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| Our tour group at Yuan Yang |
Pretty! Right before my eyes were miles and miles of colourful rice
terraces. It was truly a sight to
behold.
I was in Yuan Yang, a town in Yunnan, China, with my husband in late October. From our third floor hotel window, in the wee hours of the morning, I saw the sun
peeping out from the mountains and lighting up the Duoyishu Rice Terraces. The colours slowly changed from white to different hues: yellow,
blue, grey and gold. I was awestruck by the magical moment.
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| The sun peeping out from the mountains at Duoyishu Rice Terraces |
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Tourists viewing the rice terraces from the hotel balcony
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How did we arrive at Yuan Yang? One fine day, a traveller
friend in our chat group said, “Let’s go somewhere for a holiday.” That started
an exciting conversation on where to go. Initially it was to take a train ride
from Vientiane in Laos to Boten in China, but finally we decided to just visit
Yunnan in China.
The organizers chose South Yunnan, to visit the
World Heritage rice fields in Yuan Yang, the Redland in Dong Chuan, the ethnic
villages and other scenic and historical sites nearby. So there we were, at
that mesmerizing scene.
Our tour of 16 Malaysian senior travellers, aged between 63 to 85, together with our tour leader,
Rhys, flew from Kuala Lumpur to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan. We stayed in
Kunming for three nights, then travelled by bus to different places nearby, namely Cheng Jiang (one night), Jian Shui (2 nights), Yuan Yang (3 nights), Mi
Le (2 nights) and finally back to Kunming. We had an English-speaking local tour guide, named Tony Huang, who regaled us with stories at every site.
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| Map of Yunnan showing the places we visited |
1. Yuan Yang
Yuan Yang is famous for its scenic Hani rice terraces, carved in the hills and mountains by the Hani minority people who have lived in the area for centuries. The terraces’ history spans around 1200 years.
In 2013, 16,603 ha of the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces were listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site, because of their outstanding resilient construction and unique social-ecological system, as well as the culture of the Hani people.
We were lucky to stay in a hotel that was built right above the Duoyishu terraced rice fields. Just observing them right outside our window, and later at the hotel balcony was truly unforgettable.
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| Early morning: colour changes in the rice terraces |
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| The Duoyishu Rice Terraces at sunrise |
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| Noon: rice terraces with different hues of colour |
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| Afternoon: Rice Terraces from our hotel balcony |
Tony took us to another site, where we saw the rice
fields in deep blue. It was a clear day and the reflection of the sky was
perfect.
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| Rice terraces at another site |
In the evening, we were bowled over by what sunset looked like at the Bada Rice Terraces. The colour changes on the rice fields were
astounding. Although I could not see all colours of the rainbow, I managed to
capture the rice fields in white, beige, orange, grey, green and black.
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| Sunset on Bada rice fields |
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| Bada: various shades of white, grey and black |
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| Close up of Bada rice fields |
Generally, rice starts to grow in May there. By June, they are green, then yellow from July to September. Harvesting is in October and by November they are cleaned and filled with water. The myriads of colours we saw were due to the reflection of sunlight on the rice fields.
Huang explained: "The colour changes depend on many factors - sunrise or sunset, the time of the day and the atmosphere, whether it is a clear, cloudy or misty day. Different seasons also bring different colours."
.......................................................................................................2. Kunming
Yuanmou Earth Forest
Near Kunming, we visited the Yuanmou Earth Forest, an area of 50 sq km. We saw natural rock formations on pillars of clay. These were formed by geological movement and soil erosion one or two million years ago.
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Artistic formations
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| Background of rock formations |
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| Beautiful rock formations |
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| Our group at Yuanmour Earth Forest |
Dongchuan Redland
On another day, I was captivated by the Dongchuan Redland, a three-hour drive from Kunming. This place is more than 20 sq km of red terraced hills. We visited Huashitou and Luoxiagou villages and were greeted by terraces in multi-colours such as red, orange, green, beige and brown. Dubbed as “God’s Palette”, the Dongchuan Redland looked like an oil-painting.
