Guangxi Province Part Three (Longji terraces)

Approximately three hours outside of Yangshuo, we visited Longji, a minority village situated in a tight mountain valley. While the clouds hung in the sky threatening rain, we hiked through a land of a several thousand stairs and looked out over a landscape of several million terraces. The Zhuang minority that inhabits these hills farm the terraces with only horses and hand tools. the hills began to look like a topographical map, with line after line representing elevation gain or loss. Much greener than the Kunming area, the threatening clouds and green landscape reminded us that rain must be a common occurence on these vegetated steps.Like all the other people I have seen in China, the Zhuang minority holds a colorful beauty that startles ones eyes. Daily clothing for the Zhuang can be rather simple and dark. However, their festive clothing, like the ones shown below, are brilliantly colored. These women are dressed in traditional wedding clothing. For anywhere from ten to thirty kuai, a person can have his or her picture taken with these beautiful women in their traditional outfits. One can also pay more and be dressed up in a traditional costume, posing with the terraces in the background. Because these people now make money through tourism, I snuck this photo as I walked by then cropped the picture on my computer to show more detail. The metal on the headdress and jewelry is silver, and they do have solid silver headdresses that jingle when the women walk.
After climbing what seemed to be an infinite number of stairs up the terraces, we became hungry for local quisine. The village itself had, over time and tourism, turned into one large set of boarding houses with restaurants attached. So we entered a quiet building overlooking the terraces and ordered our lunch. While I strongly recommend the Chinese cuisine, especially the spicy dishes with 'lajiao,' I do not recommend reading the signs. Otherwise you might make yourself sick before you eat. Notice the menu choices below. 'Pork' sounds good, but I would probably stay away from the 'sweat potato.' Actually, these type of translation mistakes happen all the time, and we chose to order the sweet potato dish anyway. They steamed, but did not 'sweat.'
With rice being a staple food in China, few meals go by without the tiny white grain. However, in order to make rice, one must have a large pot of boiling water. This makes one wonder how the Chinese cooked rice prior to the invention of metal pots and pans. Well, they figured out an ingenious way of cooking the grain in a length of bamboo. Rice and water are place in a one-foot length of bamboo and then cooked in an open fire. Bamboo is not only extremely strong, it resists burning. When the rice is cooked, the bamboo is opened revealing cylindrically shaped sticky rice. Sometimes the rice is cooked with meat, vegetables, or fruit. The picture below shows Emily preparing to chow-down on some bamboo rice.
Zhuang minority women are noted for a number of things, but the most remarkable is their long hair. Much like Samson, these women are not allowed to cut their locks. However, unlike Samson, there exist two occasions when the women have their hair trimmed. At eighteen years of age, a young woman's hair will be cut as a rite of passage into adulthood. The next opportunity to have one's hair cut is at marriage. As a woman accepts a man's hand in marriage, she will again have her hair cut. From then on, the hair is simply allowed to grow, being wrapped up on top of one's head. The truly interesting part is that the women keep both sets of hair from the two clippings. Therefore, the current growth and the two previous growths are all kept bound on top of the woman's head. In the picture below, the young woman on the left has not reached a marrying age. To me she looks like she has not even reached eighteen. However, her hair is very short compared to the Chinese-Crystal Gail-look-alikes next to her.