Yuanyang Rice Terrace (Honghe Hani Rice Terraces)

Overview
Created by local Hani people, Yuanyang Rice Terrace boasts amazing rice-terraces built on the red-soil mountains that draws to tourists and especially photographers. It is a kind of masterpiece of land art on the earth and owns different landscape in different seasons. Even bigger than the Longsheng Rice Terrace in Guilin, Yuanyang Rice Terrace is the biggest of its kind in world.

Know More
2500 years ago, the ancestors of Hani people came from Tibetan Plateau to this land and worked out the terraced fields on mountains generations after generations. Now we can see the terraced fields step upwards over range upon range of slopes from a height 144 m (472 ft) to 2000 m (6,562 ft). From the tidy and well-constructed fields, anyone has to admit that it is a human engineering feat only made by those hard working people. The rice farmers have had to practice those concepts centuries before they were widely accepted around the world. Without hard work maintaining the terrace walls and irrigation system, the precious top soil would wash down the hillsides into the rivers.

Yuanyang Terrace is mysterious in the mist.	Abstract pattern of terraced rice fields in Yuanyang County, Yunnan.

Yuanyang terrace changes its looks with different seasons. Although few general tourists have visited the Yuanyang Terrace, many photographers have because of the thrilling beauty of the landscape. The best season to for tourist and photographer is early spring (January to March) and harvest time (July to September). The terraces are flooded in the winter and early spring before planting rice seedlings. It is desired dream for photographers that blue sky, green mountains, sunrise and sunset reflects through this water surface of the terraces make a good view to take photos. In the harvest time, terraces change its color from green to yellow. In the rest of the year, terraces become naked bare earth are often enveloped by fog and clouds. The fog and clouds occur in the morning or dusk sometimes. You even can not see anything beyond 3 meters when the thick fog is fallen.

Must See & do
En the route, you can visit some of region's many Hani ethnic minority villages and markets where locals wear their colorful traditional costumes. For tourists, you can have adventure on these terraces. The steep rice terrace paths can be quite slippery. Wear appropriate shoes or boots.