Getting to LongJi Rice terrace
LongJi Rice Terrace 龙脊梯田风景 was also known as LongSheng Rice Terraces. It was located in the “town of LongJi” in “LongSheng Various Nationalities Autonomous County”. On the internet whenever we search on LongJi Rice Terrace, we frequently read about the rice terraces of PingAn and DaZhai, so we figured that we should stay in one of these two villages. After looking at various hotel listing we booked a three nights stay at DaZhai.
The distance from Guilin city to the Ticketing/visitor center (entrance) of LongJi Rice Terraces was about 79km. The ticketing center was located at the start of the road into the villages and rice terraces. All visitors were required to get entrance tickets before proceeding into the villages.
Our stay in LongJi RiceTerrace was at DaZhai village. We had considered two ways to get to LongJi Rice Terraces – DaZhai Village. The first way was cheaper but “troublesome”, was to get to the village by coach.
There were two coach routes. The first route went directly to Dazhai Parking Lot. This route had three pickup points in Guilin City and take about 2.5 hours at a cost of ¥70 per person.
The 2nd coach route involved two coaches. Coach 1 was from Guilin City to LongJi ticketing Center (start of the LongJi Rice Terrace) and coach 2 from the ticketing center to DaZhai Parking Lot. This “two legs” journey would need 2.5 hour and a cost of about ¥70 per person.
If we were to go by coaches, we still had to travel from the hotel to the designated pickup point with our luggages. After some consideration we dropped the “coach” option and DiDi a cab to take us from hotel directly to LongJi Rice Terrace – DaZhai village.
We checked online and there were various reviews that estimated the fare of a cab ride would be ¥200. This fare was not much higher than going by coaches. Coach fare for two together with taxis fare to pick up point added up to the not significant lower than ¥200.
We “DiDi” a cab at the door step of our hotel and the fare came up to ¥345. This pricing was further affirmed by the hotel receptionist as the on-going amount. Though the fare was much more than our estimation, for comfort we decided to ditch the “coach option” and went to DaZhai village by “cab”!
The ride to the entrance of Longji Rice Terrace took about a hour, our driver took the expressway so there was an additional toll charges of ¥44. At the entrance we had to stop to purchase the entry tickets, there was no discount for seniors, though we read otherwise on the web. The entrance fee was ¥80 per person and was valid for three days.
Longji Rice Terrace
On reverse side of the entry ticket was a map of LongJi Rice Terrace, there were actually four major rice terraces with many villages. These villages were connected by vehicles road and rice terraces were connected by “padi field hiking routes”. Our hotel stay was in a village “DaZhai” located in rice terrace (JinKeng RiceYao Rice Terrace, 金坑红瑶梯田) which was basically the third rice terrace from the entrance.
We had three days for LongJi Rice Terrace, 9th, 10th 11th of October. Picking these dates were tricky and took into consideration the “Golden Week Holiday” which ran from 1st October to 7th October and visiting scenic places during the golden week was definitely a NO. The padi turned golden in about October, coming too early one might miss the “golden view” coming too late one might have no view at all, as harvesting started in Mid October.
JinKeng RED Yao Rice Terrace
From the front entrance to LongJi Rice Terrace to Dazhai carpark of Jinkeng Red Yao Rice Terrace was an 45 minutes drive. It was a large carpark with many shops and a police station. It was also a bus terminal where many visitors alighted. The villages were further inland and uphill and were not visible from the carpark.
We called up our host and he drove down from the village in his minivan. He suggested that we took the cable car ride which started at the carpark to Golden Buddha Peak View Point and from there enjoyed a walk through the rice terrace to his “hotel/homestay” in the village. In the meantime he would transfer our luggages to his homestay.
We bought the cable car ticket at ¥55 per person for a one way trip at a ticketing counter. After looking around we went into the cable car station. Wow! There were so many people in the station hall and the queue loop a few rounds.
Each cable car could take about 4 passengers. Though there were a huge crowd we still got the entire cable car to our own. Two of us had a great time moving around the cabin taking the view from left and right and forward and backward. The higher we went up the lovelier was the view and more golden the rice terrace became.
The golden rice terraces was everywhere and among them we saw villages. Some villages were at the base of the terrace and some midway up the terrace.
How we wished that the cable car ride would not end. It was so stunning to see the clean wavy lines of the rice terraces, they seemed so systematic, so massive so beautiful.
We exited the cable car at the top station, Golden Buddha Peak. Looking down we were amazed by the lovely scene below us and far beyond.