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| The Luoxiagou village at Dongchuan Redland |
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| Both of us were charmed by the Redland at Luoxiagou Village |
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| The guys on our tour at the Huashitou village |
“The soil is red. When some fields are grown with potato, barley or wheat, the colour of their flowers, leaves and stems plus the blue sky produced
different colours that we see,” shared Huang.
Lake Dianchi
The following day, we had a relaxing morning on Lake Dianchi. The largest inland lake in Yunnan, it is famous for the thousands of seagulls flying around there. I had fun feeding them with bread and managed to take some action shots.
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| Feeding seagulls |
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| Raising our hands with bread attracts the seagulls |
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My husband with tour leader Tony Huang
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Stage Show
That evening, we watched a show “Shangrila Dynamic Yunnan”, performed by the ethnic minority, showcasing their culture. It was loud and lively and the most impressive dance was the Peacock Dance at the finale.
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| Shangrila Dynamic Yunnan |
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| Dancers in ethnic costumes with their cultural dances |
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| Lady in white danced the "Peacock Dance" |
...............................................................................................................................;
3. Jian
Shui
Jian Shui was more historical. The places we visited nearby
brought me back to China in ancient times:
a) Xing
Meng Mongol Ethnic Town
This is the only dwelling area
of Mongol minority in Yunnan. It has a history of more than a thousand years. About
750 years ago, cavalries led by Kublai Khan conquered Dali Kingdom. Some
soldiers settled down here in this Xing Meng town.
The
architecture of their houses was characterized by green-tiled roofs. The Mongolian people who lived there still donned heir traditional costumes daily. The ladies on our tour were thrilled to
see many colourful flowers outside their dwellings.
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| Mongolians in traditional wear |
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| A Mongol family |
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| Green tiled roof and attractive garden |
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| Pretty flowers outside their homes |
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Both of us with Mongols in traditional costumes
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| Ladies of our tour thrilled by the surroundings |
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b) The Double Dragon Bridge
This 17-arch stone bridge, built in the Qing Dynasty under Emperor Qian Long, is on the joint of two rivers, Napan and Tachong, which zigzag like two dragons. It is hailed as a masterpiece of traditional Chinese bridge-building. As we walked along the stone bridge, I marveled at how strong and durable it was.
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Our group in front of the Double Dragon Bridge
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| We walked along the ancient sturdy bridge |
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| Souvenirs on sale at the bridge |
c) Confucius Temple
TThis was originally constructed in 1285 and renovated 40 times. It operated as a school for nearly 750 years for local students and students from other provinces. More than half of all Yunnan’s successful candidates in imperial examinations during this period came from this school. Tony proudly told us that he is a graduate from the high school there.
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We stood with statues of scholars, in front of Confucius Temple
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| Our group at the Lingxing Archway |
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| Our group in front of Confucius Statue |
d ......................................................................................... d) DaBanJing
There
are 128 ancient wells in Jianshui. Dabanjing is where you'll find a 600-year old well that supplies clean water continuously to residents. We saw adults,
children and even tourists using buckets and other containers to fetch the
water from the well.
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Many people (including 2 of our members) tried
to collect water from the DaBanjing Well |
There is a tofu factory nearby that produces tofu using this well's water.
Tofu factory - workers making tofu
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I had a new experience there – tasting taufufa (tofu pudding) not with sugar syrup but with spicy savoury condiments!
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| Lots of choices to go with our tofu pudding |
e) Ma Family Courtyard
This
is a well-preserved classic building. It has
won the 2001 Asia-Pacific Cultural Heritage Protection Award from UNESCO.
This was the home and ancestral temple built by the Zhu Weiqing brothers in the Qing Dynasty. Within the park, the ancestral hall, temple, living quarters and gardens were magnificent and majestic.
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| Entrance of Zhu Family Garden |
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| The lake with fishes and plants |
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| An aerial view of the garden |
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| A pretty sight of one building |
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Ethnic Minority Villages
Our visits
included two ethnic minority villages.
1. The Azhike Village of ethnic Hani people in Yuan Yang, is more than 210 years old. The Hani people are industrious and intelligent, digging out layers of colourful terraces in the mountains that we saw earlier. Those who live there are mostly farmers, tilling the land and rearing poultry.
