We took a 55-mile bus ride from Guilin up into the steep, thickly forested hills of the Rongshui River valley. The hills are very steep, topping out at about 3500 feet. In order to farm the steep hillsides, the people have created countless terraces for rice paddies and other food crops.The villages are populated by two of China's ethnic minorities. The Yao people live in the valley beside a swift, shallow river. The Zhuang people live at higher elevations, up near the summit of the ridges. We got to spend some time exploring both places. It was a fantastic opportunity to explore ancient cultures that are utterly new to us.
This gallery contains pictures from the Yao village. I'll add another post with pictures of the Zhuang.
http://picasaweb.google.com/SteveDC505/YaoVillage#
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