At the peak there were some shops selling local sweets, and we bought some. As we walked on we saw a “refreshment” store so we stopped to enjoy some cool refreshment. Looking at the map we seemed to be not too far from our hotel/homestay. So following the route on the map (baidu map) we started trekking towards our homestay.
There were proper paved roads and steps leading down to DaZhai village. The distance to our homestay was about 1.5 km but in the “hills” we seemed to be walking forever. After a while we got tired and message (“wechat”) our host hoping he would come and fetch us, unfortunately he and his van was “out of town”. We had no choice but to slowly hike to DaZhai.
We reached Dazhai village and at one of its carparks we messaged our host to come and meet us. His wife came over and brought us through a labyrinth of old and new houses to our “homestay” for the next three nights.
Our homestay had a wonderful view of the rice terraces, we were so glad to had booked the “right” homestay. The evening view, the morning view and the night view from our room was stunning.
Exploring DaZhai and around
On the second day in LongJi Rice Terrace we explored more of the “JinKeng Red Yao Rice Terrace (金坑红瑶梯田)” and trekked up the scenic view points/decks of. We studied the map behind our LongJi Terrace Ticket, for “JinKeng Red Yao Rice Terrace area” and saw that there were four scenic points. We had visited “Golden Buddha Peak” and “Dragon Treasure View Point” on the first day. We were left with West Music View Point and Thousand Terrace View Point to visit for the day.
On the 2nd day after our breakfast our first destination was XiShanShaoLe (West Hill Music) viewing deck, it was somewhere up the rice terrace behind our homestay. Our host pointed to a dirt route about 30 m from our homestay where he said “that route will bring you to the viewing deck” (Chinese name: 西山韶乐一号观景台). It was a lovely hike to the summit where the viewing deck was located.
There were some good photoshoot points among the rice terrace field and to reached them we had to paid ¥5 per person to the owner/farmer to walk into his padi field. The reasoning was when we walked into the padi field we would cause some damages which would lower his crop yield, so the payment was for the farmer to recover from his losses. Okay this sound reasonable and we gladly paid the fee.
As we walk on, we saw the XiShanShaoLe (West Hill Music) viewing deck high up a high hill and made our way slowly up.
Finally we were up at the huge viewing deck of XiShanShaoLe. The view was lovely. XiShanShaoLe Chinese name was 西山韶乐 which meant West Hill Beautiful Music.
It was a nice day and there was not much of a crowd at the viewing deck. We loitered around on the deck for about an hour before making our way down. Near the end of the steps we went into one of the nice cafes “First Sight” for a coffee break. “First Sight” was a nicely designed cafe, we felt very relax and cool to sip aromatic coffee in this lovely green environment.
After coffee break was went in search of “Multi Layer Skyscraper Viewing Deck” (千层天梯 = Thousand Layer Heavenly Terrace) our 2nd destination, which was just on the opposite hill of XiShanShaoLe Viewing Deck. So up we went again, hiking slowly uphill. The great thing about having plentiful of time was that we needed not rush, we took our own sweet time hiking up the steps and dirt road to this second viewing deck of the day.
Near the viewing deck we could see villages below, we could not tell which village contained our “homestay”. We tried to identify our homestay but was just could not find it. We could see a cable car line very far away. Oh… that was where we came up from DaZhai Carpark the day before.
“Multi Layer Skyscraper View Deck” (千层天梯 = Thousand Layer Heavenly Terrace) was another huge multi layer view deck. On the deck were stores and cafes. Woah! Definitely time for a coffee break.
We bought some drinks and sat down at a table over looking the terrace and “drink” in the awesome scenery in front of us. To some the rice terraces scenery “here and there” were all similar, seen once would be enough. To us we felt such overwhelming “happiness” every time we looked out at this open space of terraced greenery and they were never enough.
The steps and stairs were also “good break” as we moved from one summit viewing deck to another. It exercised our limbs and kept us fit. Not having to rush about on a tight schedule reduced exhaustion and definitely increase the enjoyment.
We stayed till over 5pm, enjoyed the view as the place brightened up from the golden rays of the gradually setting sun.
At about 5.15pm we slowly made our way back to our homestay somewhere “down slope”. There was no worries of getting lost as long as we were on proper route and Baidu Map helped alot.
Exploring PingAn Rice Terrace
We could trek from JinKeng Red Yao Rice Terrace to PingAn Rice Terrace which would take “hours” and we felt that by the time we reached PingAn Rice Terrace we would be too tired to explore. We got our host (our stay) to book a cab for a two ways trips to PingAn Rice Terrace the fee was was ¥180. The taxis ride was about 45 minutes.
