In the far south of Yunnan, where the Red River cuts down towards Vietnam, the mountainsides have been carved into rice terraces on a scale that is difficult to take in. The work was done over many centuries by the Hani and neighbouring peoples, using a system that channels spring water from the forested peaks down through the terraces and then into the river, and it is still in full agricultural use. In 2013 the cultural landscape was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
The landscape
The terraces run in thousands of narrow steps contoured around the hills, from the valley floor to well above a thousand metres, and they change character completely with the season. In winter and early spring they are flooded and hold water like mirrors, which is when the photographs are taken, with the light turning them silver and orange at dawn and dusk. In spring they are planted, through the summer they are green, and by autumn they are gold before the harvest. Fog fills the valleys in the cold months and the terrace tops emerge from it like islands, which is the effect most visitors come for.
The villages
The Hani villages sit on ridges and saddles above the water, built as clusters of houses with earth walls, timber frames and steeply pitched roofs, many of them thatched, in the distinctive mushroom shape of the region. Each village is associated with a sacred forest above it, which protects the watershed and is never cut, and with a system of water allocation that is managed communally down to the individual field. Walking between two villages - downhill into a valley of terraces and up the far side - takes two or three hours and is the best way to see how the whole system fits together, because the forest, the village, the water channels and the fields are all visible in one view.
Practical notes
The main viewpoints in the Yuanyang area are reached by road from the county town, and the classic spots for sunrise and sunset are a short drive from each other; a car and driver for a couple of days is the practical arrangement, since the distances are long and public transport between viewpoints is limited. Guesthouses in the villages range from basic to comfortable. The season for water-filled terraces runs from about November to March, and it is cold at night at that altitude; the summer growing season is green and much less visited. Local restaurants serve simple Hani and Yi food, and the markets in the towns below are worth timing a visit around.