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Farmers working on the land
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| The lovely rice terraces in the background in deep grey |
- Their 3-storied houses are made of earth and stone with mushroom-shaped roofs from hay. This type of roof keeps the home warm in winter and cool in summer. The ground floor is used for livestock and to keep agricultural tools; the middle floor is for living; while the top floor is used to store food.
We were intrigued by a coffee house with a unique roof there. Some of our members had a restful time there, sipping tea.
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Seow KL leading members up
the stony path to Azhike Village |
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| Entrance of Azhike Village |
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| Houses with mushroom-shape roofs |
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A House with 3 stories design
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| The coffee house with a unique roof |
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| Members having tea in the coffee house |
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2 senior residents resting on the verandah
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2. The Chengzi Village of ethnic Yi in Mi Le, meanwhile, is more than 300 years old. It combined Karst natural scenery with pastoral scenery. There were more than 1000 houses of the Yi nationality there, cascading and concentrating, right to the top of the hill.
The walls are of thick chestnut lumbers and clay. The roofs, flat with many layers of straw and clay, were built to facilitate the drying of produce, mainly corn.
Some of us walked right up to the hill and found a temple, which was still in perfect condition!
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We rested on stools made of stone, with
the flat-roofed villages in the background
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Corn drying on the flat roof
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| Corn, the main produce, at the storage area |
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| Some of our members with friendly villagers |
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Entrance to the temple at the top of the village
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The Temple, still in perfect condition
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Ethnic markets
We all liked the ethnic markets there, which were like a festival of colours, where visitors mingled with the ethnic minority in their traditional costumes.
Shengcun Market
We browsed along the stalls and I managed to buy some useful hats and cute key-chains. However, at one point, I wandered off alone and got lost ... but only temporarily, thankfully!
XinJie Market
XinJie Market was fascinating. There was a variety of merchandise on sale: fruits,
vegetables, meat, clothes, embroidery, haberdashery, household
items, souvenirs and food as well as a buffalo head, maggots and
insects. There were even a cutler and a dentist in action!
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Our members enjoying the festival of colours
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| Ethnic minority in traditional costumes selling vegetables |
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Ethnic minority in their colourful costumes
and colourful wares |
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Delectable fried doughs
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Ethnic people in traditional costumes
chatting away |
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Embroidery galore
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| A dentist in action |
4. Mi Le
We visited a few places in this historic town.
1.
Dong Feng Yun Art Village
Dongfengyun Art Village is a scenic town designed by
renowned Chinese sculptor, Luo Xu. The
unusual buildings are made of locally produced red bricks. Luo Xu, from
Maitreya, used local cultures in the design: the wine bottle-shaped buildings
represent the red wine culture of Maitreya and the fire culture buildings of
the Yi people. We were impressed with the interior and exterior of the artistic
buildings.
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| Our group in front of Dong Feng Yun artistic buildings |
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| Another part of the artistic buildings |
2.Yunan Wine Village
This villa has high quality wine with different grape varieties planted, like Rose Honey, Cabernet Sauvignon and Wild France. A Mandarin-speaking guide took us round the villa to view the large-scale wine workshops and first-class wine making equipment. All of us had a wine-tasting session at the end of the tour.
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Barrels that store wine
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| Bottled wine |
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| Wine tasting |
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| Wine display |
3. Bisezhai
This is a small mountain village. There is a Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, built by the French in 1901 to 1910. It is 854 km long, from Haiphong (Vietnam) to Kunming. Known as the 3rd engineering marvel around the world, comparable to the Suez Canal and Panama Canal, it was selected in 2018 for the list of Chinese Industrial heritage protection.
The Railway Station was picturesque, with its French architecture, Chinese ancient dwellings amidst the natural landscape of the Red Earth. It is popular as a filming location for Chinese movies and TV dramas, as well as a tourist attraction.
As a tennis player, I was delighted to see a clay court nearby. It was the first tennis clay court in China.
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The train that travelled from Kunming to Haiphong
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| The Yunnan-Vietnam Railway Station in the background |
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Pretty flowers in a lovely setting around
the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway Station |
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| First clay court in China |
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Yunnan cuisine
Yunnan cuisine is an amalgam of the cuisine of Han Chinese and other minority groups. It is spicy and oily, and mushrooms are often featured. Generally, we enjoyed all varieties of food throughout the tour.