On the 3rd day after our breakfast, our taxis driver drove us all the way up to the PingAn village viewing deck. Usually tourists would come to the viewing deck via tourist buses that started at PingAn Village carpark.
The sight of the rice terrace from the viewing deck was absolutely stunning. Our “first sight” of the PingAn terrace fields was that this terrace fields was more impressive than that of JinKeng Red Yao Rice Terrace. There were more curves and the rice stalk were more golden. Amazingly beautiful.
We grabbed a drink at one of the many stores at the viewing deck and found a place to rest and relax and “drink” in the beautiful scenery. We had seen “green” rice terraces in Sapa Vietnam and we had seen “mirror” (water) rice terraces in Japan. This was the only time we were able to catch the “right time” to see “golden” rice terraces and the best of all these terraces were massively magnificient.
At PingAn Village there were two prominent viewpoints/view decks, “Nine Dragon Five Tiger ViewPoint” and “Seven Stars View Point”.
We followed the directional sign to “Nine Dragon Five Tiger ViewPoint” it was a downhill walk into the rice terraces. There were proper routes/paths and it was a joy to trek through the rice terraces and valley.
“Nine Dragon Fiver Tiger ViewPoint” was on a higher ground so after some downhill walking we had to walk uphill. It was just amazing to be at the viewdeck to see the golden rice terraces below.
After Nine Dragon Five Tiger ViewPoint we went in search of “Seven Star View Deck”. Direction signs were everywhere and we did not have a chance to get lost. After another 30 to 40 minutes of slow walk we reached “Seven Star View Deck”.
Another beautiful view of PingAn Rice Terraces from the “Seven Star View Deck”. Generally all the viewing decks looked down to PingAn Rice Terraces, each from a different angles.
After five hours of hiking we were ready for a break. We found our way into PingAn village. There was a number traditional local restaurants offering meals. We found one with a good outdoor seating and ordered two cups tea and a plate of noodle. It was an enjoyable meal with a fantastic view.
After the tea break, it was a slow walk/downhill through the houses in the village to the entrance where there was a huge carpark. There were many buses transfering visitors to and from the PingAn View Deck and to “somewhere” else. We were at to the carpark to meet our taxis driver to return to Dazhai village where our stay was located.
Our Meals
All our breakfast was provided by the homestay as part of the room booking. The breakfasts were similar for all the three mornings, very simple breakfast which included egg, noodle and some vegetable. Breakfast was not a buffet and each of us was given a portion, amount was good enough for us.
For dinner we ordered from a menu given by the homestay. The price looked affordable and within our budget. It would be most convenient to eat at our homestay each evening after we came back from hiking the rice terraces. There was time to rest and relax before enjoying our meals.
The total cost of three dinners came up to ¥507 which was paid when we checked out. All the meals were lovely oriental dishes and we enjoyed them very much.
Our stay for 3 nights in LongJi Rice Terrace
We booked “BiShui JinJu Panoramic Resort Hotel (Longji Terraced) 碧水锦居全景度假美宿(龙脊梯田店)” for three nights. It costed ¥1500 for three nights for two persons with breakfast.
We combed through many hotel/home stays in DaZhai and around for a stay with a good view of the rice terraces at a price that was not “out of this world”. We had to pay more for a room with a panoramic view.
We were shown to our room on the third level and we absolutely LOVE IT.
Many times “hotel listings” on the website looked great but we would be disappointed with the real sights on arrival. This hotel/homestay definitely lived up to our expectation. The outside view seen sitting on our beds were stunning.
We had a private balcony attached to our room which allowed us to enjoy the view in the open. Fresh air and green awesome view, a view to remember for a long long time and we had three days to enjoy them!
More Accommodation in DaZhai
Thank you for sharing your wonderful experience touring Longji Rice Terraces. I’ve been researching as we are heading there next month. I’m glad that I found your blog. It’s very informative. I’ve learned more from your blog about the two scenic areas (Jinken Dazhai and Ping’an) as well as the viewpoints in each area and how much walking is involved. My wife and I are in our early 60s and not hikers so we’ll expect struggles hiking the terraces.
I initially thought Longji Terrace would be easy to visit. Now I understand it better. Transport is not easy at all from/to Guilin and within the scenic areas itself. We don’t speak chinese too so that would present more challenges. This will be our third trip to China so we’re kind use to the language barrier.
You are very blessed to have 3 sunny days while you were up there in the mountains. I hope we would see good weather as well. Just a coincidence, you traveled Oct 9-11. That was the original date we were going for but I changed our plan to Oct 10-12. I hope the harvest season doesn’t kick-in earlier this year.
Many thanks again.