Duoyishu sunrise
On the water mirrors.
chensiyuan — CC BY-SA 4.0 · David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada — CC BY 2.0 · N509FZ — CC BY-SA 4.0 · 1_yuanyang_rice_terrace_laohuzhui_2012.jpg: chensiyuan derivative work: Tomer T — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ping an Chang — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Yulin Jia (U.S. Department of Agriculture: Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center) — CC BY 2.0 · Jialiang Gao, www.peace-on-earth.org — CC BY-SA 3.0 · xiquinhosilva — CC BY 2.0
One of the world's most remarkable farmed landscapes: thousands of water-filled terraces covering the slopes of the Ailao Mountains south of the Red River, built and kept by the Hani people for more than twelve centuries, with over three thousand terraces on some slopes between the forest edge and the valley floor; UNESCO inscribed them as World Heritage in 2013. The terraces work as a layered system from top to bottom: forests on the summits gather the rain, then Hani villages, then the terraces, with channels carrying water from one terrace to the next. In winter and spring, from December to March, the terraces are flooded and become mirrors for sunrise, sunset and the clouds that fill the valleys. The best-known viewpoints are Duoyishu for sunrise and Bada and Laohuzui for sunset. Tickets cost CNY 100 for three days or 180 for ten, covering the four main spots with Jingkou village, half price for children between 1.2 and 1.4 metres, per visitor guides. The road from Kunming is long, so it is best to spend two nights in the villages to see both sunrise and sunset.
On the water mirrors.
And Laohuzui.
Between forest and terraces.
Yuanyang County, southern Honghe Prefecture, about 300 km by road south of Kunming, Yunnan
Roughly from December to March, when they are filled before planting and mirror the sky; in summer they are green, and in September the rice turns gold.
Choices are few in the terrace villages, so bring food; Yunnan has a large Hui Muslim community and restaurants under the halal sign in towns such as Jianshui and Kunming.