We had Western and Asian breakfast, and for lunch and dinner, we had rice with 8 to 10 appetizing dishes. Sometimes we had noodles or hotpot.
We tasted local dishes
like roast duck, Hainanese chicken, mushrooms, kau yoke (braised pork); fish, steamed or bathed in
thick sauce; nourishing soups; and lots of local vegetables, including papyrus, which was new to me.
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At one dinner, we did a "Yam Sing" toast,
a Malaysian favourite.
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Various types of meat dishes
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Various types of vegetables dishes
(papyrus is on bottom left)
 | Various types of nourishing soups
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| Fish cooked in various ways |
Noodles
At breakfast, I enjoyed the noodles being served because there were so many ingredients and condiments that we could add on.
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At a Heritage Hotel in Jian Shui: A lot of ingredients
and condiments just for a bowl of noodles |
One day, we had the famous "Crossing the Bridge Noodles”. There is a legendary love story in
Yunnan, where a husband travelled across a bridge from his home to an island
for a quiet place to study. His wife brought him his meals daily. This name was
inspired by her stroll across the bridge to deliver his meals.
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Our group, posing with all the ingredients that will
be added to our "Crossing the Bridge Noodles"
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Delicious "Crossing the Bridge Noodles"
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Hotpot ("Steamboat" as it is called in Malaysia) featured a few times in our meals. Once we had over 10 different
types of mushrooms in our hotpot.
Another time, we had an “all-you-can-eat” hotpot – the variety of ingredients
we could select was immense!
In one village, we had just a special carp fish
for the hotpot – the soup was incredibly delicious.
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| Hotpot dinner at our hotel |
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There are over 20 types of mushrooms in Yunnan
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Mushroom hotpot
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Top 2: Catfish hotpot; Bottom left: Ma la hotpot
Bottom right: Variety of ingredients for normal hotpot
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Jian Shui is famous for
Barbecue Tofu. We saw the locals having it all along the streets every night. So one evening, we had this famous supper (Barbecue Tofu plus meat and other vegetables).
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| Members enjoying Barbecue Tofu supper |
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| Ingredients for barbecue |
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| The fun of doing Barbecue Tofu individually |
We had a Farewell Dinner at a Grand Hotel on our last night, where "newbies" to our group were teased and quizzed with "fun questions" by the main organiser, Seow KL. It was also a good opportunity to thank our tour leader, local tour guide and driver, plus handsome tips for them. |
| Happy faces at our Farewell Dinner |
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Insights
The 12-day holiday opened my eyes to a changing
China that has progressed tremendously since 10 years ago.
The 5 star hotels were very high tech, with many amenities operated digitally.
The Highways were clean with good roads, and rest
stops have modern toilets with shops selling food and souvenirs.
Our tour bus had safety belts and if we did not buckle up, a siren-like sound will continue to buzz to annoy us! We could charge our phone batteries on the bus too.
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| Modern rest stop |
Interior of rest stop with souvenir shops
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There was one rest stop that had a map with information on which toilets were occupied!
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| Map showing which toilets were occupied |
Shopping was easy, with ewallet, wechat or cash.
In the towns, there were cars everywhere, with hardly
any bicycles. There were many electric charging stations showing that electric
cars were getting popular.
The villages of the minority people were clean with well-paved roads, as well as easy access to water and electricity. Some of them have motor bikes and cars to help them in their daily living, like farming and handicrafts.
We saw some cute vehicles used by the locals, and
some of our members had fun riding a man-pedaled trishaw.
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| Cute vehicles |
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Yunnan has much to offer, like vibrant cities, picturesque scenes and rich cultures. I definitely came home with
sweet memories of a wonderful holiday.
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This article was published in the Star (Malaysian newspaper) on 16.1.24 in the Travel section. I have edited it with more details of the places we visited, with accompanying photos.
A big thank you to the organisers of this holiday (Siow KL, Bernard Au and Loong WH with advisor Choo KW), and to others who shared their photos here.
