One-day Rice Terrace & Minority Village Hike (from Ping’an to Dazhai)

It takes about 2.5 hours to drive from Guilin to Ping’an Village, where we start hiking. We will walk uphill by taking the slate-paved stairs through the village on the mountainside. A zero-distance look at those wooden and mortise-and-tenon structured houses will leave you an unforgettable memory. What’s more, on the way and at the top of the mountain you will see beautiful contour-map-like terraced rice paddies. You also see Zhuang people wearing their costumes, making straw sandal shoes and colorful insoles when walking.

From No.1 viewing platform, take a turn to the right, and the path (now a concrete road) will lead us to the direction of Dazhai, a famous Yao people’s village. In about twenty minutes, a jade-green colored reservoir, which grantees the water resource of the villagers and the rice paddies, appears on our left hand side. Then, an about 2 hour long walk through the pine and fir woods, up and down on the mountains, along the ridge of the rice fields, will lead us to Zhongliu (Middle Six) , a Yao village which is considered to be the half way between Ping’an and Dazhai. Right before the village, down to the bottom of the gorge, a running creek with gurgling water is really an ideal place to have a rest.

There are still about 2 hours to go after Zhongliu village. You may get bit tired now. But the breathtaking sceneries will definitely reward you. There are more terraced rice paddies, fir tree woods and elegantly standing bamboos all the way along the path. If lucky enough, you may come across Yao people working in the fields with their buffalo. Their wrinkled but friendly faces, rose-red costumes with the lush-green background will be a perfect picture to illustrate the harmony between human and nature.

There will appear a small village named Tiantou before going down to Dazhai. Tiantou is located on the slope of the mid-level and from here you can have a panoramic view around. Keep going downhill, you will see a valley densely occupied by the black-roofed houses. Here comes Dazhai, the destination of our hiking!

A 2.5 hour drive will take us back to the city of Guilin.