
The people in this area are Hani, and the women still wear a lot of beautiful traditional clothing (not the men though), at least around New year evryone seemed to have their finest on. When we were walking along the road some girls following us asked peggy to send them some clothes- 'like yours' meaning western=modern=rich, it is mainly when you are in poor places that traditional dress has been maintained. A double edged sword for travellers who want to see something traditional, but you don't want to romanticise poverty.
Anyway, Also saw sunset over rice terraces going down maybe a thousand meters below us. Also a beautiful experience- but as we went to the 'best' sunset lookout we also had to jostle with the photographers (it's a selfish hobby one of them admitted who we'd hired a van to go round with) for a good spot again! And then we came back to the main town perpetually in the cold and miserable fog, where you wouldnot know that such a beautiful warm sunny world existed just ten minutes drive away.
Yuanyang has been great- a highlight of my China experiences!
and then suddenly the mist started clearing below and you could make out glimmering terraces, filled with water reflecting the light so that they looked silver and gold. It was amazing. Below there was still a thick cloud layer, settled in the valley, we could see the mountain tops on the other side of the valley poking up. That cloud didn't clear the whole day, and in the evening (which was Chinese New Year's Eve) we saw fireworks coming from beneath the cloud- some of them coming all the way through and exploding above the cloud, and others exploding beneath the cloud so that all we could see was the cloud lighting up in different colours sort of like the way storm clouds light up with sheet lightning.
We shared the sunrise experience with the pro's, each with enormous lenses, trying to get the best spot, with the best angle- luckily there was plenty of space for everyone. These are meant to be the most beautiful terraces in China, and perhaps Asia- they cover the whole hillside- which is a pretty steep valley. They all left at around 9-10am when the lighting was changing and perhaps not as photogenic. We stayed in the area the whole day and overnight as well- the tops of the hills were so sunny and beautiful, and we could see the cloud sitting down in the valley so we didn't want to go back to Xinjie- the main town which just sits in the middle of the cloud and you can't see anything! I even got sunburnt (didn't realise till the evening).
That day we wandered around a few villages, and watched the new years preparations...It was hard to decide which was more disturbing- the fear of having a fire cracker thrown at you by a 6 year old boy being silly, or the half dozen or more pigs we saw being, or in some stage of being slaughtered. :(, Every family seemed to be killing their own pig, and some of them were not dying quickly as they drain the fresh blood out of the neck and coagulate it for eating. (yes we saw this.. :( ). Then they burned the hair off the skin and smoked the ouside of the pig a bit (dead by this stage). We could hear the screaming pigs from other villages from hundreds of meters away.
All the pigs were dead by the end of the morning though, and in the afternoon the noise coming from all around the valley- kilometers away was astounding. People let off alot of bangers and crackers in the countryside in China (in the cities there are more restrictions), and you could here was sounded like machine gun fire everywhere! "How's the Serenity" we thought as we sat on the terrace of the only guesthouse in the villages looking out.
The evening was great fun! There were about 9 other guests staying, well off people on holidays from east coast cities, who created a very "renao" atmosphere (hot and noisy). We had hotpot, cantonese style as the owner was cantonese, Mum and I tried to avoid the chicken head, feet and pork intestines (was a bit turned off pork that day!) that went into the pot! We were drinking beer and ganbei'ing (toasting), and pretty soon the chinese started to sing some songs. I knew it was coming, it didn't take them long to start shouting at us to sing something too- with everyone egging us on, we decided to sing Waltzing Matilda, everyone clapping along and cheering at the end (we only did one verse!). Then the guest house owner- a lady of about 65yrs or so jumped up and started pointing at us and falpping her arms chicken dance style. Oooooh Nooooo, that afternoon some village girls had been playing with us and getting us to do the chicken dance which they learnt off some French people some time ago. Now we were being dragged (literally, the lady was pulling Mum off her stool!) up to do the chicken dance in front of all these people!! So we did the chicken dance, making our own music singing Na nananana... That certainly got the blood rushing to my cheeks! Then the lady got everyone else to stand up and we all did it together, with much hilarity!
At midnight we all rolled/made dumplings- some of us more beautifully than others, and then cooked them in water and went back to the dining room to eat them. It was a great night!
The next day (yesterday) we saw the sunrise again, then went on and lokked at some different places, different villages with terraces, eventually hitching a ride with some Chinese tourists with their own car and three spare spots (we were with a Chinese American Peggy- she grew up here and did here high school here, but has been in New York for 20years or so). Stopped at a village that had been 'zoo-ified', had a ticket gate to go in and people dancing in the square, and the houses were all traditional (unlike the one's we'd been through) but it felt really uncomfortable and wrong, and we didn't like it at all. Would not have gone in at all if we weren't sort of attatched to these Chinese people and following them.
The people in this area are Hani, and the women still wear a lot of beautiful traditional clothing (not the men though), at least around New year evryone seemed to have their finest on. When we were walking along the road some girls following us asked peggy to send them some clothes- 'like yours' meaning western=modern=rich, it is mainly when you are in poor places that traditional dress has been maintained. A double edged sword for travellers who want to see something traditional, but you don't want to romanticise poverty.
Anyway, Also saw sunset over rice terraces going down maybe a thousand meters below us. Also a beautiful experience- but as we went to the 'best' sunset lookout we also had to jostle with the photographers (it's a selfish hobby one of them admitted who we'd hired a van to go round with) for a good spot again! And then we came back to the main town perpetually in the cold and miserable fog, where you wouldnot know that such a beautiful warm sunny world existed just ten minutes drive away.
Yuanyang has been great- a highlight of my China experiences!
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